Collective Bargaining

SNCB management are refusing to make a new financing agreement with the trade unions if the latter continues to threaten five-day strike action during January 2016. The current agreement runs until the end of 2015. The railway worker trade unions have benefitted from around 10 million euros per year under this agreement. If negotiations do not progress, the various trade union organisations could easily be confronted with financial problems in January. The totals allocated by the SNCB are used, in particular, to pay the wages of workers released for trade union purposes.
English: http://brusselstimes.com/belgium/employment/4694/sncb-threatens-to-leave .

The ministry of education and research has announced the plan to raise the pay of municipal, private and state school teachers in 2016 by at least 6.4% on average. Depending on the law amendments that are discussed in the parliament as well as state budget discussions teachers' monthly minimum salary is to go from 900 to 958 euro and the average pay will rise to at least 1,150 euro.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/education .

The government has launched the work on a bill submitted to reverse retirement reforms carried out in 2012 by the former Civic Platform (PO) government. The former government had argued that raising the retirement age was inescapable as the country is facing a demographic crisis, with the number of pensioners set to rise in proportion to people of working age. The draft bill brings the retirement age back to 65 years of age for men and 60 for women, down from the 67 for both sexes at present. However, the pensions may be up to 30% lower; with differences stretching from 10% to a maximum of 30% for women.
English: http://www.thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul .

Striking Rome metro maintenance workers returned to work on 10 December on the grounds that a meeting has been set to discuss the redundancy plans of their employer - Atac contractor CAF Italia. After the Rome prefecture accepted to discuss job protection measures for the CAF Italia workers, the trade union in the sector FIOM has decided to cancel the strike.
English: http://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2015/12/10/rome-metro .

Free movement of workers is one of the core values of the EU. In recent years, there is a heated debate in many Member States about the impact of the rising inflow of mobile citizens on their welfare system. Eurofound reports about a research project that aimed to examine the extent to which mobile citizens from the CEE-countries take up benefits and services in host countries. It provides a demographic and socioeconomic profile of EU10 mobile citizens and identifies initiatives aimed at integrating them in the host countries and providing them with access to benefits and services. The main finding of the report is that overall take-up of welfare benefits and services by EU10 citizens is lower than that of the native population of the host country, especially social housing and pensions. However, their take-up of certain specific benefits, mainly employment-related benefits (unemployment and in-work benefit), is higher.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/publications/report/2015/labour-market-social-policies .

Representatives of health organisations, associations and trade unions called on Prime Minister to dismiss Health Minister. They argue that the minister is not addressing the key challenges in healthcare, and call for a comprehensive health reform.
English: https://english.sta.si/2209056/health-organisations-call-for-dismissal-of-minister

Transport workers in Paris went on a 24-hour strike, claiming the increased number of suspicious packages has prompted security concerns. The railway management admitted that reports of suspicious packages had multiplied by four since the November 13th attacks in Paris. People in Paris and indeed France remain on edge as the national state of emergency is set to begin its second month, introduced just days after the terror attacks saw 130 killed.

English: http://www.thelocal.fr/20151210/paris-train-staff-on-strike-over-security-concerns 

Teachers from schools and kindergartens in various cities were on strike. Teachers demanded higher wages, smaller classes and groups and a larger compensation fund for retired teachers. According to the ministry of education and science, the strike was planned at 67 educational establishments. However, the Education Employees' Trade Union estimated that at least 100 establishments were involved. The ministry said that wages of lowest-earning teachers will be increased by 7% in 2016, after a 10% increase in 2015. Young new teachers will see their wages rise by 5%, and wages for the remaining teachers will increase by 3%.The retirement fund will be increased by 1.5 million euro in 2016. The teachers' trade unions representatives said that the planned increases are not sufficient.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/education .

Regional authorities' employees walked off the job, following a call from their union to take part in a 24-hour strike. The strike was being organised in protest at a government decision that was expected to see staff salaries be paid by regional authorities as of 2016, as opposed to these being part of the state budget.
English: http://www.ekathimerini.com/204213/article/ekathimerini/news/regional .

Workers at Ferrari will get a €5,000 Christmas bonus. The bonus was announced by the management after shareholders approved the spin-off of the company's luxury sports car unit, which is expected to take place in January 2016. Some 2,850 people work for Ferrari, which is based in the northern town of Maranello. The bonus is a gift to thank them for their work in making the coveted cars as well as to celebrate a successful year. In the meantime the company has decided to transfer all of the shares held by it in Ferrari N.V. to FE Interim B.V, a newly-formed Dutch company, probably as part of a `fiscal engineering' operation.
English: http://www.thelocal.it/20151204/ferrari-workers-to-get-5000-bonus