Seven months after the introduction of the mandatory minimum wage information, based on an official parliamentary request, showed that lobbyists from a number of different sectors have urged the government to add exceptions to the rule that no one in the country should earn less than 8.50 euro an hour. Particularly persistent were representatives of the farmers' and newspaper publishers' associations, who met government representatives 15 times in the months leading up to the law being passed in parliament. Notwithstanding this, 3.7 million people have received a pay raise because of the minimum wage, and dependence on social benefits has declined. Fears that the law would lead to a sharp rise in unemployment figures have so far proved untrue.
English: http://www.dw.com/en/business-lobbying-against-german-minimum-wage-revealed .
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National television broadcaster TVR is reducing working time from five to four days, resulting in a 20% wage cut across the board. TVR has been experiencing financial difficulties, culminating in the tax authority's decision to block its accounts last week. TVR said it is reducing working time, cutting expenses on external contractors by 75% and giving up high-cost television productions. The station has also communicated to trade unions that it intends to start negotiations over layoffs.
English: http://www.romania-insider.com/romanias-national-television-cuts .
Health workers have submitted a motion to ensure that a new law guaranteeing their salaries will apply across the sector and not just in state hospitals. The workers are supportive of the plan that improves both remuneration and the security of workers by guaranteeing salaries. However, the draft law is foreseen to apply only to state hospitals. Unions and professional health care organisations are demanding it be extended to cover the entire sector and have announced they are prepared to organise industrial action.
English: http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20059087/health-workers-want-guaranteed-salaries .
A union organiser, who has looked at bad practises in the strawberry trade during the summer, found out that the summer workers have no decent contracts, are being paid off the books, and have been the subject of threats and harassment. Besides, it was found that Spanish berries are being repacked and sold as Swedish products. The Kommunal trade union stated that around 20,000 workers from Poland, Lithuania, Rumania and Ukraine are picking berries in Sweden, for a few kronas per litre, while living in old mouldy caravans. But employers says that if the workers pick enough per day, they can make a wage similar to one from a collective bargaining agreement, and that while the caravans may be old, they are not mouldy.
English: http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel .
The Czech Labour Office reported that layoffs announced by nine major companies are likely to put over 500 people out of work in the coming months. Most of the job losses are expected in engineering and steel production and are due to lower demand.
English: http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/nine-companies-announce-mass-lay-offs
Multinational company Sodexo has offered redundancy payments to 436 laid off staff that amount to less than 50% of their contractual entitlements. Sodexo bid for and won a contract to run probation in six regions. The company is now laying off nearly 40% of its staff, amounting to 436 redundancies. In addition, the redundancy package offered by Sodexo is far less than the workers are contractually entitled to. Trade union GMB has now suggested Sodexo won the contracts by underplaying the cost of reducing staffing levels.
English: http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/stop-sodexo-cheating-probation-staff
The government has stated that 360,000 public sector workers can expect a pay raise in 2015, although this increase will not be the same as the cuts resulting from the government's austerity measures. The government's plan is that educational workers get the highest raise, followed by health care workers, doctors, nurses, soldiers, police officers and social workers. A further increase of salaries and pensions in 2016 was also promised.
English: http://inserbia.info/today/2015/07/vucic-salaries-and-pensions-will-be-increased .
The government has published a draft law that does away with the so-called joint committees (Comité Mixte). These committees formerly had to be implemented in companies with more than 150 employees. In the proposed law that leads to changes in the Labour Code the rights of the committees will be transferred to the employee representatives. According to the Labour Code workers representatives have to be elected in companies with more than 15 workers (in a reference period of 12 months). The act sets the legal frame for the workers` representation and provides a renewal of the information and consultation rights at company level.
French: http://www.legilux.public.lu/leg/a/archives/2015 .
Trade unions and employers in general practice have reached a collective agreement that will run retroactively from 1 March 2015 to 1 March 2017. The agreement contains an average 3.75% wage increase, broken down to 1.5% per 1 March 2015, €20 per 1 January 2016, and 1.1% and 10.5% increases by 1 April 2016 and 1 January 2017 respectively. The collective agreement contains several other clauses, including the abolition of obligatory night shifts for employees of 62 years and older, the possibility to buy or sell up to 38 hours of paid leave per year and an increase of interns' allowances from €100 to €150 per month. From 1 January 2016, unemployment benefits will start being reduced in length and build up with tenure.
English: http://www.epsu.org/a/11618
Dutch: http://www.fnv.nl/over-fnv/nieuws/nieuwsarchief/2015/juli .
Pilots from freight airline Cargolux went on strike on 23 July over unsafe working conditions. A quarter of Cargolux pilots called in unfit to fly on account of the safety policies not being up to standard. The pilots, who have been negotiating a collective agreement in an ongoing conciliation procedure, said that trust was lacking in the negotiations and the company. One of the main issues has been to get greater transparency into management's disciplinary practices. Pilots report being put under pressure and investigated if they call in sick, when colleagues breaking safety protocols are not penalised. Cargolux has denied the allegations and called the strike action illegal, because of its timing in the middle of a conciliation procedure.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/business/pilots-say-unfit-to-fly .
http://www.wort.lu/en/business/union-threatens-further-action-planes-grounded .