Collective Bargaining

The RMT union has announced that on 4 and 5 February, and 11 and 12 February two 48-hour strikes on the Tube will take place. London Underground workers voted to go on strike in protest at plans to close ticket offices and axe 750 jobs. Some 77% of Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members voting in the ballot backed strike action. The union also announced action short of strike, including telling its members not to sell tickets at certain times.
English: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/tube-strikes-loom ...

Despite economic growth, the unemployment rate continued to rise in December 2013, jumping to 3.5% from 3.2% in November, with foreign workers hardest hit. At the end of December 149,437 people were registered for unemployment benefits, 10,364 more than the previous month. The number of job seekers increased to 205,802, up 9,280 from November.
English: http://www.thelocal.ch/20140110/expats-again-hardest-hit-as-jobless-rate-grows
German: http://www.news.admin.ch/message ...
French: http://www.news.admin.ch/message ...

The Employment Appeal Tribunal has judged that the Agency Workers Regulations 2010 (AWR) do not apply to agency workers placed with a hirer indefinitely. Workers employed by Ideal Cleaning Services Ltd but placed to work as agency workers at the premises and under the supervision of Celanese Acetate Ltd had been placed with Celanese for between 6 and 25 years when their contracts were terminated in 2012. The workers brought claims that they were agency workers under the AWR and entitled to protection as such. The tribunal dismissed their claims on the basis that the work they had carried out for Celanese had not been temporary in nature and did not therefore fall within the AWR-scope. The question is whether this decision will lead to temporary work agencies (and user undertakings) using indefinite assignments as a means of preventing agency workers from falling within the scope of the Agency Workers Regulations.
English: http://www.staffingindustry.com/eng/Research-Publications ...
http://www.lexology.com/library/detail ...

Care workers in Glasgow City Council's residential homes are going on strike for two days to resist new job roles, longer shift patterns and pay cuts of up to 7%. The lowest-paid workers are being asked to take on new tasks like dispensing medicines - and at the same time they are being forced to work longer shifts and to accept massive wage losses of up to œ1,495 per year for 182 staff who are already feeling the impact of rising living costs.
English: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/glasgow-homecare-staff-set-for-strike

The government approved a bill that creates a registry starting July 2014. The register should intensify the fight against unreported labour. Currently, a new employee can be registered a week after the start of employment, but in the future, it has to be done before the employee starts working.
English: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles ...

Pressure on employees in companies has increased significantly according to a study carried out by job search engine Monster. 87% of the 1010 people asked felt that stress in the workplace has increased over the last six months. It showed that women were more affected by the pressure than men. 48% of those asked said they regarded burnout as a serious illness and saw it caused by stress in the workplace.
English: http://austriantimes.at/news/Business/2014-01-10/50312/Pressure_in_workplace ...
German: http://www.ots.at/presseaussendung/OTS_20140108_OTS0087/meinungsklima ...
http://www.reichl-presseportal.at/monster.at/Monster-Jobwechsler-Studie-2014-1 ...

As of 1 January 2014 some changes in regard to unemployment benefits, parental leave and developing employees' professional skills are coming in effect that origin from the 2013 agreement between trade unions, employers and the government. It will be easier to get earnings-related unemployment benefit (calculated in terms of a daily allowance) than before. The waiting period to receive unemployment benefit is cut from seven to five days and unemployed can earn up to 300 euro a month without it affecting their dole. Parents of children under three years of age can now get a flexible care allowance if they combine part time work and childcare.
English: http://www.jokinen.kaapeli.fi/index.php/en/trade-union-news-from-finland ...

The number of redundancies remained on a high level already for the second year in a row during 2013. A total of 14,500 employees lost their job, according to statistics from the Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK. In 2012 the number of redundancies was 15,800. Only in the year 2009 the number of redundancies was greater than in the last two years. SAK sent out a questionnaire to all their shop stewards and occupational safety and health representative at working places across the country. Almost half (48%) of them reported that there had been negotiations on either temporary lay-offs or redundancies at their places of employment during the year 2013.
English: http://www.jokinen.kaapeli.fi/index.php/en/trade-union-news-from-finland ...

Representatives of the employers' organisation ABBL (Luxembourg Bankers' Association) and the trade unions OGBL, LCGB and Aleba started negotiations at the end of December for a new collective working agreement, with 20,000 employees waiting for the new contract. The unions came back with largely negative feedback from the talks.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/view/20-000-banking-sector-employees-wait ...

According to the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF) and the International Dockworkers' Council (IDC), all negotiations between workers and employers have ceased, with attempts being made to establish a new labour pool of non-union workers to replace existing professionals. The trade unions have stated in advance of a Europe-wide strike that working conditions in the ports have deteriorated since the adoption of a new Port Law on 1 February 2013, with dockers allegedly having come under sustained attack from both the Portuguese government and their employers.
English: http://www.portstrategy.com/news101/world/europe/portugal ...