Collective Bargaining

In the fourth round of negotiations, the DGB unions reached a collective agreement for around 750,000 temporary agency workers. The DGB board member and negotiator said the negotiations were tough, but significant improvements for employees in the temporary work agency sector were implemented. In addition to the wage increase, there will be more vacation days and higher holiday and Christmas pay for all employees. This is another important step towards harmonizing working conditions for employees in this industry.

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Men with children will now be entitled to receive an ‘upgrade’ in permanent disability pensions as well as women following a European Court of Justice ruling. Spain's authorities said the 5% ‘bonus’ applying only to mums was part of its drive to reduce the ongoing gender pay gap which practically all countries, even in the western world, suffer from. They pointed out that women's careers tended to be shorter and more fragmented, due to maternity leave and then typically becoming the primary carers of children in heterosexual couples.

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Renfe workers have called a strike for December 20 on the day that tens of thousands of travelers head home for the holidays. The strike is just the latest in a year of strike action by Renfe workers supported by the CGT union in protest against new working contracts and understaffing.

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Wage negotiations by the LANV trade union in 2019 have been successful. LANV demanded up to 2% and the results were somewhere between 0.5 and 1.8%. Apart from wage rises, other improvements were realised such as a 4% surcharge on public holidays. A better agreement for paternity leave was not yet reached.

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After a year of strikes, demonstrations and negotiations, a collective agreement was reached between trade unions and employers in primary education. They agreed on a 4.5% wage increase for all teaching staff and other benefits. However, because the demanded extra money to relieve the work stress has not been attained yet, the planned two-day strike in 2020 will continue, the trade union AOb announced.

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Romania’s Chamber of Deputies adopted, on December 11, a bill that allows one of the parents of a child under 12 years old to get several days off when public authorities decide to temporarily close education units. Typically, schools may close during harsh winter days across whole country or during outstanding events taking place in large Romanian cities.

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CNV, the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions, the country’s second largest trade union with over 350,000 members, has opened a debate on the potential for reducing weekly working hours down to 30. The goal of the 30-hour working week is less absenteeism and burn-outs, a better work/private balance, more time for caring tasks and promoting equal opportunities for men and women.

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Proposals to change the pension system have provoked mass strikes across France, bringing some parts of the country to a virtual standstill. But just how good do the French have it when it comes to pensions? In terms of retirement age French workers do pretty well - the legal age of 62 is one of the lowest in Europe, according to data from economic forum the OECD. Currently, in terms of how much they receive, French workers also do well with the average pension equivalent to 74% of the person's salary at the time they retired - one of the most generous in Europe and well above the OECD average of 58%.

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A minimum wage in the EU, which can threaten the Danish model, is on the way. Powerful forces in the EU work for a minimum wage, and for the European Commission it is a top priority. A model which the European Commission is considering is to develop the plan through a framework directive. According to the Minister for Employment, it could be a direct threat to the Danish labour market model, where employers and trade unions make agreements.

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The European Pillar of Social Rights is designed to act as a compass for a renewed process of upward convergence among member states towards better working and living conditions. It is accompanied by a Social Scoreboard to monitor the progress made by member states. This policy brief of Eurofound presents the results of an investigation into the upward convergence patterns of the headline indicators of the Social Scoreboard and the relationship between convergence and the business cycle from 2008 to 2018.

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