Collective Bargaining

The fashion company Hennes & Mauritz is focusing on its ethical profile to drive long-term sales growth as shoppers become more interested in how clothes are produced as well as their environmental impact. The fashion industry has come under increasing pressure to cut water use and pesticides in cotton farming, reduce pollution from textile factories and improve factory conditions. Notably, the living wage is now a prominent issue in the group's policy. H&M has pledged that workers at suppliers making about 60 percent of its garments should be paid a `fair living wage' by 2018.
English: http://thejakartaglobe.beritasatu.com/business/hm-banks-fashion-conscious .

Oil-rig trade unions and employers started government-backed mediation in a final bid. The talks led to a new wage deal for offshore oil rig workers, avoiding a strike that could have cut energy production on two North Sea oil fields. Union representatives said all workers would get a 1 percent wage increase and added that the minimum raise would be 5,500 Norwegian crowns (630 euro) per year. This means the lowest-paid workers would get an increase of more than 1 percent.
English: http://www.themeditelegraph.com/en/markets/oil-and-energy .

After a marathon 13-hour negotiation session, the Icelandic Association of Nurses (FIH) struck a deal with the State mediator on pay and working conditions and an agreement was signed. Nurses went on strike on 27 May and the Icelandic Parliament (`Al_ingi') passed legislation on 13 June forcing them back to work and to the negotiating table. The new deal provides for an 18.6% pay rise over the next three years and will be up for renegotiation in 2019. The conflict centred on the low pay received by the nurses, who are allegedly receiving job offers in other Scandinavian countries. Talks between the hospitals and trade unions, however, failed to yield an agreement. With no resolution in sight, Parliament ordered the nurses back to work and the conflict into arbitration. Following the strike ban, several media reported that nurses were handing in resignations.
English: http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2015/06/16/mass_nurse .
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2015/06/24/nurse_dispute .
http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/politics_and_society/2015/06/12/unions_slam .

The trade unions at the semi-state Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA) started the first in a series of protests against the government's denationalisation programme. Workers held signs criticising the philosophy of privatisations. The trade unions are not satisfied with the government's commitment that work positions at CyTA are safe even in the event of privatisation and say that whether an employee will remain a public employee is not the only important thing. Also important are the rest of his career, and prospects of promotion.
English: http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/06/24/cyta-staff-protest-against-privatisations/

SECO, the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs, has resumed the experiences with the recruitment of foreign labour. Although it is formulated in diplomatic terms some conclusions are worthwhile citing. First, the wage differentials between foreign workers that are permanently residing and working in the country and the own nationals are negligible. Secondly, migrants that come in on a temporary contract earn wages that are substantially lower than comparable national workers. The authors of the study conclude that an intensified competition or substitution in certain layers of the labour market can be the consequence.
French: http://www.swissinfo.ch/fre/libre-circulation-des-personnes .
German: http://www.news.admin.ch/NSBSubscriber .
http://www.seco.admin.ch/aktuell ...

The recently concluded Lansdowne Road agreement is still not accepted by several unions. As part of the agreement, which was reached in May, there will be a €1,000 salary increase in 2015 for those earning less than €65,000. Members of the Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) are becoming increasingly vocal about their disappointment over the terms of working hours and money, whilst the Association of Higher Civil and Public Servants (AHCPS) announced it will be recommending its members to vote No in an upcoming ballot. The 23-member standing committee of the secondary school teachers' union ASTI urged the organisation's executive to recommend rejection. Trade unions Siptu, Impact, INTO and INMOO recommended to vote in favour; other unions still have to come up with a final recommendation.
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/education/asti-committee-backs-rejection .
http://www.independent.ie/business/jobs/two-more-unions-urge-no-vote-for-pay-deal .

The conciliation between the ministry of education and teachers unions, has collapsed. In a dispute over education reforms, reported in the January newsletter, trade unions resisted proposed budget cuts from the first announcement of the plans late 2014. The proposals aimed to cut costs, amongst others by changing a progressive cut in teaching hours of teachers over 45 into an obligation to fill these hours with other duties, such as tutoring of pupils and mentoring of young teachers. During the conciliation talks the ministry withdrew the most controversial proposal, to cut teachers' salaries during exam periods, yet several other measures remained. Trade unions Féduse, Apess and SEW have recommended to members to vote against the deal. The effect of the failure of the conciliation talks is unclear. The ministry plans to follow the deal reached in the last meeting but refuses to continue with further talks, accusing the unions of agreeing on issues in private and slamming them in public. Trade unions have announced strike action for September.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/politics/meisch-aims-for-july-deal-teacher-unions-threaten .

Trade unions representing the air traffic controllers have called for a strike on July 2nd and 3rd. Two unions announced that the workers were fed up with their salaries and the lack of resources pumped into their industry. The unions want fresh talks over the working conditions of its members and a particular item of contention is the pushing back of the retirement age for air traffic controllers from the age of 57 to 59.
English: http://www.thelocal.fr/20150623/frances-air-traffic-controllers-to-go-on-strike

The trade union of journalist inside ANSA has called a reorganisation and redevelopment, presented by the ANSA management, unacceptable. The plan envisages 65 redundancies of journalistic staff to be managed from July 1 by resorting to the CIGS lay-off fund and/or solidarity contracts because of a reported budget-shortfall emergency estimated to be five million euros in 2015.The union will first call a general assembly of ANSA journalists.
English: http://www.gazzettadelsud.it/news/english/148184/ANSA-on-immediate-strike .

In its 11th annual report on management pay Travail.Suisse revealed that remuneration for executives rose an average of 18% between 2011 and 2014 at three-quarters of major companies. The organisation analysed salaries at 27 large Swiss companies from publicly available data. The ten highest paid executives earned more than five million francs in 2014. The greatest pay gap was at Roche, the pharmaceutical giant, where outgoing chairman Franz Humer earned 15.38 million francs, 253 times as much as the lowest paid worker (61,000 francs a year) at the Basel-based company.
English: http://www.thelocal.ch/20150623/union-raps-swiss-executive-pay-rises
German: http://www.travailsuisse.ch/system .