The workers' strike at Autogrill service stations in Thuringia and Bavaria, reported in the May 2014 newsletter, has led to an agreement. In April, the workers went on indefinite strike to conclude a standard general wage agreement with better working conditions. They work in three shifts and on weekends, but earn just over 7 euro an hour. On 9 September, Autogrill announced that it will join the national employer organisation for the sector, which means their employees will fall under the relevant collective agreement.
English: http://www.iuf.org ...
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Construction workers at a new tower complex in the Mecidiyeköy area of Istanbul held a successful protest action against unsafe working conditions after ten colleagues died when an elevator plunged from the 32nd floor on September 6. The workers put up road blocks and presented 14 demands regarding the improvement of their working conditions. Amidst public outrage, the construction company has made known that it will honour the demands. The workers now have the right to stop their labour whenever they think a malfunction poses a threat to their lives. The construction company will also monitor subcontractors for upholding safety standards, for the on-time payment of wages and social security contributions, as well as request that the costs of safety materials are not deducted from the workers' wages. The deal also improves the living conditions of the construction workers, guaranteeing them 24 hours of hot water, two computers, wardrobes and refrigerators for collective use.
English: http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/construction-workers-at-istanbul-residence ...
Airline company Finnair has announced its intention of replacing its own personnel with rental employees from the Far East. In the first phase of the changes cabin crews on flights to Hong Kong and Singapore will be outsourced to OSM Aviation. In addition to leading to heavy job cuts, Finnair management will attempt to make use of a clause in the collective agreement that allows them to lay off the better paid long serving employees while keeping the newer employees. Trade unions have reacted outraged and are deliberating further action.
English: http://heikkijokinen.info/en/trade-union-news-from-finland ...
Workers at the Fiat factory in Kragujevac have had three non-working days early September and are expected to have more non-working days as the company plans to temporarily close its factory to adjust to lower demand. During the down times, the workers receive only 65% of their regular wages. Fiat has said that it is forced to resort to short-term suspensions of production in order to ensure that the factory remains open and that no jobs are lost.
English: http://inserbia.info/today/2014/09/serbia-fiat-temporary-closes-factory/
For security reasons workers at the AkzoNobel plant MEB have postponed a planned strike. The reason for the delay is that workers want to guarantee a safe phasing out of chlorine production, including for customers. The demand of the workers in this industrial action is a 10% pay rise, motivated by the stagnation of wage improvements in recent years. Another aim is to tackle the inequality of wages between workers and executives. The management tried to block the strike by an appeal to the court. However, the court rejected in the summary proceedings this demand.
English: http://www.highbeam.com ...
Dutch: http://www.beurs.nl/nieuws/Binnenland ...
The trade union confederation ZSSS underlined at a press conference that the country needs to improve its administration system as regards migrant workers. Exploitation of migrant workers is still an ongoing problem. In many cases employers send migrant workers to do a job abroad and when the work is completed and the person comes to collect the wage, they either do not get paid at all, or receive much less money than previously agreed. The worker's social contributions are also not covered. NGOs who fight for migrant rights pose the question: `How is it possible that companies in Slovenia who have problems with liquidity or have frozen accounts are still able to hire?'
English: http://www.sta.si/en ...
http://www.rtvslo.si/news-in-english/exploitation-of-migrant-workers-in-slovenia ...
Trade unions, active in the hotel branch, are complaining about exploitation practices in this branch. Whilst the hotels are exploiting migrant workers, the local workforce is really suffering due to attitude in the tourism sector to favour cheap foreign labour. The pay issue is directly linked to the lack of collective agreements. Some hotels prefer to employ people that are ready to work without a collective agreement because they are cheaper. The collective agreement was renewed in 2013 and the workers accepted the agreement, though they basically lost 15% of their benefits. The hoteliers said they would implement it but they haven't.
English: http://cyprus-mail.com/2014/09/07/i-cant-work-for-e400-a-month/
About 2,000 police, firefighters and coast guards have held a peaceful anti-austerity protest in the northern city of Thessaloniki, on the eve of a visit by prime minister Samaras. The trade unions that organised the protest are angry at pay cuts and government plans to merge their pension funds under a major pension reform. They have held similar protests every year on the eve of the Thessaloniki Trade Fair opening, where the prime minister traditionally delivers a keynote speech on the economy. Other groups are planning protests in Thessaloniki, amid tight police security.
English: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/09/06/greek-police-firefighters-coast-guards ...
During a conference attention was paid to the growing problem with the shadow economy. It was reported that the shadow economy represents nearly a third of the country's total GDP, which is well-above one and a half times the EU average. Based on a number of sources there was a general decline between 2002 and 2007 followed by a slight increase afterwards. The findings suggested that the increase occurred through a shift in the instances of undeclared work, for example from working without a contract to receiving part of the wages in envelopes, which spiked in 2013. Reference was made to a survey conducted by the ministry of labour with the main conclusion that employers know how to take advantage of the system, but the employees do not due to the lack of information or perceived self-interest from their side. Some of the recommendations of the conference included the implementation of a legal definition for undeclared work, which is currently missing and a coordinated approach at strategic and operational level, which would probably involve a national strategy of counteracting the issue.
English: http://www.novinite.com/articles ...
http://www.csd.bg/artShow ...
Oil workers at the Polar Pioneer rig are confronted with a downsizing process because the market is not developing in the way thought previously. In addition to redundancies, some workers will be offered other jobs, but in a more junior position. The company Aibel published the plan of further redundancies. Earlier this year Aibel had already announced a reduction of staff by 230. Aibel's round of cuts is due to a decrease in maintenance and modification assignments. At the same time oil service company Bilfinger is going to cut positions due to oil companies' strategy to cut costs and the downturn that they notice.
English: http://www.aftenbladet.no/energi/aenergy/85-Transocean-staff-to-go ...
http://www.aftenbladet.no/energi ...