The European trade union federations, industriAll and EPSU, and industry association Eurogas officially relaunched their European Social Dialogue in the gas sector. The Social Partners adopted their Work Programme for the two years ahead, with the key focus on the role of gas in a decarbonised European economy and the impact of the energy transition on workers in the European Gas Industry.
Read on: in English ...
[close]Employees may receive above-inflation pay rises for the first time since 2016, according to expectations in a company survey. On average, workers are forecast to take home a 1.1% pay hike which means a real wage raise of 0.9%. In real life, of course, the wage hikes are unevenly distributed among industries. The winners will be information technology employees (+1.3% real hikes), the pharmaceutical and chemical branches (+1.1%), while people working in the hospitality industry will have to make do with an average real salary rise of +0.4% and teachers can only expect to receive +0.3%.
Read on: in English ...
[close]Many professionals expressed their readiness to go on strike. Latvian doctors, dissatisfied with what the state has earmarked in the national budget to health care, announced a strike, when all medical staff, except ambulance workers, are called not to go to work. Latvian teachers threatened once again to hold a strike. If the government will not provide guarantees to the pay rise of the teaching staff, they will be out in the streets in March, 2020.
Read on: in English ...
[close]A guaranteed minimum pension of €1,500 was a goal of many parties during the last election campaign. Now the Minister of Pensions explains the way this goal can be achieved. After a career of 45 years, the minimum guaranteed pension in Belgium today amounts to €1,266. In 2024, five indexations will raise the guaranteed gross minimum pension to €1,400 per month.
Read on: in English …
[close]Portugal’s Prime Minister promised to raise the monthly minimum wage by 25% to € 750 by 2023 as he started his second term in the office, while reiterating the goal to cut public debt to below 100% of GDP. The national minimum salary will evolve every year after discussions with the collective bargaining partners, depending on the employment dynamics and economic growth.
Read on: in English ...
[close]The unemployed population fell by 46,600 in September. In this respect, the third quarter was the best since 2007. However, if strikes were to increase in number, they could shorten what remains of positive momentum before the slowdown announced for 2020. The September figure brings the fall in unemployment to 55,900 in the third quarter.
Read on: in English ...
[close]New figures published by Statistics Netherlands (CBS, Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek) reveal that trade union membership is declining rapidly. Ten years ago 1.9 million people were members of a union, but this number has fallen to 1.6 million in 2019. Over the past two years alone, union membership fell by 100,000. The Dutch Trade Union Federation (FNV, Federatie Nederlandse Vakbeweging) felt the biggest loss. Membership is now below one million.
Read on: in English ... Read the report: in Dutch …
[close]Safe Demo Plastik, the Turkish subsidiary of French auto supplier Safe Group, is conducting an extensive strategy of union busting against members of IndustriALL Global Union’s Turkish affiliate Petrol-İş in the city of Bursa, centre of the auto sector in the country. Without grounds, the company’s local management challenged the ministry’s certification in court, claiming that Petrol-İş did not have a sufficient majority to be a collective bargaining agent.
Read on: in English ...
[close]The Tax Administration has introduced controls and checks on taxi drivers using the shared-economy platforms Uber, Botl and Liftago. These controls and checks aim to detect tax fraud and will cover the past three years. The question is whether the taxi drivers paid the obligatory income tax, value added tax and road tax.
Read on: in English …
[close]Some state heads of school have forwarded a warning by a teacher union to their staff that disciplinary action could be taken against them if they follow a new rival teacher union’s industrial action directives. The Malta Teachers’ Union (MUT) last week emailed a circular to state heads, requesting that they forward it to educators and place it on a noticeboard where all can see it.
Read on: in English ...
[close]