Collective Bargaining

Turkish and international trade unions have organised protests against the draft collective labour relations act that was adopted in parliament this month. Union representatives, backed by the ILO, have stated the law violates basic trade union rights, such as the right to organise and to collective bargaining. Trade union protests were barred from reaching the parliament building in Ankara by police blockades. After the declaration was read by organisers, the police used teargas and pressurised water to disperse the protesters. Upside to the new law is that the strike ban in aviation that caused international uproar in May (see May newsletter) is cancelled through the collective bargaining act.
English: http://www.ituc-csi.org/turkey-new-trade-union-law.html?lang=en
http://www.industriall-union.org/turkish-parliament-debates-union-legislation-without .
http://www.itfglobal.org/press-area/index.cfm/pressdetail/8047

Coking and steam coal miners at JSW SA went on a 24-hour strike after talks failed to resolve a conflict between management and workers. The recently privatised coal producer has unilaterally introduced a number of unfavourable measures for new workers that the unions demand be retracted. The management intends to impose contracts violating the national labour law as well as the previous agreement with the trade unions. Unions are also asking for a 3.8% wage increase.
English: http://www.industriall-union.org/polish-miners-went-on-24-hour-strike

Northern European countries are doing well in the recently published Global Gender Gap Report 2012 by the World Economic Forum. The top five is made up exclusively by Nordic countries: Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark. But even these countries have not fully closed economic and participation gaps-in particular, the gaps in senior positions, wages and leadership levels still persist. The Global Gender Gap Report is published annually and links gender equality to economic competiveness. In the report, overviews are compiled on economic, political, education and health-based gender gaps in 111 countries. The report's overall conclusion is one of very slow progress in closing the gender gap in all world regions.
English: http://www.weforum.org/issues/global-gender-gap

174 women who brought a breach of equal pay law to the high court in 2010 have won their case. The women, working in female dominated professions, were denied bonuses that were granted to colleagues in male dominated professions. The judgement is considered ground breaking because it was accepted despite the women having left the employment of the council and the Abdulla group 2 to 6 years before the start of the case. Most equal pay cases are brought before the employment tribunal, which only accepts complaints that are filed less than six months after leaving employment. The high court accepts cases up to six years after employment but has not accepted equal pay cases before. The ruling opens up legal redress for many more British women.
English: http://www.staffingindustry.com/eng/content/view/full/72281

Members of the State Probation Service Employees' Union have served a petition to the probation service demanding their net monthly wages to be raised to 400 Lats (? 569) by 1 January 2013. The union announced it is ready to resort to industrial action if the demands are not met.
English: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/32036/

On 17 October the government approved three draft acts which are to serve as the basis for structural reforms that Slovenia will implement in order to overcome the crisis. One crucial part of the reform is the raising and equalising of the retirement age of men and women. Both men and women should be 65 years old in order to quality for an old-age pension. The proposed retirement age for early retirement for both genders is 60 years with 40 years of employment. In the meantime the parliamentary committee on Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Disabled examined the proposal for the budgets for the coming two years. It is planned to allocate more funds for the active employment policy, while new cuts in social transfers are not planned.
English: http://www.mddsz.gov.si/en/newsroom/news/article/1939/6992 .
http://www.sta.si/en/vest.php?s=a&id=1813410

In its wage structure survey 2010, published this month, the national institute for statistics (INE) reports that workers on fixed term contracts earn wages that are 32% below the national average. The average gross annual wage in 2010 was €22,790.20. The energy sector was the best paid (at more than twice the average wage) and accommodation the worst. Wages in the public sector were 30% higher than average. The report comes in the same month that the country's unemployment rate surpassed the 25% mark, hitting a new record high.
English: http://www.ine.es/en/prensa/np741_en.pdf http://money.cnn.com/2012/10/26/news/economy/spain-unemployment-rate .

Workers of the wealth management section of HSBC Malta bank went on strike over the bank's announced restructuring. Two meetings between the bank and trade union MUBE failed to resolve the conflict. HSBC stated it has now requested the ministry to appoint an industrial tribunal to resolve the conflict. The conflict escalated further when HSBC suspended an official and locked out a number of other workers. HSBC representatives, speaking in the court case started by MUBE to get an injunction guaranteeing no employees are fired due to union activities, said they warned the employees they'd be dismissed if they followed union directives.
English: http://www.di-ve.com/business-money/mube-orders-industrial-action-against . http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20121009/local/hsbc-wealth-management .
http://www.di-ve.com/news/mube-vs-hsbc-escalation-dispute

In a report of the SEB Bank it is said that wages have started to gradually increase in Latvia and Estonia while in Lithuania, real wages still decrease. In Latvia the average gross and real wage has since the economic fall bottomed out increased by 11 and 2.5% respectively. However, in the second quarter of 2012, the real wage was by 10.3% lower than at the same time in 2008.
English: http://www.baltic-course.com/eng/analytics/?doc=64873

Trade union confederation FNV is worried about the future of child care and has written to parliament asking for the new round of cuts in the sector due in 2013 to be stopped. CrŠches and after-school clubs have already been hit by cuts and the FNV says this is having an adverse effect on young working mothers and their position on the labour market. A spokeswoman for the social affairs ministry told next year's cut in child care will be €200m. The FNV says this will lead to the collapse of the system.
English: http://www.expatica.com/nl/news/dutch-news/Trade-unions-want-new-child .