In a recent report for Equal Times, trade unions have said that the undermining of collective agreement has led directly to an increase in employment outsourcing by companies. As austerity measures led to the cancellation of many company and sector collective agreements, individual contracts are now the common contract in Greece. Unions report that in the absence of regulations in collective agreements, more and more workers are hired under contracts with temp agencies under worse conditions.
English: http://www.equaltimes.org/an-avalanche-of-precarious-work ...
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A strike in the commercial sector of the railways, covering amongst others the ticket inspectors, closed down 95% of train ticket offices on 6 April. Until 8am, only two long distance trains actually ran, while 80%-90% of all trains were expected to be cancelled later that day.
English: http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/railway-strike-chaos/34433
Ship owners and trade unions have reached a deal in the negotiations over a new collective agreement. The largest dispute in the negotiations was the applicability of the collective agreement to all firms in the sector, as opposed to only the state owned Arctia Shipping Company. The deal was reached in the face of looming industrial actions, in which unions threated to prevent ships under Finnish flags from leaving ports during the Easter holidays.
English: http://customstoday.com.pk/finnish-ship-owners-and-2-workers-unions-reach-agreement/
A recent study in the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health reports that asbestos-related cancers are missing from official reporting systems. The study shows that in the 33 year period until 2011, only 164 cases of asbestos-related cancer were recorded. The researchers estimate that over 90% of actual cases are missing from the statistics. The absence of recording also means that workers suffering from asbestos-related occupation cancer do not receive due compensation.
English: http://www.ituc-csi.org/asbestos-cancers-in-spain-are-not?lang=en
The Rosia Montana Gold Corporation will lay off 35 of its 100 employees. The corporation, owned by the Canadian Gabriel Resources group, cites unreasonable delays in the authorisation process as the reason for the redundancies. The gold mine received extensive negative media attention in 2013 and 2014, as reported in those newsletters, for the use of cyanide in the extraction process. After the government retracted a bill that would speed up the authorisation process in September 2013, the Rosia Montana Gold Corporation already fired 392 workers in March 2014.
English: http://www.romania-insider.com/gabriel-resources-to-lay-off-a-third .
A strike ban in the metal industry earlier this year is still in place and may lead to the dispute being forced into arbitration. In January this year, as reported in the newsletter, a strike by metal workers was banned through a 60 day suspension. The 60 day period expired on 21 March, but unions report the ban is still in place. The continued ban is a particular problem, because it will lead to the conflict going into forced arbitration.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/turkey-metal-strike-ban-still-in-place
Caritas Europa published a Crisis Monitoring Report 2015, titled Poverty and Inequalities on the rise, with a special focus on Cyprus, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Romania and Spain. After over 6 years of economic crisis, poor people are still paying for a crisis they did not cause, and the poor are getting poorer. Poverty and inequalities are increasing in Europe with 123 million EU citizens living in poverty, almost 1 in 4. More than 1/3 of the population in five EU Member States are at risk of poverty or social exclusion (i.e. Bulgaria 48%, Romania 40.4%, Greece 35.7%, Latvia 35.1%, and Hungary 33.5%). In-work poverty has also risen.
English: http://www.caritas.eu/sites/default/files/caritascrisisreport_2015_en_final.pdf
Some 20,000 postal workers joined a two day strike after collective agreement negotiations failed. Trade union Ver.di and the Deutsche Post AG group have been negotiating over a collective agreement, but have not reached an agreement in the first rounds. Ver.di has asked for a reduction of working hours from 38.5 to 36 hours per week for the same monthly salary. The next round of negotiations is planned for 14 April. Nearly 140,000 people work at Deutsche Post, handling 80 million letters and parcels per day.
English: http://sputniknews.com/europe/20150402 .
Trade unions and various interest groups continue with their protests against the government's social policies. 20,000 people have taken part in a march in the Brussels city centre to campaign against the right-wing choices of the federal and regional governments. The discussion is about how actively laid-off workers in early retirement should seek a new job. During renewed negotiations between the social partners and the government it became clear that the tabled modifications proposed by the government were critically received by the trade union negotiators as these proposals will water down the deal that was reached in the so-called Group of Ten. Trade union confederation ABVV/FGTB rejected the proposals as these do not respect the social pact that was agreed in the Group of Ten (see our December Newsletter).
English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News/1.2287262
Dutch: http://www.demorgen.be/binnenland/brugpensioen-abvv-wijst-voorstel-regering-af ...
French: http://www.rtbf.be/info/belgique/detail_accord-sur-les-prepensions-la-tension ...
The trade union of staff workers at Windsor Castle will open a ballot over allowances. It would be the first such action specific to the Royal Households and comes after years of pay restraint has left loyal workers paid below the widely-recognised living wage, with new recruits starting on as little as £14,400 a year. Despite this, workers are expected to carry out extra unpaid duties, including giving tours of the castle - even though visitors are charged for these - and acting as language interpreters and first aiders. The PCS union, which represents 120 of the 200 staff at Windsor, says non-strike industrial action would involve withdrawal of this goodwill, and would have a significant impact on the services provided to visitors. An unsatisfactory pay offer for 2014 was only narrowly accepted by staff on the understanding that the additional allowances would be considered in 2015.
English: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events ...