A report from Eurofound reveals that the financial crisis has had a giant impact in the EU on the overall trend of wage inequality: while wage inequality had been decreasing prior to the start of the crisis, it started to rise as the crisis progressed. Between 2004 and 2008, overall wage inequality in the EU diminished. This was due to convergence between European countries, driven by a rapid catching-up by eastern Member States and a stagnation of wages in the two biggest economies - Germany and the UK. After 2008, however, wage inequality increased, mainly as a result of rising inequalities within countries. Only eastern European Member States experienced a decline in wage inequality over the whole period, while other Member States saw increasing overall inequality levels against a background of growing unemployment. In the UK, wage inequality had fallen markedly up to 2008, after which it rose even more sharply up to 2011.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/sites .
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Negotiators have reached a deal on a new collective agreement at Czech Airlines. The agreement, whose contents remains undisclosed until approved by the company board, is supposed to moderate the effects of hefty pay cuts at the company in earlier years. Due to financial difficulties, the airline has cut wages by as much as 25%, as reported in previous newsletters.
English: http://radio.cz/en/section/news/czech-airlines-hammers-out-new-collective-deal .
Oil services group Subsea 7, which is based in Luxembourg but listed on the Oslo stock exchange, announced that it would cut close to a fifth of its workforce and sell a quarter of its fleet because of falling oil prices. The overall reduction in the global workforce would be approximately 2,500 by early 2016, down from the 13,000 reported at the end of 2014. Like many of its rivals, Subsea 7 has suffered from the slump in oil prices, which has forced many energy groups to postpone or cancel investments and projects.
English: http://www.thelocal.no/20150513/norway-oil
Health care workers have published a manifesto demanding a sector-wide collective agreement. The workers say the care sector is expanding, but also become increasingly impersonal. While services delivered are deteriorating, executives in some firms are making profits. The workers want to undercut competition on working conditions by a sector-wide collective agreement.
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/news/swiss-care-union-unia-launches-manifesto .
Even among its critics, the Swedish model was often regarded as a successful synthesis between capitalism and socialism, between free enterprise and social planning. Most observers agree that the following characteristics could be attributed to it: a relatively decommodified wage relation (independent from market forces), public commitment to full employment, welfare state universalism, a large social service sector, egalitarianism (in particular with regards to women) and a class compromise between capital, labour and farmers (and later also white collar workers). However, the country has embraced the free market ideology and the financialisation has become highly visible; the wage negotiation process, based on consensus and solidarity, has been replaced by a system based upon decentralised bargaining and private mediation.
English: http://column.global-labour-university.org/2015/05/the-swedish-model-in-2015 .
A three-week strike by Prosegur couriers has left ATMs throughout Berlin low on funds. The workers demand a pay hike of €1 per hours. Following a number of violent ATM heists, the workers are also demanding Prosegur take extra measures to ensure their safety.
English: http://www.dw.de/courier-strike-leaves-berlins-atms-low-on-funds .
Health care workers have organised two simultaneous protest marches against precarious pay and working conditions. Workers in the two marches, one dressed entirely in white and the other in black, say the pay is so low that they are forced to emigrate to be able to make a living. The workers are demanding a living wage, which would allow them to practice their profession in the country without falling into poverty.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/05/12/hungary-protest .
Workers at Dunnes Stores, who staged a strike in May, have been told they will be granted a 3% wage increase. The workers have been campaigning for better pay and working conditions. The current wage hike is the third in as many years, but unions have said it remains insufficient. Core of the contention is the Dunnes Stores' refusal to guarantee working hours, implying that workers regardless of the wage levels could earn full time wages or nothing from one week to the next.
English: http://www.herald.ie/news/dunnes-workers-give-cautious-welcome-to-3pc-increase .
Air traffic controllers' trade union ACV Transcom invited several other unions of neighbouring countries to a meeting in Brussels to discuss a possible strike in June against what it describes as `unrealistic savings' that the Federal Government is asking the air traffic control authority Belgocontrol to make. The union is in favour of coordinated action with air traffic control unions from Germany, France, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Switzerland. During the meeting it was decided to permanently monitor the austerity plans and to act jointly in the frame of the MARC/MOSAIC trade union coordination group.
English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english .
A draft law regulating collective bargaining has received mixed reviews from trade unions. The law is praised for allowing workers and their unions to present wage demands even in work places where the employer does not recognise the union. These claims will be judged by the Labour Court for recommendations and may be enforced through the Circuit Court in cases where employers refuse to comply. However, concerns were voiced that the law will promote company unions and thus effectively weaken the position of the current nationwide unions.
English: http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/collective-bargaining-legislation-criticised .
http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/collective-bargaining-legislation-unveiled .