Collective Bargaining

The trade unions in the metal sector have started with several strike actions after the negotiations for a new collective agreement ended without any result. The entire metallurgy industry, which includes for instance DAF Eindhoven, is involved in industrial action at the moment.
English: http://www.eindhovennews.nl/news/29839-daf-staff-on-24-hour-strike.html

The cabin crew trade unions and KLM have reached a deal on a mutually balanced package of agreements for the next 15 months. The package states that there will be no forced dismissals for economic reasons during the collective bargaining period as long as the currently used instruments, such as more or less work or part time work, remain sufficient. The work and rest time regulation has been adjusted. Trip leave of 6 days or longer will be shorter by 1 day. Cabin crew will also give up 1 vacation day in the winter. The number of vacation days in the summer for employees aged 50 years and older remains 24 consecutive days.
English: http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/05/29/klm-reaches-deal-with-cabin-crew-union/

Steel workers have voted almost 9-1 to strike in a row over pensions, threatening the first national walkout for more than 30 years. Members of the trade unions Community, GMB, UCATT and Unite at Tata Steel backed strike action - with percentages well above planned new Government thresholds. Unions are protesting over changes to the British Steel Pension Scheme which they claim could see workers retiring at 65 instead of 60. The company and the trade unions have had a number of meetings to discuss the preliminary actuarial valuation of the British Steel Pension Scheme as at 31 March 2014, but were unable to come to an agreement.
English: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/steel-workers-back-first-national .

Thousands of social workers demonstrated for higher wages and better working conditions in Budapest. The average monthly wage in that sector is HUF 83,000 (275 euro). They are demanding higher wages regardless of position, the introduction of a wage scale, a `career model', regular reconciliation and that work breaks be factored into their hours. The subject of wage increases has been removed from the government's agenda. Several trade union leaders together took to the stage to show that they cannot be divided.
English: http://budapestbeacon.com/featured-articles/hungarian-social-workers-protest .

A survey conducted by the Institute of Economic Research showed that while in 2013, the state was deprived due to the payment of `envelope wages' of 154 million euro in tax revenue, the loss of tax revenue in 2014 because of this reason was 92.5 million euro. The causes for this reduction are the employees registry set up by the Tax and Customs Board, increase of employees' awareness and decrease of the unemployment rate. An increasing number of employers and employees consider it important to work based on official contracts.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng .

Employer organisation AWVN Young HR and the trade union sections CNV Youth, FNV Jong and VCP Professionals have reached a so-called youth agreement on what collective bargaining agreements should look like in the future. In this agreement they state that young workers and older workers should get the same amount of off days and that wages should not be linked to age.
English: http://www.nltimes.nl/2015/05/29/dutch-youth-call-for-end .

The statistical office has updated its figures on trade union membership. The total membership of the trade union confederation LO decreased in the last 5 years from 1.1 million to 845,000 members. The office provides a simple calculator that goes back till the year 2007.
English: http://www.dst.dk/en/Statistik .

The idea for a labour market social contract is back. Earlier in May the new prime minister presented his ideas to the labour market organisations on extending Finnish working hours and other changes to the terms of employment. Now the government has made a new proposal. If the labour market organisations do not accept the list of measures proposed by the government, extra budgetary cuts will be imposed, along with further tax levies, totalling 1.4 billion euro altogether. The conditional cuts announced by the Government include among other things an end to alternation leave, cutting the index linked increase in work related pensions to half and stopping the adult education allowance for vocational studies. Also on the list are cuts in child benefits, unemployment benefits and study grants.
English: http://heikkijokinen.info/en/trade-union-news-from-finland .

ASTB, a union representing train drivers, organised a strike on 28 May in protest at pay scales and premiums. The union is an autonomous organisation which has not been officially recognised as a trade union; it represents about one in four of the authority's 3,800 drivers. ASTB has announced that more strike action is to be expected.
English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english .

Data compiled by the Central Statistical Bureau show that in the 1st quarter of 2015 the average monthly gross wages and salaries accounted for 785 euro. The average wages and salaries kept increasing; however, growth rate has been slowing down. In the 1st quarter of 2014 wages and salaries grew by 7.4% annually, in the 1st quarter of 2015 it increased by 6.1% or 45 euro. In the private sector the average monthly wages and salaries amounted to 773 euro, in the public sector to 809 euro, and in general government sector to 757 euros. In the private sector wages and salaries rose by 6.9% annually, and in the public sector by 5.0%.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics .