Choristers at English National Opera have voted to strike during the first act of Philip Glass's Akhnaten in protest against a cut in contracts. Trade union Equity announced the action as the chorus sang Hail, Poetry from Gilbert & Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance on the steps of Arts Council England's headquarters in London. The national opera has been forced to make savings after the Arts Council [ACE] announced in 2014 it was cutting the opera company's annual funding by £5m - or 30%. It wants to reduce the size of the chorus from 44 to 40 and move it from a 12-month to a nine-month contract. Union Equity argues that the contract changes could mean a 39% reduction in chorus members' pay. Equity gave notice that the chorus would be taking action between 4 and 19 March 2016, which might include protests and refusing overtime. The strike action, for which the vote was unanimous, would be in the first act of Akhnaten, directed by Phelim McDermott.
English: http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/26/choristers-english-national-opera .
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The energy and mining trade union IG BCE said it is ready to negotiate with the government on the future of the most-polluting coal-fired power plants, an effort to prevent them from closing until near the middle of the century. IG BCE, representing about 650,000 workers in mining, power and chemicals, is ready to take up an offer to join `roundtable' talks on the coal plants. The government is considering phasing out lignite from 2030 and hard coal from 2040. The cabinet is drawing up in 2016 a climate program for 2050. Ministers have sought talks with the union while hinting that a phase-out of coal-fired generation is part of their program. IG BCE announced that it won't support a `unilateral exit' from lignite generation.
English: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-03-01/german-union-seeks-reprieve .
Air France has communicated to the trade unions the new plan reducing the goals for voluntary redundancies. The plan softens restructuring plans and targets just over 1,600 departures by early 2017.The new voluntary plan involves shedding 1,405 jobs among ground staff and 200 among cabin crew, compared with previous targets of 1,823 and 890 respectively announced in December 2015. Pilots now face no voluntary redundancies, compared with a previous target of 280. In January 2015, Air France dropped a so-called 'Plan B' restructuring project with forced job cuts and tilted its plans towards growth in the wake of the slide in oil prices.
English: https://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/30939365/air-france-trims-voluntary .
According to the report `The Under-pensioned 2016', sponsored by the TUC, women have barely half the pension savings of men. The study, carried out by the Pensions Policy Institute, shows that women have, on average, £7,500 in savings in defined contribution schemes, compared to £14,500 for men. And women typically have £32,000 in pension savings in defined benefit schemes, whereas men have £62,900. The report reveals large pension disadvantages for women, ethnic minority workers, carers and the self-employed. The findings show that women, as well as having barely half the pension savings of men, also receive a far smaller state pension. Women receive 13% a year less than the average state pension and 25% a year less than men get from their state pensions. The `Under-pensioned 2016' report says reasons for the disparities include workplace discrimination, job segregation and the lack of flexible working.
English: https://www.tuc.org.uk/economic-issues/pensions-and-retirement/equality-issues .
Report: https://www.tuc.org.uk/sites/default/files/TheUnder-pensioned.pdf
Lithuania has made limited progress in addressing the recommendations issued by the European Commission for the country last fall. In the Commission's view, the country has made limited progress in reforming its pension and tax systems, in addressing the shortage of skilled labour and in improving the performance of its healthcare system. As regards social protection and labour market policy, the Commission said that the government was considering a number of reforms, which, however, had not yet been adopted hence progress in this area had been limited.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics .
The European Commission published its annual analysis of the economic and social challenges in the EU Member States, the Country Reports. The reports are a policy coordination tool under the so-called European Semester to monitor policy reforms and to point early on to challenges that Member States should address. The reports include chapters on the structural issues facing each country and annexes full of statistical data. The issues vary by country. Some countries have serious problems in the judiciary and the public administration - such as human resource management, e-government, and public procurement - that are seen as obstacles to economic growth. All the separate reports can be downloaded.
English: http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/making-it-happen/country-specific .
The unemployment rate, presenting the share of the unemployed in total active population (employed and unemployed) in the 4th quarter of 2015 amounted to 17.9%, i.e. 17.4% regarding the male population and 18.4% regarding the female. The employment rate presents the percentage of the employed in total population aged 15 and over and in the 4th quarter 2015, it amounted to 42.4%. Additionally, employment rate of males was 50.0%, while of females, it was 35.2%.
English: http://webrzs.stat.gov.rs/WebSite/public/PublicationView .
A strike of the subway workers called by the local transportation authority took place during the annual Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona. The Major of Barcelona (Ada Colau) said that she had worked until `the last moment' with the unions to reach `a reasonable offer' that would avoid the stoppage.
English: http://elpais.com/elpais/2016/02/22/inenglish .
Trade union and employer group representatives have again sat down at the table to try and negotiate an accord. The government decided to make the labour market more flexible in an effort to increase Finland's competitiveness abroad, but talks to get the country's strong unions and business lobbies on board failed four times in 2015. Now the groups are full of hope that an agreement will be approved of, maybe even before the end of February. One of the particular items discussed is the local bargaining model (see next item). The trade unions aim is to conclude a social contract that will extend the collective bargaining agreements.
English: http://yle.fi/uutiset/negotiators_optimistic_about_revived_labour_accord_talks .
A 24-hour strike, intended to press the government to reverse austerity measures more swiftly than it plans, is likely to cause disruption at schools, hospitals, courts and other public services. The Socialist Party minority government, which is backed by the Communist Party and Left Bloc, has pledged to restore workplace entitlements that were sacrificed at EU behest as the price of the €78 billion (£60bn) bailout of private banks in 2011. The government has already approved a return to public-service workers' 35-hour working week, down from the current 40 hours, from July. The Common Front, which is close to the militant CGTP federation, says that change must come sooner.
English: http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-fad7-Portugal-Strikers-will-press-for-swifter .