The average salary in Bulgaria is 400 euro. However, the average monthly wages paid in the capital Sofia amount to 550 euro, whereas the average remuneration in the city of Vidin (Northwestern Bulgaria) is not more than 280 euro. The low wages chase people away from the poor regions that become depopulated. The average salary saw a four-fold increase over the past 15 years, which is the highest increase in all EU member states. Statistics, however, categorically show that the average hourly pay in the EU is at 23.70 euro, whereas Bulgarian employees receive an hourly average of 3.7 euro.
English: http://bnr.bg/en/post/100562445/average-monthly-salary-in-bulgaria-reaches-eur-400
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Portuguese pensioners are among the worst-off in Europe, with the majority of pensioners earning between €250 and about €500 per month, according to figures released in 2013 by Portuguese database Pordata. While old-age poverty started to decrease in the final years of the last decade, according to a study published in 2013 by the Paris-based OECD, the organisation fears that cuts introduced to the pension system since then will lead to higher poverty rates.
English: http://www.equaltimes.org/austerity-fallout-portugal ...
The general strike call that was issued in April, as reported in the April newsletter, is expected to find as many as 40% of workers responding. As currently 10,000 workers are on strike, their number is expected to grow to 70,000 by 1 June. Further short work stoppages were held on May 28 and 29 and a full strike was announced for 6 June if no agreement was reached. The Federation of General and Special Workers (SGS) and Business Iceland have been negotiating a minimum wage, which trade unions have demanded be at least ISK 300,000 (?2,032) per month. The strike covers tourism, services, fisheries, air travel, academics and health care. The last news is that negotiators in several sectors are near to an agreement.
English: http://www.icenews.is/2015/05/12/national-strike-action-snowballs/
http://grapevine.is/news/2015/05/28/worker-wage-increase-demands-might-be-met/
http://grapevine.is/mag/articles/2015/05/27/iceland-strikes-again/
http://icelandreview.com/news/2015/05/06/strikes-may-reach-70000-workers-iceland
After a single Renault factory went on strike on 14 May, the car manufacturing industry in the city of Bursa woke up to a sector-wide strike. The 5,000 Renault workers went on strike over low pay and were joined by colleagues from Fiat and domestic manufacturer Çoskunöz Holding. The protests were a response to a 60% wage hike in other factories, with those in Bursa being left out. Production in Bursa resumed after a deal was struck with the auto-maker. The management of the factory had sent an internal memo to workers saying none of the employment contracts of the workers will be terminated and the claim delivered to the prosecution would be withdrawn. Furthermore, a total of TL 1,000 ($375.86) will be paid to all workers within one week and also a TL 600 bonus will be paid each month until the end of 2015 in addition to TL 480 that will be deposited in the workers' accounts.
English: http://www.dailysabah.com/automotive/2015/05/27/turkey-renault-workers-end .
The global trade union confederation ITUC has attacked the IMF over its hard-line stand on Greece, including its demands that the government should dismantle workers' rights. The ITUC criticised the unreasonable austerity and deregulatory reform demands. The IMF has also made demands that would intensify the dismantling of rights of workers, most of whom have already lost collective bargaining coverage, by fully liberalising collective dismissals, abolishing the law that protects trade union activities and placing new restrictions on the right to strike.
English: http://www.ituc-csi.org/imf-should-stop-attacks .
The Queen's Speech is used by the government to set out the laws it hopes to get approved by Parliament in the year ahead. Among the many proposals in this year's speech are plans to toughen up trade union strike laws. Reforming strike laws is called a government priority. Among the envisaged changes of the strike rules are a 50% turnout threshold for ballots on industrial action, the removal of restrictions on using temporary workers to cover for striking staff and the prevention of intimidation of non-striking workers. Observers have noted that the draft legislation, unveiled in the Queen's speech, could make strikes significantly harder to organise.
English: http://www.bbc.com/news/business .
Workers at public railway company Deutsche Bahn organised a week-long strike, affecting 5.5 million passengers, as trade unions and Deutsche Bahn failed to reach an agreement on pay and working hours. The strike, which was announced as a two day strike and turned into a week, was the longest in the history of Deutsche Bahn and paralysed both passenger and freight services. Deutsche Bahn is conducting separate negotiations with trade union EVG, which represents most railway-related workers and professionals, and the smaller train drivers' union GDL. The GDL union agreed to begin arbitration with rail operator Deutsche Bahn. According to GDL one of the key sticking points had been solved and GDL will now be able to have its own separate agreement apart from any agreement reached by the larger union EVG. A few days later EVG stated it had agreed with the company a wage hike for all employees from July 1 of 3.5%, or at least 80 euro more per month. From May 2016, they would receive a further 1.6% increase or at least 40 euro per month.
English: http://www.wsj.com/articles/german-train-engineers-to-end-strike .
Workers at Deutsche Post DHL have organised large scale protests as the company attempts to circumvent the collective agreement by moving 10,000 workers into its newly established shell company DHL delivery. Workers to be employed by DHL delivery would continue to do the same work, but earn up to €3,500 less per year. Six thousand Deutsche Post-DHL workers have put the company on trial at its annual general meeting in Frankfurt. The protesting workers were calling on shareholders of the postal and logistics giant to stop its plans to slash parcel workers' wages and take away their rights.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/en/news-events/news/2015/may/protesting-dp-dhl-workers .
http://www.uniglobalunion.org/news/deutsche-post-dhl-bring-race-bottom-home-germany
The mayor of Copenhagen banned all 45,000 of the city's officials from using Ryanair flights for official business. He stated that the city requires all of those who deliver services to the municipality, including those who would sell plane tickets, to offer their employees proper salaries and working conditions. These rules mean that the local government cannot enter contracts or buy goods from suppliers that do not pay proper salaries. As a consequence of this policy the city will ban on flying Ryanair. The company has asked the EU Commission to investigate what it calls `unlawful travel bans that constitute a breach of Ryanair's freedoms'.
English: http://www.thelocal.dk/20150527/ryanair-files-formal-complaint .
The employers' confederation has met with the country's trade union confederation and proposed an increase to the monthly minimum wage from 390 euros to 448 euro by 2017. The president of the employers' confederation explained the proposal by stating the current minimum wage is too close to the poverty line. Trade unions however announced that their proposal to the employers was to raise the national minimum wage to 488 euro a month in 2016 and to 609 euro in 2017. In the first quarter of 2015, the average monthly gross wage was 1,010 euro, according to Statistics Estonia.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics .