Collective Bargaining

A seven day strike ended in the signature of an agreement at the steel maker ISD Dunaferr. Trade union VASAS signed a wage and social contract for 2013 that includes a 3.5% increase in personal basic wages from January 2013, 1% increase in personal basic wages from July 2013 and a 5.3% increase in social benefits from January 2013, a 1% increase in social benefits from July 2013 and a Christmas salary (14th month salary) for 2013.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/dunaferr-dispute-ends-in-agreement

The Croke Park II arrangements (see the February Newsletter) will have serious consequences for the public sector. Groups such as nurses and doctors will face cuts to Sunday premium rates and the abolition of `twilight' payments under the proposed new agreement. Therefore, four unions, the trade union for nurses and midwives INMO, the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO), the Civil Public and Services Union (CPSU) and Unite are to launch a joint national campaign for a No vote against the Croke Park proposals. It looks as if more unions will join (trade unions ASTI, GRA and AGSI). Fire fighters and prison officers have concluded deals with the government which will protect their premium payments. In a letter to the unions it is said that the totality of the pay structure in respect of full-time fire fighters will not be affected by the proposals in the agreement. Later on a similar deal was made for prison officers. SIPTU President Jack O'Connor described the Croke Park proposals as the most controversial proposition that trade unions have ever had to consider.
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/news/firefighters-prison-officers-in-deal-over-pay ...
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0305/372758-croke-park-extension/
http://www.thejournal.ie/croke-park-talks-unions-821872-Mar2013 ...

A Viomichaniki Metaleftiki (Vio.me) factory in industrial mining is currently under occupation and run by the workers themselves. Vio.me was part of a group of companies. They belonged to the same owners and the trade unions always wanted the three companies to become independent from each other, but the owners insisted on keeping the three companies together. The parent company had financial difficulties and while the two other companies were profitable, the downfall of the parent company dragged them along.
English: http://rdln.wordpress.com/2013/03/05/workers-self-management-only-solution ...

Several thousand thermal plant workers from the Maritsa East complexes protested the fact that even though the energy that they produce is cheaper than energy from other sources, it remains largely ignored by the state regulator allowing the three power utilities - CEZ, EVN, and Energo-Pro - to charge excessive prices for electricity, which in turn led recently to mass street protests across Bulgaria and the resignation of the Borisov Cabinet.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=148404

On 5 March a law passed to make temporary work more expensive, and therefore less attractive, for employers. Currently, workers in the same position for 2 years must be given an on-going employment contract. The new law means that an employer cannot have a position that is temporary for more than 2 years, regardless of how many people have occupied that position. If the employer does not convert the position to permanent after a 2 year period, severance pay must be paid to the worker. The second legal change introduces a quota for agency work. Temporary agency work must now not exceed 25 per cent of an employer's total workforce.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/slovenian-law-changes-to-restrict-precarious-work

The scandal around the blacklisting of trade union activists reveals every day new facts. In a recent evidence session it came out that Skanska's former director of Industrial Relations blacklisted every electrician employed on the Jubilee Line project. In one example a worker was subsequently denied work on 15 occasions due to having been blacklisted. Blacklisting activities were specifically targeted at workers employed by sub-contractors rather than those who were employed directly by Skanska. Workers for a sub-contractor completed a `pre-induction questionnaire' which was then sent to the Consulting Association. If a name was flagged up, `a decision was made whether to let the person on [site] or not'. If Skanska's decision was not to allow the person on to the site the sub-contractor was phoned and told of the decision. In the final years of the Consulting Association's existence Skanska made 66,000 blacklisting checks and 8 of the company's 12 units used the Consulting Association.
English: https://www.ucatt.org.uk/article.php?group_id=1915

The unions representing municipal employees are ready to agree, even at short notice, to a centralised labour market agreement. However, municipal employees are not prepared to negotiate on the proposal for a zero per cent salary rise, as offered by the leaders of the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK. There has been no wage drift in the public sector, unlike in the private sector, the unions say. For this reason municipal salaries are de facto falling behind the general development of wages and salaries.
English: http://www.jhl.fi/portal/en/news/archive?bid=2670&y=2011

With their pay cut of 30% or more, and the government curtailing the number of new hires, the number of Greek school teachers looking for work in Cyprus has doubled over the last five years, statistics from authorities show, even though the island has now been hit with an economic crisis too. According to the Educational Service Committee some 10,200 Greek teachers submitted applications to come over in the last year, which means 25% of the applicants for positions are from Greece.
English: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2013/03/04/greek ...

Trade union and employer representatives have entered negotiations over the creation of a new type of contract that will aim to provide agency workers with more job security. If an agreement is reached, the derogation contract (contrat int‚rimaire) will be the third contract type in the country, next to the permanent contract and the fixed term contract. The new type of contract would allow temporary agencies to hire staff on permanent contracts, but still allow unequal payment between direct hires and agency workers as well as lower wages and fewer hours when no work is available.
English: http://www.staffingindustry.com/eng/content/view/full/100145

The vote to wholeheartedly back proposals to impose tough limits on executive pay and ban huge pay-outs to new and departing managers has been both praised and damned in Europe. The initiative proposed by Thomas Minder, the head of a herbal toothpaste company, was backed by all 26 cantons in the country. The plan gives shareholders a veto on compensation as well as banning big so-called `fat cat' managers' pay-outs.
English: http://www.euronews.com/2013/03/04/swiss-anti-fat-cat-vote ...