Former employees of Waterford Crystal have reached a deal over pension payments with the government. As reported in the newsletter of August 2013, the Waterford Crystal workers lost about 80% of their pension entitlements after the company and its pension scheme became insolvent. Subsequently, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Irish state had an obligation to protect workers in double insolvency cases and was responsible for compensating the workers by guaranteeing at least 49% of the entitlements. The 1,700 former employees now voted in favour of a proposal that includes an average €40,000 lump sum payment and annual pension payments. The cost of the €188 million scheme is borne by central funds.
English: http://www.rte.ie/news/2014 ...
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Doctors working as family doctors in local health centres have staged a one day strike against a newly introduced on-duty system. The Full-Day law, which was passed in April, obliges family doctors to be included in on-duty systems in nearby hospitals. The law has been widely criticised because it gave doctors holding academic positions three months to close their private clinic if they had one, otherwise their contract with public and university hospitals would be cancelled. Fear exists that many doctors will leave the public institutions in favour of private practice.
English: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/family-doctors-to-go-on-one-day-strike ...
Trade unions have organised a large march in Sofia to protest against the pension reforms announced by the government. In an attempt to reduce the deficit, the government intends to raise the pensionable age of manual workers by four months, which would affect 15,000 workers due to retire next year. The country's pension system is facing the consequences of a rapidly ageing population because young workers are migrating to other EU member states. The current retirement age for manual workers is 63 years and 8 months for men and 60 years and 8 months for women.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/12/11/bulgaria-protest ...
The dispute over the firefighters' pensions drags on. Fire Brigades Union (FBU) members were taking strike action on 9 December over government proposals that will force firefighters to work until they are 60 instead of 55, pay more into their pensions and get less in retirement. This month strike was the 48th period of industrial action since the pensions row began well over a year ago. The last strike lasted four days, the longest period of industrial action firefighters have taken in at least 10 years.
English: http://www.fbu.org.uk/news/2014/12/firefighters-complete-24-hours-strike-march ...
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/dec/09/firefighters-strike-pension-entitlements ...
After a long and ardent union campaign, Turkey has ratified ILO convention C176 on safety and health in mines. Turkish trade unions campaign for ratification in an international trade union alliance. Amongst other things, the convention guarantees miners the right to genuine consultation on and participation in the preparation and implementation of safety and health measures concerning the hazards and risks they face in the mining industry. The ratification follows a bill adopted in Parliament in September, which included new rights on working hours, severance payments, retirement age, and wages. Over 3,000 people have been killed and over 100,000 have been injured since 1941 to the present day in mining accidents in Turkey. There are 740 coalmines and 48,706 miners in in the country.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/global-campaign-victory-turkey-ratifies-ilo ...
The parliament ratified ILO Convention 94 on labour clauses in public contracts in October 2014. The Autonomous Trade Union of Road Maintenance Workers ATURMWS has been lobbying and advocating for its ratification ever since 2006. The ratification has been used as a basis for the work on `blacklisting' of socially irresponsible companies in the sector of road construction and maintenance. The Ministry of construction, traffic and infrastructure has formed a working group on blacklisting of socially irresponsible companies in which representatives of ATURMWS participate. The outcome of such black lists is that companies which do not pay taxes, salaries and contributions of employees and which have undeclared workers will not be eligible as contractors in the public procurement processes where the investor is the state or local authority.
English: http://www.bwint.org/default ...
The Autonomous Trade Union of Road Maintenance Workers of Serbia, ATURMWS, and the Association of Employers in the road maintenance and construction sector have signed a collective agreement. As the main investor, representatives from the Ministry of construction, traffic and infrastructure and the General manager of the Public Enterprise "Roads of Serbia" were present at the signing of the agreement too. ATURMWS has made it known that it will ask the minister to make the agreement generally binding in the sector.
English: http://www.bwint.org/default ...
The Labour Market Tendency Survey is a sample survey that has been published annually since 1959. It provides information about the labour market situation and the outlook for 71 educational and training categories. The newest report highlights a particularly high demand for engineers (Bachelor of Science) in structural engineering. There is a relatively high share of employers who have looked for first-level nurses and nurses in anaesthetic care, intensive care and surgical care. The report signals also a shortage of educated preschool teachers, special needs teachers, qualified recreation instructors, and teachers in mathematics and natural science.
English: http://www.scb.se/Statistik/_Publikationer ...
The number of job vacancies increased in the 3rd quarter of 2014 by 0.3% compared to the 3rd quarter of 2013 and by 12.7% compared to the previous quarter. 30% of job vacancies were in the public sector and 70% in the private sector, where the largest share was in Estonian-owned enterprises. Compared to the same period of the previous year, labour turnover has increased by 4%, with a total of 77,000 employees that were hired or left their jobs. Labour turnover was the highest in wholesale and retail trade (15,500 employees), followed by manufacturing, administrative and support service activities and construction.
English: http://www.stat.ee/72395
Recruitment company Jobco was found guilty of violations by not paying Polish and Italian metro workers overtime pay. The case was brought to court by the construction section of the 3F trade union, on behalf of five Polish members who had not received overtime payments for half a year. An arbitration court now ordered Jobco to pay the unpaid overtime payments.
English: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Andre_sprog/English ...