With 74 against 70 votes, the Parliament has agreed significant changes to the Labour Code, including: either severance pay or a layoff notice period but not both; longer periods for fixed-time employment; longer overtime hours permitted; less pay for overtime work; more night shifts allowed. While agreeing that there are some positive elements in terms of holiday entitlement and maternity benefits, the KOZ union confederation says that the overall impact will be the weakening of workers' rights and the creation of more flexibility for employers in the labour market (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 January, April and June 2011).
English:http://spectator.sme.sk/articles/view/43304/2/labour_code_changes_pass ...
Slovak: http://www.kozsr.sk/?page=./tlac/tlac_18
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Juan Rosell, head of the CEOE employers' organisation, has angered unions with his statements about civil servants, describing them as arrogant and unreliable. The civil service unions have reacted by referring to the fact that civil servants have played an important role in response to the crisis, pointing out that not only were they not responsible for the crisis but they also did not benefit from the boom years that lead to the bust. While inflation averaged 4%, civil servants' pay was increasing by an average of 2% over a period of more than 10 years. Moreover, following the slump civil servants have had a 5% pay cut and a pay freeze imposed upon them.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/433
Spanish: http://www.fspugt.es/Consuelo_Rum_responde_a_Rosell.htm
http://www.uso.es/content/view/13146/33/
Following the national strike by civil servants, teachers and college lecturers, the PCS civil service union is calling for unity across the various public sector pension schemes. There are different schemes for the civil service, teachers, health service, local government and other public sector workers. However, they are all facing similar changes - higher retirement ages, higher employee contributions and a change to the level of protection against inflation. The government is so far unwilling to move on these fundamental points. The TUC union confederation is involved in the talks with government and will be co-ordinating the 29 unions whose members are covered by the public sector schemes (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 April, May and June 2011).
English: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id ...
http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=7063
In June, an overwhelming 72.2% of Slovenians rejected the raising of the retirement age in a referendum. The government prepared a draft of a new pension reform which passed Parliament in December 2010. The proposal included gradual rises of the statutory retirement age to 65, lowering the replacement rate on pensions, and changes to the way pensions can access their second-pillar retirement savings. However, trade unions opposed the reform and secured a referendum on the issue, and their campaigning contributed to a massive rejection of those plans.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/429
http://www.europeanpensions.net/ep/slovenians-reject-pension-reform.php
On 7 July, the Belgian Constitutional Court has declared the division in terms and conditions between white collar workers ("bedienden") and blue collar workers ("arbeiders") unconstitutional. Differences in terms of notice and waiting days in case of sickness allowance are discriminatory, and have to be removed within exactly two years, the Court judged. On its website, the FGTB/ABVV confederation hails this judgement, and says to feel supported in striving towards harmonized and non-discriminatory terms and conditions.
Dutch: http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/news-nl/-/article/306466 ...
French: http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/news-fr/-/article/306079 ...
In early June and after long negotiations, the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, employers' associations and union confederations presented a basic pension accord, that will see the pension age increased from 65 to 66 in 2020 and then to 67 in 2025 and also includes a new calculation basis for employers' and employees' contributions. FNV union confederation president Agnes Jongerius defended the accord and announced that it would be subject to a vote by the affiliates' membership. In the course of the month, the assumptions on which the accord is based came under heavy criticism form various sides, also from within the union movement. The board of large private sector union, FNV Bondgenoten, opposed the accord, and announced to organise its own vote. Its chairman, Henk van der Kolk, calls the accord in its current form "unclear, not sensible, and unfair," the latter notably for low-paid working in demanding occupations. Public services union FNV Abvakabo also shows major concerns about important elements in the accord. Both unions argue that it shifts too much risk onto employees in the event of bad investment returns and allows too much leeway for the pension funds to deal as they like. In early July, the FNV confederation and FNV Abvakabo will try an ultimate effort to close the FNV ranks.
Dutch: NRC-Handelsblad, 25/26, 29 and 30 June 2011; De Volkskrant, 23 and 30 June; http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/nieuws/bondgenoten_blogs/henksblog/henksblog/381238/; http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/Thema%27s/aow/?OverviewType=Nieuwsbericht&id=335606
For Thursday 30 June PCS, the largest civil service union, called for strike action in protest at government changes to pensions and cuts in jobs. A members' ballot gave a 61% majority in favour of strike action with just under 84% backing other forms of industrial action. The strike coincided with strike action already called by two teaching unions and the university and college lecturers' union, while the POA prison union organised workplace protest meetings and started a ballot for industrial action. In total 750,000 workers may have been involved. The unions took action over the government's refusal to negotiate the main changes it is proposing to make to the civil service pension scheme. Civil servants will be required to work longer to get a full pension and contributions will be increased. Similar changes are being proposed to other public sector schemes. Government ministers who had predicted "minimum disruption" conceded that more than 11,000 state schools - over half the total - were affected, along with airports, benefits offices, driving tests and galleries and museums. The PCS union concludes that the strike was one of the best supported ever. While Labour Party leader Ed Miliband has repeatedly denounced the public sector action, it has the full support of the country's union confederation. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber, addressing a meeting in Exeter, said: "As the cuts begin to scythe through, our public services more and more jobs are under threat, and as the pay freeze bites - while inflation roars ahead - real wage cuts are making it ever harder to make ends meet. On top of that now they are coming for your pensions." A TUC report has calculated, based on official data, that pay freezes and pension cuts would imply for low-paid public sector staff a fall in their living standards of 8.5% by 2012-13 (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 April and May 2011).
English: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jun/30/public-sector-pensions-policy; http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-19724-f0.cfm ; http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-19721-f0.cfm; http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/93 ...
In the course of June, the trade union movement has organised a wide range of strikes and rallies in protest against the government's new package of austerity measures and the selling of state assets. Spokespersons emphasised that the current austerity package that the EU and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) insist on, implies that the purchasing power of large parts of the population will decrease by 20 to 30% in 2010-2011, and that this decrease will frustrate any economic recovery. On 26 and 27 June, the power workers' union called a 48-hour revolving strike in protest at in particular the decision to privatise the company as part of the wide-ranging privatisation plans. This strike was followed by a 48-hour general strike on 28 and 29 June focusing on the proposed austerity measures called by both the ADEDY and GSEE union confederations. The industrial action shut down government services, disrupted public transport and delayed flights across the country.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/426; http://www.euronews.net/2011/06/28/greek-unions-reject-austerity-with-general-strike/; http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/06/28/uk-greece-strikes-idUKTRE75R10E20110628
Greek: http://www.adedy.gr/adedy/site/home/ws.csp
In April, May and June, public service unions organised a number of strikes in public transport in the major cities, in protest against government plans to cut funding by €120 million and the forced privatisation of the public transport system in Amsterdam, The Hague and Rotterdam. The unions argue the budget cuts combined with privatisation will lead to losses of as many as 3,000 jobs and a deterioration of bus, tram and metro services. After earlier 24-hour strikes in the three cities, strikes on 27 June took place only outside rush hours. An effort of the municipal authorities to have these strikes prevented by a court decision failed, as the judges in both Amsterdam and Rotterdam did not regard them disproportional.
Dutch: NRC-Handelsblad, 24 June 2011; De Volkskrant, 27 and 28 June 2011
By the end of June trade union leaders convened to discuss decision-making in parliament on economic and social issues. They in particular criticized the general lowering of income tax as unbalanced. The chairman of the Estonian Confederation of Trade Unions, Harri Taliga, stated: "If income tax for all is to fall uniformly by one percent, emplyees with high wages would gain most while revenue to the state budget would fall significantly". He pointed out that low-income earners would not profit, while they would suffer from the decline in social services financed from tax revenue.
English: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/28938/