As the country continues to struggle with high unemployment rates, the National Council for Economic Recovery has set reindustrialisation as the country's new goal. According to the council, the attraction of foreign direct investment is the country's best shot at economic recuperation.
English: http://voiceofserbia.org/content/national-council-serbian-economy-has-future ...
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The newly elected left-wing government has passed a labour code that largely reverses all decisions made by the previous government to increase flexibility in the labour market. Prime minister Fico has explained the new labour code restores the balance between workers and employers. The amendments to the labour code give employees who have worked for an employer for less than two years the right to severance pay and increase the pay for other workers, up to 4 months salaries for employees who have worked for an employer for more than 20 years. The law closes loopholes that were used to push people into false self-employment, limits the number of fixed term contracts that can be chained to two within a two-year period and is stricter on equal pay and working conditions. Trade unions have welcomed the new labour code; employers have condemned it, warning that unemployment will increase further due to the new bill.
English: http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/49213/19/revised_labour_code_gets ...
Focus on Slovakian industrial relations:
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country/slovakia.htm
Labour minister Mladenov has said talks about layoffs at the Sopot military plant (see Newsletter July-August 2012), whose privatisation failed again last month, are about to start between the state, specialists and trade unions. According to the minister 900 jobs would certainly be saved and some 400 workers would quit voluntarily under a privileged state assistance programme that will help them find new jobs. The Sopot workers will not need to go to the regular unemployment office but to a mobile office that will be set up on the plant's premises. Layoffs will start at the end of the month or beginning of March. However, 600 workers have already been dismissed and the fate of the factory remains unclear.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=148167
A collective agreement was reached between trade union UHM and the Education and Training Corporation. The agreement, which will last until 2016, includes pay hikes across the board each year as well as better leave arrangements and reduced working hours for parents.
English: http://www.di-ve.com/news/etc-workers-receive-pay-bump
The debates inside the trade unions on the so-called Croke Park II proposals from the Labour Relations Commission (LRC) are heated. Under the agreement there will not be compulsory redundancies. The agreement outlines how additional working hours would be applied in the various sectors of the public service where management is seeking greater flexibility in rostering and additional hours in order to reduce headcount, overtime and the use of agency staff. Trade union leaders warned their members that working time extension was a core government demand that they could not relinquish. Four unions walked out of the talks saying the government's agenda was unacceptable. In the face of the far-going cuts that were to be implemented if no Croke Park II deal was reached, other unions said their first goal was to find an acceptable agreement.
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2013/0227 ...
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0225/369441-croke-park/
http://www.rte.ie/news/2013/0224/369295-croke-park-agreement/
http://www.siptu.ie/media/pressreleases2013/mainnews/fullstory ...
http://www.lrc.ie/documents/2013/LRC ...
The austerity policies could create a crisis of insolvency, undermining the very reason they were implemented - to repay the country's debt - says the country's biggest trade union confederation. People can't pay their taxes. That's why state revenue fell 300 million euros short of January targets. If that continues, it is questionable whether the state will be able to meet its obligations by June or July. It may not have the cash to pay salaries and pensions.
English: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2013/02/2013 ...
The Chamber of Labour has won a case over gender discrimination. A woman working as a HR-manager earned a €1000 less than her male colleague. After her complaint her salaries were equalized but shortly after the man received a pay increase. As the company refused to pay her the margin the woman handed in her notice. She then contacted the equal treatment consulting of the AK Upper Austria that won her case.
English: http://austriantimes.at/news/Business/2013-02-21 ...
German: http://www.arbeiterkammer.com/online/beim-gehalt-diskriminiert ...
Approximately 30,000 protesters marched through the streets of Brussels to give the government a firm anti-austerity signal. The protest was organised by the joint trade unions with as key slogans: For the right to negotiation; No pay freeze; No discrimination between workers and the Preservation of indexation.
English: http://www.demotix.com/photo/1827174/demonstration-againt-austerity ...
The Czech statistical office (CZSO/CSU) has published a report on the gender pay gap between 1996 and 2011. Results indicate that women's gross median income was only 84% of men's. In 2011 women earned 22,389 Koruna (? 874) a month on average, 5,845 Koruna (? 228) less than men. Experts and women's organisations cite differences in remuneration between male and female dominated sectors as well as a lack of women in top positions, as the main explanations for the persisting gender pay gap.
English: http://praguemonitor.com/2013/02/21/women-earn-fifth-less ...
The teacher unions are battling to get government negotiators to drop plans to axe the €125m-a-year supervision and substitution pay. The government initially tabled plans to abolish the payments but unions are fighting for a compromise that will exempt lower-paid staff from any cuts.
English: http://www.independent.ie/lifestyle/education/teacher-unions-in-125m-pay-battle ...