The government has decided to grant over €10 million to Cyprus Airways (CY) workers in a provident fund. The airline closed (see our January Newsletter) after the EU ordered it to return millions in illegal state aid. It was also decided to pay €2.7 million in compensation to those laid off between December 2012 and December 2014 so that they were treated the same way as those who lost their job when the airline shut down last month. The demand of the trade unions that CY workers be employed in other parts of the public sector was rejected with the argument that there were many legal and financial constraints.
English: http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/02/03/government-to-cover-cy-cash-shortfalls/
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In a column of the global labour university a triangle of impossibility is described with the following vertices: the first is the full payment of the public debt according to the prevailing interest rates and maturities; the second is compliance with EU budgetary rules; the third corresponds to the preservation of minimum welfare state standards. The triangle of impossibility suggests that, given the current conditions, it is not possible to fulfil all three conditions at the same time. In order to comply with the EU's budgetary rules in the absence of debt restructuring, Portugal would have to implement significant cuts in education, health and social protection budgets, and tax increases over and above those that were implemented in the past four years. Alternatively, if the country is to preserve minimum levels of Welfare State, it must either restructure its debt and/or postpone compliance with EU budgetary rules.
English: http://column.global-labour-university.org/2015/02/trouble-ahead-in-portugal ...
The government has suspended the controls by state authorities to check whether foreign drivers are being paid the minimum wage of €8.50 an hour. Several governments have urged Berlin to change the system and have complained to Brussels, where the European Commission opened a preliminary case to look into whether the legislation complies with European law. The European Commission is assessing whether or not it hinders free movement of goods and services.
English: http://www.eubusiness.com/news-eu/germany-poland-wage.znx
In the January Newsletter we reported already on the difficult negotiations at Czech Airlines. The national carrier has lowered their staff's salaries by around 40%, introducing new cost-saving measures. According to the trade unions, the drop in wages is higher than it was previously agreed. The airline in October agreed on a wage cut of around a third and 180 redundancies. The trade unions representing the company's pilots and stewards filed a complaint over the new collective agreement and consider the option to strike.
English: http://www.radio.cz/en/section/news/czech-airlines-introduce-wage-cut ...
In a detailed report (in German with a French summary) trade union confederation SGB/USS provides an excellent overview of the distribution of earnings and wealth. During the last 20 years inequality has increased between the low paid and the top of the income earners. Fiscal policy and other levies have contributed to a further rise of inequality instead of having a redistributing effect. The situation accelerated from the mid-1990s with an increase of 40% for the highest earners, whilst the lower paid were confronted with a reduction of 8% (and middle class with 12% reduction). The increase in inequality was to an important extent the result of the pay of bonuses to the top earners. Further information is given on the gender gap and on a series of other wage and income indicators.
German: http://www.verteilungsbericht.ch/wp-content/uploads ...
The protests organised by the three trade union confederations led to an intensification of the tripartite talks. The government agreed with the so-called `Group of Ten', the main negotiators of trade unions and employer organisations, on a timeframe for talks on issues such as the evolution of salaries and sectorial collective agreements on pay and conditions. The Group of Ten had full autonomy to reach agreements on salary evolution, frameworks for sectorial collective agreements, the extension of the bi-annual sectoral collective agreements and how the 300 million euro earmarked to help those on the lowest pensions and benefits could be shared. A top meeting on 30 January led to a package deal on wages, pensions and benefits that was rejected by the socialist trade union confederation FGTB/ABVV because the decoupling of the automatic linkage between wages, benefits and prices remains intact.
English: http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/News ...
http://deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/Economy ...
French: http://www.lesoir.be/772921/article/actualite/belgique/politique ...
http://www.lesoir.be/772183/article/actualite/belgique ...
Dutch: http://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/sociaal-overleg-ontwerpakkoord ...
http://www.knack.be/nieuws/belgie/rudy-de-leeuw-abvv-indexsprong-is-domme-fetisj ...
The government has issued a Cabinet Decree to postpone the metal industry strike launched by IndustriALL affiliate Birlesik Metal-Is. The decree also covers 18 companies where the strike would start later. Workers in the metal sector had announced to go on strike at 20 workplaces in 10 provinces demanding better wages and working conditions after trade union Birlesik and the employers failed to agree over a wage increase and a new collective agreement. While two other unions for metal workers agreed in September with the Metal Industrialists' Union (MESS) over wage increases, the metal workers' union Birlesik Metal-Is, which is part of the Confederation of Progressive Trade Unions (DISK), failed to reach an agreement with MESS and called on workers to go on strike. The union accuses MESS of consolidating a system of cheap labour.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/metalworkers-strike-banned-in-turkey
http://en.cihan.com.tr/news/Metal-workers-go-on-strike-over-poor-standards ...
The unemployment rate stood at 6.4% in December 2014, down 0.1 percentage points from the previous month and 0.6 percentage points from December 2013. The total number of unemployed people went down to 604,000, according to the latest data from the National of Institute Statistics INS. There were 617,000 jobless people in November 2014 and 649,000 in December 2013.
English: http://www.insse.ro/cms/files/statistici/communicate ...
800 members of the trade union of car maker Skoda Auto in central Bohemia decided that they are ready to go on strike against Skoda's plan to transfer some professions to external companies. The workers fear dismissals at the company, a drop in wages and reduction of benefits as a result of the outsourcing. In the meantime collective bargaining at Skoda has started, because the collective agreement expires in March.
English: http://praguepost.com/czech-news/44061-skoda-auto-unions-may-strike
Larnaca port workers organised a three-hour strike to protest the extension given to the consortium that was supposed to develop the area but cannot find the money to go ahead with the project. The workers of the Ports Authority see a healthy profitable organisation to lose or even give away pieces one by one which had the prospects for further profit and will not accept one more piece to be given away through the upcoming ports privatisation.
English: http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/01/29/port-workers-strike-over-larnaca-delays/
http://www.hellenicshippingnews.com/port-workers-fear-larnaca-profits-skimmed-by-bidder/