The public television SRF surveyed the top Swiss Market Index (SMI) companies, and looked at how measures to tackle the lack of skilled workers through further training, integration of the older workforce and steps to improve the balance between work and family are currently being addressed by these large companies. The SMI is a list of the 20 largest companies being traded on the stock exchange. The government has put forward plans for quotas for EU citizens, priority hiring for Swiss residents (except in professions experiencing a skills shortage) and boosting the potential workforce within Switzerland, including older employees, women and refugees. For firms, training skilled workers from the ground up is one solution to avoid a labour shortage. However, the SRF investigation shows that most of the SMI companies were doing little to promote apprenticeship schemes.
English: http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/the-labour-shortage-facing-the-top-20-swiss-firms ...
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Trade unions at the Peugeot Trnava plant are at negotiating salary increases, with a potential strike looming. It is reported that there is no consensus in sight and the Economy Ministry should send a mediator to find a solution acceptable for both sides. .
English: http://spectator.sme.sk/c/20056460/carmakers-expand-production-strike-may ...
Trade unions of teachers and students have called for a general strike in universities on March 24 against what they see as a disguised reform affecting public education. The protest has an impressive public support and is backed by many organisations and social groups. The initiative collected in four weeks over 140,000 signatures against the project of the government.
English: http://www.plenglish.com/index ...
After negotiations with the factory's trade union carmaker Ford has annulled the layoffs for 170 employees at its plant in Craiova, by reducing their work schedule. However, the management has not yet announced what the reduced work schedule would mean. In November 2014, the company announced it would lay off 680 of its 3,200 employees, due to falling demand on the European car market. Almost 500 employees volunteered to leave by the beginning of this year. Workers' representatives have been trying to determine the employer to limit the layoffs to nearly 500.
English: http://www.romania-insider.com/ford-avoids-mass-layoffs-romania-union-deal ...
The service trade union PAM has asked for an investigation of suspected job discrimination against a Bangladeshi cook who worked at the New Bombay restaurant in the northern city of Oulu. According to the union, the young man was recruited from Bangladesh in 2012 with promises of a good salary. However his wages were not enough to live on and his work days lasted 10-17 hours. PAM estimates that the man is due 80,000-100,000 euro in back pay for a period of two years.
English: http://yle.fi/uutiset/union_alleges_mistreatment_of_bangladeshi_chef ...
Some 650 Norwegian pilots, 100 of them Danish, are striking over concerns that their employer, the Norwegian subsidiary Norwegian Air Norway (NAN) will go bust, leaving the pilots with worse contracts under a new structure. Norwegian has brought in the operator Small Planet Airlines, a budget carrier based in Lithuania and Poland, as an alternative for long-range flights. The Danish trade union Serviceforbundet, representing airline security personnel and other airline workers, warned that it would carry out a sympathy strike if a solution to the Norwegian conflict is not found.
English: http://www.thelocal.dk/20150308/norwegian-strike-drags-on-after-talks-collapse
http://www.thelocal.dk/20150305/norwegian-strike-grounds-22-danish-flights
Research presented at a conference on balancing work and family life shows that 40% of the population supports the idea of working fewer hours for the same pay. Most workers said they were balancing work and home life well, but other questions regarding conflict and stress in the workplace showed that 40% supported shortening the working hours in a week. There were also 24% who said they could see themselves refusing to work overtime, and 22% who want to reduce their work percentage.
English: http://grapevine.is/news/2015/03/09/40-of-icelanders-want-a-shorter-work-week/
In a joint position the social partners listed their wishes to the next government. Fewer workers are entering the labour market than leave, the number of taxpayers is shrinking, the proportion of dependents and the costs to society continues to increase. The only possible way to provide for a more expensive society with a smaller number of working hands is to do more work and more complex work with fewer workers. Thus, the society's biggest short-term aim has to be a decisive leap in the value chain, and a fast increase of competitiveness. The partners state that this is feasible if educational, economic, environmental and social policies are dedicated to it in a coordinated way.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/markets_and_companies/?doc=103335
Most collective bargaining agreements between unions and management ran out 1 March and there is little optimism that new agreements will be made by Easter. As in previous years, the main point of contention rests on pay rises. The president of the trade union confederation ASI told reporters that there is `a wide gap' between contract negotiators on both sides and that it is `very likely' workers will have to resort to strikes.
English: http://grapevine.is/news/2015/03/05/strikes-could-be-around-the-corner/
The average wage in the case of health workers is among the lowest, according to national economic data, if not the lowest and wage increases nearly always only pertain to doctors, even though some 100,000 people work in public health care who are not doctors. In the case of professional nurses and other workers the ratio of Western wages to those of Hungary is 10 to one, just as in the case of doctors. Doctors and expert health workers are moving abroad because of the low wages and poor working conditions. As a result patient security is jeopardized in certain areas because institutions cannot provide the minimum personnel necessary to care for the sick. Several associations have criticised this situation.
English: http://budapestbeacon.com/public-policy/hungarian-health-care-workers ...