In an agreement signed 22 September with the Works Council and the IG Metall union, the Managing Board of engineering giant Siemens has agreed to protect the jobs of 128,000 German employees of Siemens AG indefinitely. Under the pact, the works council must approve lay-offs, effectively providing a job guarantee for Siemens workers. The deal applies to all employees at Siemens subsidiaries within Germany, with the exception of the troubled IT-branch SIS. The Siemens conglomerate employs 400,000 people in 190 countries, among them 128,000 in Germany. The new job guarantee agreement will dissolve a two-year 2008 accord, which included a savings program worth billions of Euros to prevent the loss of thousands of jobs following the financial crisis. Works Council and union regard the deal as an acknowledgement by Siemens of the sacrifices its employees made during the crisis by accepting pay cuts and working shorter hours.
English: http://www.thelocal.de/money/20100922-29991.html
German: http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/0,1518,718797,00.html#ref=top
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
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At the regular annual meeting of the SKF World Union Committee, on September 14 to 16 in Gothenburg, union members reported on a range of measures that had been negotiated with the company at national and plant level to reduce the impact of the economic crisis on employment. Measures such as shorter working time and leave banking had enabled SKF to weather the downturn in 2009 and maintain employment levels, ensuring that qualified and experienced workers remain in place now that orders are starting once again to increase. Discussing the future challenges for unions in SKF, Committee members identified outsourcing and precarious work as important, with the need for more information sharing and better communication between the members of the committee.
English: http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=24082
Unite union representatives working for Sun Chemicals Ltd have signed a new national agreement, which is a first national agreement across the whole company, covering all current collective bargaining arrangements. The seven senior workplace reps cover all Sun sites in the UK and all grades of staff from shop floor, laboratory, technical, sales, in-plant and administrative staff. Unite regional officer, Louisa Bull, commented: "This agreement is a real breakthrough for Unite members at Sun Chemicals. Our reps, members and the management have shown real vision in reaching this agreement. I am pleased that staff working for Sun Chemicals now have a modern and progressive union to represent them at work and we offer our congratulations to all concerned."
English: http://www.unitetheunion.org/news__events/latest_news ...
http://www.printweek.com/RSS/Business/News/1030136/Sun-Chemical-sign ...
According to a recent report of the Institute for Labour and Qualification (IAQ) of the University Duisburg - Essen, in 2008 the incidence of low pay (defined as the share of employees earning less than two-thirds of the median hourly wage, or Euro 9.06 in 2008) in Germany was 20.7% -- slightly less than the 21.5% share of 2006, but much higher than the 1995 incidence (below 15%) and also still quite high compared with other industrialized countries. In 2008, the low-pay incidence was with 29.9% among females more than double that among males. Across industries, the share of low-paid was highest in cleaning (78.4%), hospitality (60.5%) and security (54.0%). In retail the low-pay incidence was 34.0%, in the care sector 26.7%. The IAQ researchers go into efforts to conclude industry collective agreements that the government, if covering 50% of employees at national level, based on the Posted Workers Act can declare generally binding. In 2010 this has been realized for low-pay sectors such as waste treatment (January, 130,000 employed), commercial cleaning (March, 860,000), and the care sector (August, 810,000). Though the coming into being of these industry-specific minimum wages may diminish the share of the very low-paid, the researchers make the reservation that the agreed minimum wage rates remain quite low, below the low-pay threshold of Euro 9.06 (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 December 2009 and Year 3 March, May and July-August 2010).
English: G. Bosch, C. Weinkopf (2010) EWERC EC project Minimum Wage System and Changing Industrial Relations in Europe. National Report Germany. Duisburg - Essen: IAQ (http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/europeanemployment/projects .)
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
Trade union leaders want carmaker Fiat to provide job guarantees and give workers a greater say in company policy to win their support of the company's efforts to boost productivity. Union leaders at Fiat's leading Italian plant at Melfi in the southern region of Basilicata are looking at German carmakers such as Volkswagen in providing a model for a deal between employer and workers to fight fierce competition from lower labour cost countries. "In the German model one can see how it is possible to be competitive even with salaries which are much higher than in Italy," the secretary general of the CISL union for Basilicata told a group of foreign reporters (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 July-August 2010).
English: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/Fiat-unions ...
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Italy
The British Airways cabin crew dispute is set to return to the courts. On 17 September, the Unite union said it will lodge an appeal at the high court over the withdrawal of travel concessions for almost 7,000 of its members who went on strike earlier this year. A Unite spokesman said: "Sadly, one year on this dispute remains unresolved. We are being forced to defend our members and their rights to just treatment in the courtroom because BA refuses to play fairly at the negotiating table." One day later, it turned out that Unite has also accused BMI, Heathrow's second-largest airline owned by Lufthansa, of breaching staff contracts after failing to uphold a three-year pay deal in 2007 that included annual pay rises. Brian Boyd, a Unite national officer, argued: "Staff agreed to defer the increase to help the company during difficult times. They are still waiting for the company to honour its end of the bargain. Staff have not had an increase in earnings since 2008" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 May and June 2010).
English: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/19/unite-court-ba-airline-dispute
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/20/bmi-high-court-pay-freeze
After the successful renewal of collective agreements in April, Harald Borsting, president of the LO union confederation, commented "I am extremely pleased to say that we have also addressed the issue of social dumping in the collective agreements with a view to combating wage dumping at the expense of Danish workers." According to a mediation proposal resulting from collective bargaining, employers' associations Confederation of Danish Industry (DI), Danish Construction Association (DB) and LO have agreed to work to act against social dumping, in particular in transport and construction. Furthermore, the associations have agreed to encourage their member companies to refrain from using foreign contractors that fail to observe Danish collective agreements. The central organisations have also agreed on ensuring speedy industrial disputes procedure in cases that involve social dumping. However, in construction the social partners were not able to reach agreement on chain ("third party") liability, the unions maintaining the demand for such liability. In September, the need to defend jobs against the growing threat of social dumping was confirmed by the congress of the Fagligt Flles Forbund (3F) union (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February and July-August 2010).
English: LO, Danish Labour News (http://www.lo.dk/~/media/LO/English/DLN ...)
http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/5113
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/03/articles/dk1003031i.htm
In April 2010, after tough negotiations the social partners in the Bulgarian textiles and leather industry renewed their national collective agreement. The agreement was reached between the Bulgarian Association of the Knitwear Industry, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Light Industry at CITUB and the Federation of Light Industry at Bulgaria's second largest union CL Podkrepa. It preserved a pact on wages and jobs. The parties agreed that the minimum wage for knitwear workers should be not less than 110% of the national minimum wage during normal working hours. Also, additional paid leave for those working under hazardous health conditions and compensation for work carried out during irregular hours have been agreed. It has to be noted that the agreement is mainly followed in larger companies, although the government has formally extended it to small and medium-sized businesses. Most recently, representatives of the Bulgarian textile industry have stated that they have been overwhelmed with orders and had to turn down some of them due to lack of capacity. In July and August 2010, orders in the sector increased by 18 to 22%. The vice-president of the employers' association, Bertram Rollmann, said, "The problem is the lack of employees we lost during the crisis. We could employ up to 30,000 people in the next year."
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/06/articles/bg1006019i.htm
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=120226
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry
The yearly gathering of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has taken a fierce stand against the cuts in public spending announced by the new Conservative - Liberal Democrat government coalition, estimated at 25% for most departments. The impact of Ireland's austerity measures should also be a warning to the government that cutting jobs and services risks threatening Britain's economic recovery, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told delegates. Moreover, "Decent public services are the glue that holds a civilised society together, and we diminish them at our peril," said Barber, adding "Cut services, put jobs in peril, and increase inequality - that is the way to make Britain a darker, brutish, more frightening place." Most recently the TUC position gets growing support. A growing number of reputed economists and think-tanks, including the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD), suggest that fast-track belt-tightening could be the wrong medicine at the wrong time.
English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLNE68C02R20100913
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/politics ...
On 5 January 2010, AB InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian multinational brewing group, announced a large restructuring plan that included cuttingÿ304 jobsÿat its Belgian sites, within the context of a global plan with 800 job losses in western Europe. The national legal framework on information and social dialogue (the "Renault procedure") started immediately after the announcement. The InBev managementÿjustified its decision by the fall in alcoholic consumptionÿin Belgium. Nevertheless, unions and workers rejected this explanation since the group seemed to have escaped the economic crisis given large profits achieved in 2009. After a number of strikes and lengthy negotiations, the restructuring plan was suspended and a new period of information and consultation decided, after which new negotiations would take place. Yet, these negotiations actually seem to be near a deadlock. The InBev management continues to emphasize the need for cost reductions as well as for higher investments in marketing and innovation. The unions involved said to continue their opposition against dismissals, adding that the workload at InBev Belgium is already quite high.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/02/articles/be1002029i.htm
Dutch: http://www.express.be/sectors/nl/horeca/opnieuw-vakbondsonderhandelingen ...
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry