Collective Bargaining

Talks between trade unions and employers over a new centralised national framework agreement have broken down after the social partners concluded their positions are too far removed from each other. The main contentious issue regards pay increases. The current centralised national framework agreement, covering roughly 94% of all employees, will expire in October. The failure of talks between social partners has led to expectations of large scale industrial action this autumn.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2013/04/articles/fi ...
Focus on collective bargaining in Finland:
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country/finland_4.htm

Male train drivers on Arriva trains have started to wear skirts in a dispute over uniforms. As the train cabins get very hot in summer, male drivers requested their employer last autumn to allow them to wear shorts. Arriva management forbade the wearing of shorts, which would look too informal. In protest, the train drivers are now wearing skirts, as women drivers are allowed to. Scared of discrimination charges, Arriva management has yielded that men too may wear skirts, but continue to ban shorts.
English: http://www.thelocal.se/48384/20130608/

Around 2,000 HP employees from offices in cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza and Oviedo have been called for an indefinite strike. After a new plan to cut salaries up to 10% and increase weekly working hours to 60, ended in internal conflicts and layoffs, trade unions from HP Consultant and Applications and HP Outsourcing organised the strike. The plan includes the distribution of 230 working hours unevenly, meaning that employees might have to work on Sundays without salary.
English: http://www.neurope.eu/article/spanish-hp-workers-strike-indefinitely

A postal strike in protest against the privatisation of the post office and to defend a quality public service was broadly backed up by the workforce. Out of 780 postal workers, 85.12% joined the strike, according to the SNCT union. Over 87% of the night shift workers in Lisbon, Coimbra and Porto had been on strike. The postal company is terminating a process of reorganising its network by closing 124 post offices and opening 78 postal points.
English: http://theportugalnews.com/news/postal-strike-with-over-85-turnout/28609

The Chamber of commerce urged unemployed Danes to lower their expectations and accept lower starting wages when looking for jobs. The plea that also argued with lower wages paid to East European workers led to strong reactions from the trade union side. Trade union confederation LO found the announcement worrisome, contending the move would lead to increased wage inequality. LO pointed out that employers have been part of negotiating collective wage agreements. Therefore, there can be no doubts that people should have wages based on the working conditions in the collective agreement when working in Denmark, whether they are Danish or foreign.
English: http://cphpost.dk/news/national/unemployed-should-accept-lower-wages ...

Public sector trade unions CGT, FO, FSU, SOLIDAIRES, CFTC and CFE-CGC have written a joint statement protesting against the government's decision to freeze public sector pay at least until mid-2014. The unions call the fourth year of pay freeze for public sector employees unacceptable. The unions also announced they are considering further action.
English: http://www.epsu.org/a/9587
French: http://www.spterritoriaux.cgt.fr/spip ...

Health workers have protesting in front of the parliament building in Athens over cutbacks in spending, saying the cuts have caused the collapse of the health system. Protesters complained that wage and staff cuts have increased their work load and made their job impossible. They were joined by health sector workers from France, Belgium and Portugal, who were in Athens for a summit.
English: http://www.euronews.com/2013/06/07/greek-health-workers-protest ...

Numerous sociological studies have shown that Swedish fathers are more involved in raising their children and domestic chores than fathers in other countries. They frequently drop off and pick up their children at school and accompany them to after-school activities. But, when it comes to what is considered the symbol of gender equality, the 16-month parental leave that can be taken by either mothers or fathers, women still take the majority of it, claiming 75%.
English: http://www.thelocal.se/48312/20130607/

A few weeks after public transport drivers in the city of Constanta suddenly stopped work, a similar strike started in the central city of Brasov. The drivers of the local Public Transport Company RAT Brasov started a protest, unhappy about their salaries, which have not been raised for several years. The average salary at the public transport company is some €260. The county's prefect went to talk to the protesters' union and with the management to find a solution. The salaries topic had been a discussion subject between the company's management and the employees for several months.
English: http://www.romania-insider.com/new-strike-at-local-public-transport-in-romania ...

Parliament has adopted a new law regulating temporary agency work, which limits the use of successive one-day contracts. From now on, the use of successive one-day contracts will be limited and can only be used repeatedly by the same user company if it can prove an absolute need for such flexible contracts. In other words, a user company has to prove the need for labour flexibility in order to justify the use of such insecure one-day contracts. Employers will have to pay compensation to the agency workers if they fail to do so. Social partners had lengthy debates about the issue in 2012.
English: http://www.staffingindustry.com/eng/Research-Publications/Daily-News/Belgium ...