Collective Bargaining

Timisoara IT Trade Union (SITT) has started organising IT workers in Alcatel Lucent Romania, Accenture Managed Services Romania and Wipro Technologies Romania following a merger with Nokia systems. The trade union set up a campaign handing out coffee, showing a photo exhibition, surveying workers about their concerns and explained the SITT strategies.
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/news/organizing-it-workers-romania

The publication of a study in scientific journal The Lancet has generated international attention to Swedish companies' increasingly implementing six-hour workdays. The study by researchers at University College London highlights the negative health consequences of long work hours. Several Swedish companies, on the contrary, have testified to the benefits of the six-hour workday. The firms report productivity did not go down and employee satisfaction increased.
English: http://www.staffingindustry.com/eng/Research-Publications/Daily-News/.
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.

Taxi drivers in Krakow and Warsaw have blocked roads to protest against illegal competition in the sector. The drivers moved through the city centres at a snail's pace, blocking two lanes and honking continuously. Licensed cabs are angry about competition by Uber and other unlicensed taxis, which are able to offer lower prices because they do not pay for licenses or taxes. The taxi drivers are calling for better legislation and more inspection.
English: http://www.thenews.pl/1/12/Artykul/223193,Taxi-drivers-bring-Krakow.

After large-scale protests reported in last month's newsletter, the government and social partners are back to the table over revised legislative proposals. Originally, the government had proposed legislative changes, which would reduce the length of annual leave, making the first day of sick leave unpaid and cut two bank holidays, Sunday and overtime pay. Mass protests and trade unions demonstrating that cutting Sunday and overtime pay would disproportionally hit low-wage workers and women, led to new proposals. Under the new proposals, the cut in Sunday and overtime pay has been replaced by a 30% cut in annual leave pay. In order to do so, annual leave would have to be taken out of the realm of collective bargaining, passed as a national law and then reduced. Meanwhile, the government has invited the social partners to come up with an alternative plan that would lead to a similar five per cent reduction in unit labour costs. Trade unions Akava, SAK and STTK are negotiating with employers' federation EK, but face a difficult fight, because the government proposals match closely with employer demands.
English: http://heikkijokinen.info/en/trade-union-news-from-finland/.

In the latest quarterly bulletin, the Central Bank says that inflation will pick up towards the end of 2015, leading to everyone probably receiving a 2.5 percent index-linked salary increase in early 2016. The salary index applies after prices rise by 2.5 percent and the last across-the-board rise was in October 2013. Since then inflation has slowed as oil prices have fallen sharply and price rises have been low and sometimes negative throughout the Eurozone.
English: https://www.wort.lu/en/business/luxembourg-central-bank-salary-indexation .
French: http://www.bcl.lu/fr/media/communiques/2015/09/Bulletin_2015_2/index.html

As Paris switched into fashion high-gear a group of chambermaids working for the luxury Park Hyatt hotel staged a `fashion week for the poor' to celebrate victory in a labour dispute. Dressed up with splashes of colour and sequins about 60 chambermaids and various other workers from Park Hyatt marched to another hotel, the W Paris Opera, where workers were still striking for better working conditions. The Hyatt workers obtained after a strike double pay for public holidays worked, and increased meal and travel allowances.
English: http://www.themalaymailonline.com/world/article/striking-maids-at-luxury-paris-hotel .

Dutch firm 2theloo has fired all eleven toilet attendants who used to work in the public bathrooms in central Paris after being awarded management of five public toilets. Despite the contract specifically stating that the toilet attendants' employment contracts would be kept on, 2theloo called the eleven `dames pipi' and contracted two men instead. 2theloo has denied having any obligation towards the former employees and continued saying they have no need for toilet attendants, but rather employed luxury concierge services in their new `boutique toilets', adding the ladies do not speak enough languages to qualify for any of the new positions. A Paris tribunal ruled that it would not allow an urgent hearing for six of the cleaners who have lodged complaints, but their cases will still be heard at a date that has yet to be fixed.
English: http://www.capitalfm.co.ke/news/2015/09/paris-wee-wee-ladies-lose-right .
http://www.equaltimes.org/french-toilet-attendants-fight ...

Drivers at Luas, Dublin's light rail tram system, are to seek a pay rise of about 40 percent in a claim to go before a hearing of the Labour Court. Other staff at the company running the Luas will also look for substantial rises. The Luas drivers, who are represented by the trade union Siptu, are seeking pay parity with train drivers at Iarnród Éireann. Siptu warned it would ballot members for industrial action if a satisfactory outcome did not emerge from the Labour Court process.
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/labour-court-to-hear .

In a preliminary version of its annual report, the Washington-based International Monetary Fund highlights the difficulties immigrants encounter in finding work in Sweden. It is said that those fleeing conflict and hardship by moving to the Scandinavian state could help secure the country's welfare model. The IMF further notes that, although overall employment is high, unemployment falls heavily on the low-skilled and the foreign-born. The organisation urges the social partners to consider ways `to ensure that entry-level wages are not a hurdle for groups with high unemployment to gain work, for example by introducing special wage scales for those needing on-the-job training or by enhancing flexibility at the firm level.'
English: http://www.thelocal.se/20150929/sweden-told-to-do-more-to-help-foreign-workers

Starbucks employees will benefit from a 6% pay rise under the National Living Wage - even if they are under 25. The company said all baristas, regardless of age, will earn £7.20 an hour, up from the current base of £6.77, while supervisors will earn £8.72, up from £8.20. Those working in London will also get a premium although the level of this is yet to be announced. Rival Costa reacted and announced a pay hike for its baristas in London. In recent weeks, several retailers have indicated that they will introduce the payment of the living wage. Equally, hundreds of hospital workers at the trust that runs Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital and Cannock Chase Hospital will be paid the living wage after trust chiefs backed the move.
English: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2015/09/29/health-workers .
http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/costa-coffee-follows-rival-starbucks .
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-living-wage-nlw .