Car maker PSA Peugeot Citron announced it is cutting 8,000 jobs. Its Aulney plant (3,000 jobs) is to be closed, 1400 redundancies will come from the plant in Rennes and the remaining 3,600 jobs will be cut across the corporate structure. PSA is losing €200 million per month and its debt rating was degraded to junk status by all major credit ranking agencies. President Franois Hollande has reacted that the job losses are unacceptable. Hollande said the numbers must be renegotiated, that the company must be assessed by an independent expert and that the government will soon unveil a plan to help the troubled French car industry, including incentives to buy French cars.
English: http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/business/2012/07/12 ... http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/121462http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/business/hollande-slams-peugeot-cutbacks ...
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As part of the new and controversial pension package, the retirement age for women will be increased to the same level as men's after 2020. The current retirement age is 63 for men and 60 for women. The male retirement age will be raised to 65 by 2017, the female age to 63 by 2020 and 65 thereafter. As part of the pension reform, the retirement age will be raised by 4 months on 1 January of every year until the targets are reached. Bulgaria has the largest ageing population in the European Union and no solution in sight.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=141185
Detailed figures over the period 1999-2010 published by the Economy Ministry (in French and Dutch) show that the average Belgian employee earned €3,100 before tax a month in 2010. The statistics include gender, education, sector and skills related data. On average wages rose in 2010 by 2.51% (2.8% for women, 2.48% for men). The earnings of highly educated workers rose more quickly than those of the low-skilled. The highest wages are paid in the financial sector and by utilities like water, gas and electricity whilst the lowest wages occur in the hospitality industry, in pubs, restaurants, hotels and cafes.
English: http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws.english/news ...
French: http://statbel.fgov.be/fr/statistiques/chiffres/travailvie/salaires/mensuels/
Dutch: http://statbel.fgov.be/nl/statistieken/cijfers/arbeid_leven/lonen/maandloon/
The Labour Court has recommended that special needs assistants should not be made redundant but, rather, placed on a redeployment panel. Special needs assistants do not have the same job security as other civil servants and have until now been made redundant whenever their position disappeared. The redeployment panel should function in order to place special needs assistants into new jobs according to seniority. The education department has said it is studying the recommendation by the court. As the judgement is nonbinding, the department is under no obligation to implement the recommendation.
English: http://www.impact.ie/12/07/11/SNAs-win-redeployment-breakthrough.htm
As the first region in the country, Bremen established a regional minimum wage that will apply to the whole public sector and all companies delivering services or receiving funds from the state. The minimum wage, which is set at €8.50, will come into force by 1 September and will be revised every two years. The minimum wage threshold is set at the level the legislator considers a living wage.
German: http://www.dgb.de/themen/++co++f1e5339a-cc14-11e1-7ca1-00188b4dc422
After lengthy negotiations, the water authority and trade unions CNV, FNV and the Unie signed a new collective agreement that will apply from 1 January 2012 until 31 December 2013. The agreement includes a 1% pay increase in 2012 and 3% in 2013 through the so-called `individual choice budget'. In this budget, employees can choose the programmes for which they want to save, like additional pension or extra paid leave. The initial agreement included a 1% pay increase in 2012 and a 1% increase in the individual choice budget in 2012, but the former was renegotiated at the request of the employers. Agreements were also reached with regard to more flexible working hours and reimbursement of costs of commuting.
Dutch: http://www.mijnvakbond.nl/Stemmen-CAO-Waterschappen?referrer=693http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao%27s/Alle-Cao%27s/waterschappen ...
On 9 and 10 July, a major tripartite conference took place on the initiative of the new government in order to discuss social issues and break with the politics of the previous government. During the conference, a range of issues was discussed that will be put on the agenda later this year. Trade unions welcomed the conference but expressed their disappointment with the lack of concrete issues. The trade union wish to cancel the public sector pay freeze was not met by the government.
French: http://www.spterritoriaux.cgt.fr/spip.php?article5658
http://www.fo-fonctionnaires.fr/
http://www.cfdt.fr/rewrite/article/41595/les-actualites/emploi ...
After newspaper La Tribune, daily France Soir has announced its end of business and several regional titles of the Hersant media group are rumoured to follow suit. Journalists' unions SNJ and SNJ-CGT have issued statements conveying their concern with the hundreds of media and journalists jobs on the line as well as the reduced pluralism in French media. The actions by SNJ and SNJ-CGT come after a nationwide strike of printers on 5 July forced many newspapers to publish their daily editions on-line. The printers are protesting against accumulating lay-offs as printed media increasingly go digital. According to a report on the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers website, Hersant publishing house has fired 670 people, while Presstails press distribution company dismissed around 1000 employees.
English: http://europe.ifj.org/en/articles/closure-of-french-daily-threatens-pluralism ...
http://rt.com/art-and-culture/news/typographers-strike-leaves-newspapers-510/
Public sector trade union organisation OAO published a report analysing wage developments in public and private sectors in the first quarter of 2012. The OAO concludes that wage development has been modest and lagged behind inflation in all sectors. As a part of a two-year agreement in the public sector, civil servants' wages even fell by 0.6%.
English: http://www.epsu.org/r/169
Danish: http://www.oao.dk/index.php ...
Trade union SIPTU has confirmed that 90% of its members voted in favour of industrial action in case the Department of Environment proceeds with the transition of assets and workers' duties to Bord G is and private sub-contractor companies. The ministry intends to privatise water services. Trade unions have demanded to be consulted and stated it is unacceptable that there are no guarantees regarding working conditions for the employees of the water authority.
English: http://www.siptu.ie/media/pressreleases2012/featurednews ...