Collective Bargaining

The ADEDY civil service confederation along with other trade unions has been maintaining its protest and strike actions against the austerity measures being imposed on Greece by the European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Further measures were announced in mid-September that could lead to 20,000 public sector workers losing their job or being transferred to a labour pool on lower pay. They may also face early retirement or part-time work. ADEDY members were on strike on 13 September, including workers in customs and tax offices. Later in September, the actions maintained momentum, with on 28 September strikes of bus, train, metro, trolley-bus, tram and suburban railway workers, in opposition to government plans to place employees in a reserve labour pool at 60% of their wage for a year (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 February, March, April, May and June 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576598213444234444.html http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/_w_articles_wsite1_3_13/09/2011_406190

Trade union leaders have rejected further pay cuts in particularly the public sector. On 12 September, Jack O'Connor, president of the country's largest union Siptu, said workers would not stand for further pay cuts and welfare reductions as proposed by outgoing European Central Bank (ECB) executive board member Jrgen Stark. The leader of the largest public service union raised his voice on the same issue. Impact general secretary Shay Cody said that further public service pay cuts, as suggested by mr Stark, were unlikely so long as the Croke Park agreement continued to meet government targets, which had been agreed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), European Commission (EC) and ECB. Shay Cody added that IMF and EC had published positive reports about the State's progress regarding the financial bailout the week before. Slightly later also T naiste (vice Prime Minister) Eamon Gilmore dismissed Stark's call for stronger public sector pay cuts and a quicker austerity drive (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 April, June and July-August 2011).
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0913/1224304027147.html

On 1 September, a collective agreement took effect between IG Metall and three subsidiaries of Bosch in the state of Thuringia, making it the first accord in Germany's solar power industry. The three-year agreement covers 2,500 workers at factories of Bosch Solar Energy AC, Bosch Solar Wafers GmbH, and Bosch Solar Thin Film in the cities of Erfurt and Arnstadt. It is the union's hope that the accord will spur a national collective agreement in the solar manufacturing industry, a sector now encompassing 130,000 workers. Based on the union's metal sector agreement, this first contract contains quite some benefits. Although it contains no set wage increases, workers will see their pay increase with regular bonuses, performance-based bonuses, and additional compensation for holiday and night-shift work. The working week will be reduced with full pay from 40 to 38 hours in increments over the three-year term, and overtime work will either be paid in full or employees have the option to convert overtime in paid time off.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/4641-IG-Metall-Breaks-New-Ground ...

On Tuesday 6 September, thousands of workers took the streets in the main cities of Italy in a general strike, organised by the CGIL union confederation, to protest a package of ever-changing austerity measures as well as against proposed changes in the labour legislation. Observers signalled that the strike placed mounting pressure on the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to act "swiftly and decisively" - as the country's President Giorgio Napolitano phrased it. Addressing an estimated 70,000 people in Rome, Susanna Camusso, CGIL's General Secretary, called the changes to the labour law "unjust" and threatened more strike actions if they were not removed.
English: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/07/world/europe/07italy ...

Criticism about the plight of precarious workers in Malta's state hospitals has led to the government setting up a board of inquiry into their pay and conditions. Earlier there were several attempts to highlight the conditions of precarious workers; for example Toni Zarb, Secretary General of the General Workers' Union (GWU), has raised the issue several times. After the parliamentay opposition health spokesperson argued that conditions of work and pay of subcontracted care workers were in breach of the law, the government has set up a board of inquiry. GWU is hoping that the outcome may also help remove the fear of reprisals that currently deters workers from becoming union members.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2011/06/articles/mt1106019i.htm

In early July, the FNV union confederation refrained from a referendum of its own among the 1.4 million members of its affiliates, concerning the basic accord the three union confederations agreed with government and employers' associations in June, that will see the pension age increased from 65 to 66 in 2020 and then to 67 in 2025. For the time being, the two largest FNV affiliates oppose the pension accord. The private sector union, FNV Bondgenoten, takes the strongest stand. A referendum in July-August organised by FNV Bondgenoten, in which 23% of membership took part, resulted in 95% opposing the accord. Public services union FNV Abvakabo currently takes a "no, unless" position, with the "unless" clause focusing on repairing the income fall of 6.5% for those who still want to retire at 65. Both unions regard the concessions the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, Henk Kamp, made in August in this direction as largely insufficient. On 12 September the final decision-making on the basic accord in the FNV confederation will take place.
Dutch: NRC-Handelsblad, 5 July , 15 and 30 August 2011; De Volkskrant, 24 and 31 August 2011; http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/Thema%27s/aow/?OverviewType=Nieuwsbericht&id ... http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/nieuws/nieuwsarchief/2011/augustus ...

On 30 August, Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar told reporters that the government plans "unprecedented" spending cuts in 2012 to meet debt-reduction targets agreed in return for a €78 billion bailout. The government already announced to levy a one-off tax, taking half of workers' Christmas bonus, to help reach the target for the budget deficit in 2011. The bonus is equivalent to a month's pay. The Minister also announced that the number of civil servants will be reduced by 2% annually over the next three years while civil service salaries will be frozen over the same period. Observers agree that the plans will bring more pain for families and companies already finding it hard to make ends meet amid tax hikes and welfare cuts. The unions have vowed to fight the measures and plan demonstrations on 1 October (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 May and June 2011).
English: http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9PF5ED80.htm

In June, unions entered the social dialogue with government concerning austerity measures government and political parties wanted to apply. Though the union movement was left alone, negotiations went rather well. That ended on 11 July, when a huge ammunition explosion blew up the country's power station, besides taking 13 lives causing billions of Euros of damage to the economy. In this situation and despite union efforts, parliament decided to a number of salary cuts for public sector employees. They have to contribute 3% of their salaries towards future pension benefits, with immediate effect. New hires have to pay into the social insurance fund, as opposed to the present system with contributions paid by the state. As a temporary measure for two years, white collar public servants will pay progressive contributions between 1.5% and 3.5% for incomes above €1,500 per month. For blue collar workers, the SEK union confederation succeeded to limit the contribution to only 0.5%. A second package of austerity measures will be decided on 15 September. In between, the unions will put their efforts to avoid more cuts.
English: message of Tasos Kakoullis, organising secretary SEK Cyprus Workers Confederation

Recent figures from Statistics Estonia show that the average monthly gross wages increased by 4.2% in the second quarter of 2011 compared to the same period of 2010, but purchasing power remains on a downward trajectory: inflation in July 2011 reached 5.3% on a year-on-year basis. Thus real wages, or the purchasing power of wage-earners, decreased by 1% on a yearly basis, declining for the 11th quarter in succession, though nominal wage rose for the fifth consecutive quarter.
English: http://news.err.ee/economy/b6368f53-4b28-4f4d-aaa8-5233f5a90b65

The top management of Nordea bank has announced to reduce the total number of jobs by close to 2,000. The Nordic Financial Unions point out, however, that the bank's decision to reduce staff comes at a time when it has obtained very good results, and that profits in the first half of 2011 went up 21%, and reject the staff cuts. "At a time when Nordea is being a very profitable bank with an excellent reputation in the financial market, the management presses through the New Normal plan and staff reductions at the cost of employees," says Steinar Nickelsen, President of Union in Nordea, representing over 20,000 Nordea staff. The unions have demanded that Nordea takes every possible step to avoid job losses and focus on re-training and redeployment. Furthermore, they insist that any staff reductions must be on a voluntary basis and packages must be negotiated at national level.
English: http://www.nordicfinancialunions.org/unions-protest-against-staff-reductions ...