Collective Bargaining

With the exception of the CGT PSA Peugeot Citroen unions agreed to let the carmaker start to move workers from its troubled Aulnay plant, effectively beginning the wind-down of the site a year ahead of its scheduled closure. The works council approved the transfers to another Paris area plant. The early departures were backed by the CFDT, CFTC, CGC, FO and SIA unions, with only the CGT voting against, workers' representatives said.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/02/15/peugeot-cuts ...

Employers and trade unions reached an agreement in principle on the collective agreements in construction, bringing the indefinite building strike to an end after nearly three weeks. The two sides accepted proposals put forward by the Labour Minister, which provide for the collective agreement to run until 30 June 2014. Weekly salaries will remain the same with craftsmen, labourers and semi-skilled workers receiving €440, €380 and €403 respectively. Both sides also agreed to introduce licences to all those looking to work in the construction industry, with a certificate confirming their qualifications.
English: http://www.news.cyprus-property-buyers.com/2013/02/13 ...
http://www.cyprus-mail.com/collective-agreements/hi-ho-hi-ho-builders-go-back ...

The law concerning paternity leave has been amended since the beginning of 2013, allowing the father to take longer paid paternal leave. The trade union confederations support the revised legislation and it is included in the framework agreement of the central labour market organisations from October 2011. The Confederation of Professionals STTK began a campaign in February 2013 to encourage fathers to make full use of their paternal leave.
English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2013/q08

Caritas Europe published an examination of the impact of austerity policies on people in the five EU countries worst affected by the crisis. Using EU statistics, the report highlights historically high levels of unemployment, with more than 10% of the labour force out of work. Among them is an entire generation of youngsters, with one in two unemployed in Greece and Spain. Through the austerity measures politicians are creating a structural poverty, a structural unemployment and a lost generation of young people.
English: http://static.rasset.ie/documents/news/caritascrisis-report.pdf

Cinema chain Socorama Castello-Lopes has announced it is closing 49 of its 106 cinemas in the country, expecting to lay off 75 staff. Despite attempts by trade unions and the works council, the company has refused to open negotiations on the number of job losses or the height of the redundancy pay. Socorama has made know it will be paying out the legal minimum redundancy pay of one month per year of work. Unions have expressed worries that the cinema giant will not come through on its payments.
English: http://www.theportugalnews.com/news/cinema-giant-refuses-negotiation ...

The president of the Chamber of Labour (AK) in Salzburg refuses to take on more chefs and waiters from Non-EU countries. He criticized the fact that qualified workers from EU-countries in Eastern Europe such as Hungary were now substituted by cheap labour from outside the EU. The gastronomy and hotel industry are warning that, without the help of 3rd country workers, tourism would economically not be possible any more.
English: http://austriantimes.at/news/Business/2013-02-13 ...
German: http://salzburg.orf.at/news/stories/2571065/

Blue collar trade union PRO-GE and white collar union GPA-djp have negotiated a new collective agreement in the mineral oil sector. The agreement includes a 3.4% increase of minimum wages and apprentices' remuneration and a 3.1% wage hike for all other workers. The agreement raises the monthly gross minimum wage in the sector to €1,753.04. Workers above 55 in continuous shift operations will be entitled to an additional day off each year and the option to replace the 30% jubilee bonus reward by time off. The agreement entered into force on1 February 2013 and will last for one year.
English: http://www.eucoban.eu/EMF/Reports/Austria-Successfull-conclusions ...

Over a 100 workers involved in the building of two highways staged a protest due to wages of the last 7 months to over a year have not been paid by the project subcontractors. The protesters raised signs stating that the highway had been built on the corpses of workers' families, who have gone deeper and deeper into depth as they awaited their salaries. The protesters initially tried to resolve the conflict via the ministry that ordered the building of the highway, but to no avail.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=147796

In the 4th quarter of 2012 the number of the total labour force was 176,800 which corresponds to an activity rate of 78.8%. The number of employed persons was 168,400 and unemployed persons were 8,400. The employment rate was 75% and the unemployment rate was 4.7%. The number of employed persons increased by 3,000 and the number of unemployed persons decreased by 2,200 from the 4th quarter of 2011. The unemployment rate among males was 5.4% and 4% among females.
English: http://www.statice.is/?PageID ...
http://www.statice.is/Pages/444 ...

A draft legislation reforming company level representation has been sent to parliament and is expected to be voted before the summer. The law sets out a reform of the country's joint committee policy, which has been on the political agenda since the end of the 1990s. Joint committees consist of equal numbers of employer and employee representatives and offer a place for negotiations on the company's HRM and health & safety policies. The law abolishes the joint committees and shifts the responsibility to the staff representation (works councils), who will receive greater legal protection than currently, as well as more dispensation from normal work.
English: http://www.wort.lu/en/view/luxembourg-labour-law-reform-moves-ahead ...
Focus on Luxembourg's joint committees: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/country/luxembourg_4.htm