The shopworkers' union Usdaw has won compensation worth up to a massive UKP 67.8 million (? 81.6 million) for over 24,000 former employees of Woolworths made redundant when this retail firm collapsed at the end of 2008. By early January 2009 the administrators had closed all of its stores, offices and distribution centres, and made nearly 30,000 people redundant in the process. Usdaw made a claim on behalf of its members for a Protective Award after the administrators failed in their legal duty to consult with the union before making redundancies. In a judgement released on 20 January, the Employment Tribunal in London found that the administrators had failed in their legal obligations to consult with Usdaw and awarded its members compensation of 60 days pay, capped at UKP330 (?397) a week, the maximum payable in these circumstances. Nevertheless, union officials are disappointed that the compensation award excludes all former employees (about 3,000) who happened to work in smaller stores where fewer than 20 redundancies were made.
English: http://www.usdaw.org.uk/newsevents/news/2012/jan/usdawwins ...
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Nominally, the collectively negotiated wage increases were higher in 2011 than in the years before. Overall, including longer-term collective agreements, the average wage increase was 2.0%, according to the Collective Agreements Archive (Tarifarchiv) of the Social and Economic Research Institute (WSI). Dr Reinhard Bispinck, leader of the Archive, adds that the unexpectedly strong increase of consumer prices has led to a negative real bargained wage for many workers: on average 0.3%, as inflation was 2.3%. Yet, due to additional payments, longer working hours and the reduction of short-time arrangements ("Kurzarbeit"), real wage incomes rose by 1.1%, and on an hourly base by 0.5%. In 2011, unions affiliated with the DGB negotiated collective agreements for about 9.2 million employees, with an average duration of 22.8 months.
German: http://www.boeckler.de/14_38704.htm; http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/pm_ta_2012_01_20.pdf
Introducing fees to take claims to employment tribunals could have a huge impact on ensuring equality at work, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber on 19 January warned a conference. Before Christmas the government published its plans for charging users of employment tribunals. Under the proposals an individual will have to pay a minimum of UKP600 (?722) and possibly as much as UKP1,750 (?2,105) to have a discrimination claim heard at a tribunal. If the plans come into law, the TUC confederation believes it will be even harder in future to get proper enforcement and compliance with the law as employers will know that they face little realistic prospect of being held to account.
English: http://www.tuc.org.uk/equality/tuc-20498-f0.cfm
Construction unions have said not to accept any further wage reduction in the industry, in spite of a demand by employers for a 20% cut in the legal pay rates governing the sector. The employers' association, Construction Industry Federation, is expected to soon ask the Labour Court to cut the rates under the construction industry registered employment agreement (REA) by 20%. Those rates apply to 50,000 site-based workers. Fergus Whelan of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) said: "After very difficult negotiations with the CIF last year, we agreed a pay cut of 7.5%. That didn't result in the creation of one job in the industry. So it is very unlikely that we will be agreeing to any more pay cuts. They are not the way to get the industry out of the mess it is in. In fact, pay cuts will only make it worse."
English: http://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/we-wont-take-another-pay-cut ...
Sven Rondik, president of the Education Personnel Union has said that his union is going ahead with preparations for a teachers' strike in February now that a poll has shown that 70% of its members support the idea. In a radio interview Rondik noted that the law still requires that the union meet with the Public Conciliator to ask for permission to strike. Until that authorization is given, the union has the right to plan the strike, but not set a date, he said (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 December 2011).
English: http://news.err.ee/education/b6941d26-98a0-44a2-9f41-6186c1920898
Acoording to a recent study, commissioned by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality, seven out of 10 working women claim that their employer does not have an equal opportunity policy at work to avoid discrimination and harassment. A majority of women interviewed said to feel discriminated at work. Results also showed that 63% of working women felt economically independent due to their job. The report focuses in particular on vulnerable workers (women and men), working in tourism, cleaning and language schools. Almost 70% of the 600 vulnerable workers interviewed were paid on an hourly rate, 15% were paid below the minimum wage, 19% were not paid government bonuses, and 40% were not allowed break time.
English: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20120116/local/most-women-feel ...
At government level, in various European countries negotiations are continuing to save the Swiss-based Petroplus refinery group and its facilities. Petroplus lenders have frozen all of the group's credit lines, but the company said negotiations continued to try to restore the funds it needs to keep its five European refineries running. In France, workers and union officials were met France's energy minister in an effort to save the Petit Couronne refinery. Clearly, the Sarkozy government is trying to avoid a number of high-profile industrial shutdowns and mass layoffs less than four months from a presidential election, though no specific outcomes have been mentioned. In Belgium, similar efforts have been underway concerning the Antwerp Petroplus refinery.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/09/france-petroplus-idU ...
The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has thrown its weight behind efforts to ensure that Polish truck drivers, who went on strike on 2 January, receive the wages and conditions they deserve. Some 350 drivers, represented by the Solidarnosc union and employed by trucking firm Norbert Dentressangle, walked out on strike in protest over the company's refusal to start negotiations with the union on a collective agreement. The company's Polish workers have seen no pay rise for four years. It has also been reported that they are enduring deplorable working conditions, such as poor sanitation and nutrition. When in July 2011 Solidarnosc insisted on collective bargaining, the company was reported to have intimidated workers, threatening them with dismissal.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/6885
Brewery multinational Carlsberg has attacked trade union rights in Lithuania with the support of the country's legal system. On 10 June 2011, members of the Lithuanian Trade Union of Food Producers (LPMS) voted in favour of strike action at the local Carlsberg brewery in support of their demand for a decent company-level collective agreement. Management sought to stop the strike and applied to the court asking to declare the strike ballot procedure invalid and the strike illegal, arguing that no strike action was possible until the "high season" had passed. On 20 June, the Klaipeda district court suspended the start of the planned strike for 30 days based on the determination that the production of beer was recognized as "vitally essential" in Lithuania. By contrast, two weeks later the city district court ruled that the strike was legal. Carlsberg management appealed this decision, and on 5 August the Klaipeda regional court annulled the decision of the lower court, ruling that the strike was illegal. The union has appealed the regional court decision to a higher court, where the case is still pending. Meanwhile, Carlsberg Lithuania management has pressured union leaders and activists through disciplinary action. Furthermore the company initiated a police enquiry against workers who joined a picket line to protest the suspension of the strike.
English: http://cms.iuf.org/?q=node/1343
The head of the IG Metall district Frankfurt, Armin Schild, said in emailed comments to a press agency he was not in talks with General Motors (GM) over offering wage concessions from German workers at Opel in order to save jobs, as the loss-making European carmaker struggles to return to profitability. Earlier, the same news agency cited sources suggesting that under new union leadership at Opel IG Metall was prepared to work together hand in hand with the Detroit headquarters to cut costs.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/gm-opel-union-idU ...; http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/01/12/us-gm-opel-idUSTRE80A1T920120112