Miners from North Moravia came together in Ostrava, to protest against impending wage cuts. Management of the indebted mining company OKD has announced it is seeking a 20% reduction in wage cuts. In a draft collective agreement for 2014-2018 it presented to the trade unions, the company is cutting all bonuses, 13th and 14th month salaries and contributions into private health insurance and pension plans. The miners are fighting to keep their wages and fear more cuts are to come. Management has already agreed to 30-50% cuts in their own wages while administrative staff was reduced by 250 people and accepted a 10% wage cut. On the same day as the protest ODK's parent company in Amsterdam, New World Resources (NWR) announced it is closing down one of the sites, the Paskov mine, laying off 3,000 miners. The Prime Minister reacted publicly to an ODK-request that the government does not intend to save the plant.
English: http://www.lse.co.uk/macroeconomicNews ...
http://www.radio.cz/en/section/curraffrs/miners-draw-attention-to-their-plight ...
http://praguemonitor.com/2013/09/06/okd-presents-new-agreement-draft ...
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The Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CITUB) requests the banning of offshore firms from taking part in public procurement. CITUB is concerned that such a measure is absent from the current bill amending and supplementing the Public Procurement Act (PPA). The confederation insists that a ban on companies which fail to pay social security contributions is insufficient and the amended PPA should also prevent businesses which pay salaries irregularly from participating in public procurement tendering procedures.
English: http://www.novinite.com/articles/153725/Bulgarian+Trade+Union+Calls ...
The Italian Banking Association (ABI) has cancelled the collective agreement for the banking sector, which was supposed to be valid until June 2014. Unions have called for a general strike on 31 October. Banking sector unions have judged the repealing of the collective agreement as an attack on workers' rights and have demanded banks cut the pay of their executives instead of that of 330,000 employees.
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/uni.nsf ...
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/09/16/uk-italy-banks-strike ...
Ship builder STX Finland has announced it will be closing down the Rauma cruise liner yard in 2014 and move operations to Turku shipyard. The move is made due to low demand and STX hopes to make the company profitable again. The closure of the Rauma yard is expected to cost 700 jobs.
English: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2013/09/17/finnish-cruise-liner-yard ...
In August, the minimum wage raised from CZK 8,000 (?310) to CZK 8,500 (?330). The minimum wage has been a hotly debate issue since trade unions started calling for an increase, that the then right wing government vehemently opposed. The new caretaker government that came into power just before the summer said maintaining purchasing power of the lowest paid workers was a priority and increased the minimum wage as one of its first actions in office. Roughly 3% of Czech workers earn the minimum wage and will see their wages increase due to the change. The minimum wage was raised in 2007 for the last time.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2013/08/articles/cz1308019i.htm
The biggest trade union of the country, FNV, has antagonised employers by announcing it will be seeking a 3% wage increase across the board in this year's collective agreement negotiations. The second biggest union, CNV, followed shortly after and will be aiming for wage increases between 1.5% and 3.5% depending on the sector.
English: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/09/a_hot_autumn_ahead ...
Dutch: http://www.metronieuws.nl/nieuws/cnv-wil-1-5-tot-3-5-procent-meer-loon ...
Rebecca Gumbrell-McCormick and Richard Hyman presented the key findings of a study of trade unions in 10 Western European countries, in which they explored responses to the challenges which confront them. Governments profess their inability to resist the dictates of global economic forces; major companies are almost universally transnational in their ownership and production strategies; collective bargaining power has declined, as has the trade union influence on government and, in some countries, their public respect. But hard times can stimulate new thinking and hence provide new opportunities; the challenge is to review unions' purposes and priorities and to devise new ways of achieving these.
English: http://column.global-labour-university.org/2013/09/trade-unions-in-western-europe ...
The trade union 3F reported that a Polish embassy manual, amongst other things, urged Polish companies not to inform trade unions about employee salaries and claimed that Danish unions could act illegally. The embassy has produced the 103-page manual, titled `Manual for Polish Companies' with the aim to present the rules of the labour market in a clear and impartial way. While vehemently denying that they had undermined the unions, the embassy did concede that they could have taken some precautions in regards to the manual. 3F criticism is also towards the attorney that compiled the manual. This consultant has been accused of cheating Polish workers out of their wages in a number of cases.
English: http://cphpost.dk/business/polish-embassy-denies-undermining-unions
http://cphpost.dk/business/polish-embassy-hot-water-over-anti-union-manual
Health care workers organise new industrial actions as reforms lead to eight Athens and Thessaloniki hospitals are turned into health centres and 1,618 employees are to be transferred. In the latest reform aimed at reducing the public health care budget by 25%, the government is reducing small hospitals to health centres or rehabilitation centres. Health workers say the cuts are jeopardising the quality and availability of public services, and will lead to a growth in private hospitals.
English: http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi ...
In the Economic and Social Council, both employers' organisations and trade unions have expressed support for amendments to the labour market act, aimed at regulating job agencies. The amendment introduces new criteria for temping and recruitment agencies, which are supposed to avoid bogus constructions. Agencies will be obliged to conduct recruitment as their main activity, will have to be Slovenian or have fully fledged subsidiaries in Slovenia and will be required to have greater capital shares. Fines for abuse are increased.
English: http://www.sloveniatimes.com/social-partners-back-tighter-rules-for-job-agencies