Collective Bargaining

The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions SAK has echoed the call of Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen to find ways to combine economic and wage policies together with both sides of industry and the government. On Monday 15 August, Urpilainen called for a return to a national agreement on wages and conditions promising that the government will participate in the process. For its part, the SAK says co-operation in the current climate is the best way to secure the purchasing power of employees and to strengthen employment and competitiveness. So far, the employers' association, the Confederation of Finnish Industries (EK), opposes a return to national agreements preferring deals in individual sector and businesses. Earlier the Finnish Confederation of Professionals STTK already made a plea for coordinated wage policies. More recently, Prime Minister Jyrki Katainen pushed for negotiations on confederation level by promising lower income taxation if social partners agree on a solution that safeguards the competitiveness of the country's economy.
English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2011/o32
http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/08/unions_back_ministers_call_for_collective ... http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2011/08/katainen_talks_cooperation_with_labour ...

A new draft Labour Code has been published on the government's website. The draft has been severely criticized by the parliamentary opposition and the trade unions. Peter Pataky, president of the Confederation of Trade Unions (MSZOSZ), told a press conference that the proposed changes would result in a decrease in jobs of the legally employed workforce and to lower wages and longer working hours. Pataky said also to expect heated debates about the planned rules of holiday leave and changes in dismissal rules. Legal experts have warned that the new code dismantles the system of checks and balances in the labour sector, and seriously challenges the position of trade unions and the collective rights of employees. In a press statement, the law enforcement workers' union BRDSZ said the draft protects employers, blocks the operation of unions and greatly diminishes the power of strike rights. For 12 September, four union confederations, ASZSZ, ESZT, MSZOSZ and SZEF have announced a demonstration in front of Parliament to protest government measures that negatively affect workers, including the draft Labour Code (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 April and May 2011).
English: M t‚ Komiljovics, union correspondent; http://www.realdeal.hu/20110803/planned-labour-changes-to-result-job-decline ...

Media service support and asset management fund MTVA, established earlier in 2011 to manage the public media, has announced to lay off some 500 media workers already in August and a total of 1,000 in 2011. Currently the public media employ about 3,300. The reaction of Balasz Nagy Navarro, president of the public media trade unions' council, was that "Public media have never been fully independent in Hungary, but now they are not independent in a very blunt and primitive way". Nagy Navarro pointed out that some 40% of those to be dismissed are over 50 years of age, with hardly any chances of finding new jobs.
English: M t‚ Komiljovics, union correspondent

The UGFF-CGT state sector federation has updated its figures on the loss of purchasing power faced by public sector workers since 2000. While inflation has risen by more than 21% over this period, the index point used to calculate public sector salaries has increased by only 9%. To show the impact of this, the UGFF-CGT gives examples of different salaries and what they would have been, had they kept up with inflation. The loss of purchasing power is between €181 to €538 per month, depending on the salary level (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 February 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
French: http://www.ugff.cgt.fr/spip.php?article1822

Union seeks alternative for job cuts at energy giant
August 25, 2011
E.ON, the country's biggest energy company, has announced plans for savings of €1.5 billion by 2015 that would involve cutting around 11,000 jobs from its total global workforce of 85,000. As many as 6,000 of these job cuts will be in Germany. The company has not ruled out compulsory redundancies. The ver.di union and the E.ON works council argue that workers are being forced to shoulder an unfair share of the savings. They also point out that there is an agreement that there should be no compulsory redundancies before the end of 2012. Ver.di wants to look at the company's figures in more detail and will be working with experts of the Hans B”ckler Foundation to come up with alternatives to the company's proposals.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
German: http://www.verdi.de/themen/nachrichten/++co++dd1c3dd6-c806-11e0 ...

The GPA-DJP and vida trade unions have been lobbying for better funding for the care sector and improvements to employment and working conditions of care workers. The unions have also been calling for a parliamentary enquiry into the sector to establish what level of funding and what kind of changes are needed to ensure that the sector can deal with the future demand for care. There has been no response to the call for an enquiry and so the unions have organized their own public hearing in Vienna on 19 September.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
German: http://www.gpa-djp.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page/Index ...

Members of the ver.di trade union working at three care homes in Berlin are taking all-out strike action in order to get a collective agreement. The strike began at the three Alpenland care homes on 18 August. The ver.di collective bargaining committee has demanded a framework agreement covering working time, shifts, shift pay and annual leave and has given the employers until 28 August to respond. Workers at other Alpenland homes are covered by collective bargaining and this means that they are on better pay and conditions, earning around €300 a month more than those striking for a collective agreement.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
German: http://www.verdi.de/themen/geld-tarif/++co++e5cdfd9e-ca76-11e0 ...

The UGT and CCOO union confederations have attacked the government for proposing a change in the constitution that would restrict any government's ability to run a budget deficit of more than 4% of GDP. The UGT argues that this is a mistaken priority and that the government should focus on the need to create jobs and respond to the proposals drawn up by both the UGT and CCOO confederations. FSC-CCOO, the public service federation of CCOO, opposes the measures highlighting in particular the risk of the government looking for more outsourcing and flexibility in order to stick within the spending limit, with serious implications for public sector workers' pay and employment conditions (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 May and June 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
Spanish: http://www.fsc.ccoo.es/webfsc/menu.do?Inicio:230978
http://www.fspugt.es/Limitar_el_dficit_en_la_Constitucin_puede_introducir ...

The CGIL trade union confederation has called a general strike for 6 September to demonstrate its opposition to the latest government plans to cut public spending and raise taxes on income rather than wealth. According to this confederation, the measures pose further threats to workers' pay and conditions with later retirement, more flexibility in labour contracts and the possibility of further privatization and liberalization. Although not taking strike action, the CISL public sector and school sector federations are also concerned about the cuts and the possibility that workers will lose their 13th month salary if efficiency saving targets will not be met.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/19012
http://www.fp.cisl.it/fp_nuovo/

Health workers in the Sankt Gallen region (Canton) are finally benefitting from higher pay after a long-running dispute was resolved. The VP™D public service union supported a number of workers in an initial claim in 2003 that the workers should be on higher pay rates and grades. The administrative court for the Canton agreed that the health workers were paid less than comparable jobs (ambulance workers, police) but that this was not primarily an issue of gender discrimination. This workers' claim was eventually recognized by the federal court in 2010, leading finally to a settlement earlier in 2011, with health workers and midwives moving up the pay scale as well as getting back pay.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436
German: http://www.vpod.ch/aktuell/nachrichten/ansicht/article/sankt-gallen ...

Trade unions organising local government staff are facing employers who are taking a tough line on pay cuts. In Plymouth the City Council has withdrawn recognition of the UNISON union for collective bargaining in response to the union's rejection of proposals to cut workers' pay. Meanwhile, the dispute over pay cuts at Southampton City Council is continuing with members of the Unite and UNISON unions taking strike action. In addition, these unions have started legal proceedings against the City Council for the way in which it dealt with the dismissals (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 May and June 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/436; http://www.epsu.org/cob/433
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2411
http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news/council_pays_for_empty ...