Collective Bargaining

The Icelandic Airline Pilots Association (FIA) reached an agreement with Icelandair management over a new collective agreement. The agreement came about after a bitter dispute involving strikes and narrowly avoided complaints to the ILO, as reported in the May and June 2014 newsletters. At the time, trade unions demanded to share in the growth the airline had experienced over the last years, which had already paid off in substantial executive bonuses. The strike was banned in court and the dispute forced into mediation. After lengthy talks, the parties have now reached an agreement that will be valid for three years.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/en/news-events/news/2015/january/collective-agreement ...

Trade unions OGBL and LCGB have asked the national conciliation office to mediate in the negotiations of a collective agreement at Cargolux. After sluggish negotiations, Cargolux terminated the collective agreement that expired in December 2014, promising to `establish a timeframe for the next stages of the negotiation process'. However, unions consider the termination of the agreement an attack on social bargaining and protest against proposed measures that would involve a salary freeze, longer working hours, fewer recuperation days and lower wage scales for new hires. Cargolux said it would only commit to sustaining the Luxembourg site if unions agree to the new agreement as proposed.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/business/collective-work-agreement-cargolux-dispute ...

Sushi chain Letz Sushi, with 11 restaurants in Copenhagen and the surrounding area, has been fined 350,000 kroner for 16 counts of using illegal labour between December 2010 and February 2013. Trade union 3F revealed that in 14 of the cases, young Chinese employees on student visas exceeded the 15-hour-per-week limit that their visas allowed, often working 12-hour shifts several times a week.
English: http://cphpost.dk/news/sushi-chain-fined-for-foreign-labour-violations ...

The government's proposal to allow all retailers to open for business on Sunday has met massive opposition. `No one wants this', claims the major trade union representing retail employees. Trade union confederation LO opposes the measure despite the jobs it could create, saying it fears for workers who may be forced to work on Sundays. Employers' organizations NHO and Virke oppose it because of the costs it may entail for retailers and the pressure it could put on small businesses that would prefer to stay closed. Environmental organisations and the Greens Party in Parliament oppose it because they fear it would increase consumption and emissions from those who would drive to shopping centres on Sundays.
English: http://www.newsinenglish.no/2015/01/14/objections-rise-to-sunday-shopping/

Trade unions at car manufacturer Dacia have announced they will be taking industrial action over stalled collective agreement negotiations. The unions have demanded a pay rise of RON 400 (?89), which is about 15% above current levels. They have also asked for RON 2,300 (?511) bonuses for 2015, 65% higher than last year. Dacia management has refused, claiming wages have risen every year and are currently already above average for the industry.
English: http://www.romania-insider.com/romanian-dacia-unionists-start-labor-conflict ...
http://www.romania-insider.com/main-romanian-carmaker ...

Unions announced industrial action after Tesco management said it would be closing a second of its 200 stores in the country, resulting in over 100 job losses. Tesco is facing financial difficulties and attempting to cut costs, which already led to the closure of one store, with the second to follow. A Tesco spokesperson said laid off staff would receive the full statutory redundancy payments as well as a pay reward.
English: http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jan/13/tesco-strike-czech-republic ...

Municipal employees' union POE-OTA has threatened strike action on election day, which would disrupt the setting up and cleaning of voting stations as well as the guarding of election materials. The strike threat coincides with a government announcement that it will be spending 45 million on the organisation of the elections, which is down from 70 million in the 2012 elections.
English: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/article_xinhua ...

Trade unions and Czech Airlines managements are discussing wage cuts to save the struggling carrier. Union representatives said the previous demand had been for a wage cut of a third of salaries, but that management was now asking for 40%. After 180 employees were made redundant in October 2014, unions and managements have been in negotiations over a sober new collective agreement. According to the trade unions each new proposal submitted by the management is worse than the previous one.
English: http://praguepost.com/economy/43778-unions-oppose-large-csa-wage-cuts

Data published by the country's Employment Service suggest that at the end of December 2014, 385,000 people were either unemployed or in labour market programmes. This means that the current relative unemployment is 8.1%, down 0.5 percentage points on December 2013, when 26,000 more people were unemployed. Youth unemployment is declining at a steady rate with 14.8% of people aged between 18 and 24 registered as unemployed in December, a drop of almost 13,000 compared to a year ago, when the rate was 17.2%. Separated research released at the end of 2014, suggests that while youngsters under 25 are getting jobs, they are increasingly being given fixed term contracts (up to 52%) rather than permanent jobs.
English: http://www.thelocal.se/20150113/unemployment-dips-in-sweden
Swedish (statistics): http://www.arbetsformedlingen.se/download ...

The number of registered jobless increased in December 2014 and reached 27,597 people, which formed 4.3% of the working-age population. In 2014 on average, 29,502 people were in the unemployment registry, around 7,500 less than in 2013. The average registered unemployment rate fell from 5.8% in 2013 to 4.6% in 2014.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics ...