The train companies RENFE and ADIF have been forced to cancel more than 500 trains due to strikes by the CCOO, SF and CGT. The three trade unions motivated the strikes by a lack of personnel. Trade union CCOO stated that the strike could have been avoided if RENFE acceded to their demands and showed the will to negotiate with them. The demands of the CCOO include the contracting of at least 1,400 new workers and the building of new high speed lines as well as the internalisation of maintenance contracts. CCOO is also asking that RENFE puts ticket inspectors back onto regional trains as it considers that their removal was `unfair' and places undue responsibility on the drivers.
English: http://elpais.com/elpais/2014/07/31/inenglish ...
https://www.euroweeklynews.com/news/spanish-news ...
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Retailer Hema no longer wants to pay employees for taking short breaks. The management has sent the proposal to the works councils of bakeries, distribution centres and shop chains, to consider breaks as lunch hours, which Hema is already not paying for. Workers' hours will be expanded to make up for the lost hours. Trade union FNV has claimed that the measure is a collective labour agreement issue that needs consent from the works councils.
English: http://www.nltimes.nl/2014/07/30/hema-end-workers-paid-breaks ...
The bureau for Economic Policy Analysis CPB investigated the anatomy of older workers' wages. Central research question was whether the wage cushion, defined as the difference between actual wages and (maximum) contractual wages as stipulated in collective labour agreements, contributes to the fact that wages continue increasing at older ages. In the public sector, CPB finds no evidence of a wage cushion. Wage scale ceilings set in collective agreements are guiding for older workers' wages, and workers earning a contractual wage equal to a wage scale ceiling are not compensated with higher additional wages. In the private sector, wage scale ceilings are less restrictive and workers earning a contractual wage exceeding the highest wage scale ceiling experience higher contractual wage growth.
English: http://www.cpb.nl/en/publication/do-wages-continue-increasing-at-older-ages ...
The Bundesbank that historically has been a strong advocate of wage restraint has welcomed above-inflation wage increases in some sectors, with euro zone inflation stuck below 1% and consumer prices rising just 1.0% in June in Europe's biggest economy. The trade unions have negotiated above-average pay hikes in the past year after a decade of wage restraint. In April, 2.1 million public sector workers agreed to a 3.0% pay increase for 2014 and 2.4% for 2015. Spokespersons of the bank welcomed that wages are rising more strongly again, as in a series of sectors and regions, there is near-full employment and reports of labour shortages are piling up.
English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/2014/07/30/uk-germany-wages-weidmann ...
German: http://www.sueddeutsche.de/wirtschaft/bundesbankchef-weidmann-fordert-lohnplus ...
The Polish Confederation of Employers of the Building Industry (Polski Zwiazek Pracodawc¢w Budownictwa PZPB) and the Confederation of the Polish Crafts (Zwiazek Rzemiosla Polskiego ZRP) and trade unions Solidarnosc and ZZ Budowlani have signed an agreement setting a minimum wage in the construction sector. The parties agreed that a worker should not cost less than 10.50 PLN (?2.53) gross or 7 PLN (?1.70) net per hour. The minimum wage was adopted in order to fight exploitation and dumping in the sector. The Cracow region employers' organisation, the Galician Builder's Chamber, refused to sign the agreement.
English: http://www.bwint.org/default ...
Ninety percent of workers of the Eni oil and gas group have participated in a one-day strike to protest against plans to close or convert some of its unprofitable refineries. All three major unions joined the strike, targeting the country's government, which has a majority share in the Eni group. The unions said the closures are expected to lead to over 6,000 layoffs and jeopardise the country's industrial future.
English: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/29/eni-strike ...
The prime minister announced that a deal had been reached and that the wages of all state employees will increase by at least 3.5% from January 2015. The government is scheduled to discuss wages with social partners on 4 September. The Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions (CMKOS) threatened earlier to call a strike if state employees would not get a pay rise.
English: http://eu.cianews.cz/english-news/tripartity-agrees-on-growth-in-wages ...
Steel workers at ThyssenKrupp Terni plant just outside of Rome have gone on strike over job cuts. ThyssenKrupp has announced it intends to lay off 550 workers, representing a fifth of the workforce at the plant. The plant has changed owners already twice in the last four years and the workers fear that ThyssenKrupp, too, is eyeing short term profit and planning to sell the plant off in the foreseeable future.
English: http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/07/28/italy-steel-strike ...
According to a report on the cost of living from the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CITUB) 23.3% of the households live below the poverty threshold. The cost of living per member of a 4-member household (2 adults + 2 children) in end-June 2014 reached BGN 559.95, or a total of BGN 2240 for the household per month for food, healthcare, education, holidays, according to average Bulgarian standards. In the second quarter of 2014, the cost of living dropped by 0.6% from the previous quarter, and on an annual basis it fell by 0.7%.
English: http://www.novinite.com/articles/162310/Trade+Union ...
A first round of talks between LuxairGroup and trade unions OGBL, LCGB and ngl-snep at the national conciliation office has failed. After regular negotiations for a new collective agreement broke down in June, as reported in this newsletter, the dispute went into conciliation. The trade unions report that Luxair refuses to make any real wage offer, being only interested in an indefinite wage freeze despite a 1.9 million benefit in 2013. The wage freeze would mean a loss to the trade unions, because the current agreement includes automatic salary increases. Luxair management denied the accusations and said it continued to hope talks would resolve the issue, but refused to extend the current agreement to allow for more time for negotiations. After walking out of the conciliation talks, trade unions have organised three one-hour protests.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/business/collective-working-agreement-unions-launch ...
http://www.wort.lu/en/business/national-conciliation-office-talks-for-luxair-agreement-fail ...