Collective Bargaining

The FSC-CCOO public services federation is positive about the drawing up of equality plans across the state administration sector, but argues that more needs to be done to ensure they are properly implemented. In particular, the federation wants to see a timetable and deadlines and believes that more resources, including staff, need to be made available to put the plans into effect.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/373
Spanish: http://www.fsc.ccoo.es/webfsc/menu.do?Actualidad:Mujer:Actualidad:93877

The PCS civil service union may return to the courts to defend the current redundancy compensation scheme. The union recently won two High Court rulings against the previous government that had tried to change the scheme without proper negotiation. Despite these rulings, the new government is pushing through legislation to cut the scheme. PCS is also challenging the government's claims about the scheme, arguing that it has exaggerated the levels of compensation by focusing on the maximum payments for those with the longest service. PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: "We will be studying the proposed legislation in detail, but our advice suggests the government might be repeating the mistakes of the previous administration in acting outside the law, simply to make it easier and cheaper to cuts tens of thousands of jobs" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 April, May and June 2010).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/373;
http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm ...

The LO union confederation has investigated three major public infrastructure projects and exposed how pressure from public authorities to keep costs low has led to sub-contractors paying foreign workers as little as 55% of the wage a worker would receive if covered by the relevant collective agreement. The report also notes how employers change their names and restrict contracts to six months to avoid Swedish tax rules. The projects investigated also show higher accident rates than the industry average. The confederation wants to see changes to public procurement practices that include a requirement to apply the industry collective agreement in contracts.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/373
Swedish: http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidview ...

The VIDA services union has backed a government initiative to better enforce minimum pay rates in collective agreements and other employment rights. The proposal is in preparation for the full opening up of the Austrian labour market to the rest of the European Union in 2011 and concern about social dumping. VIDA president Rudolf Kaske said that migrant workers in some border areas are already being paid 40% below the rate in the relevant collective agreement. Clearly, tougher measures are needed to ensure that employers pay the negotiated rates, Kaske argued.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/373;
German: http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page .

A national strike by doctors took place on Monday 19 July in protest at government plans to cut health budgets. Doctors' unions warned that the cuts will mean 30,000 fewer doctors in four years' time while the number of fixed-term workers will be slashed. Unions are concerned about the implications of these cuts for the level and quality of health services provided.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/373; http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7019333502#ixzz0uDwNqPaK

Firefighters organised by the CGIL, CSIL and UIL public service federations were involved in a national four-hour stoppage on Tuesday 20 July. The unions organised the protest in response to government plans for budget cuts and demands to conclude a new collective agreement, as the previous one expired two and a half years ago.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/373;
Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/14721

The five union confederations that started to collect signatures calling for a referendum on the labour law reforms as proposed by the government, have announced to finally have gathered 813,016 signatures. Thus, the petition has by far surpassed the legal requirement of 10% of registered voters, or 449,506, to initiate the referendum. The signatures were submitted to Parliament Speaker, Luka Bebic on 14 July. It is expected that the verification of signatures will take at least one month (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 June 2010).
English: http://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=23612&l=2

Car workers in eastern France agreed to a salary freeze and reduction in days owed as part of conditions imposed by General Motors Co GM.N (GM) to keep the plant in question open. GM had originally put the Strassbourg plant, which produces automatic transmission systems for GM and BMW cars, up for sale, but failed to complete the transaction. After emerging from bankruptcy in 2009, GM offered to repurchase the plant on 16 July for a symbolic Euro and on condition that costs fall by 10%. Under these conditions, 70% of the 1,150 workforce accepted a salary freeze for two years and a reduction of time off taken for accumulating extra hours.
English: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE66J0GD20100720
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=France

According to a Eurostat study, Estonia in 2007 had the highest unadjusted gender pay gap in the European Union (30%). Researchers, equality experts and even government officials recently acknowledged the difficulties in closing this gap in Estonia. While equality legislation exists, the difficulty is in implementing it and the challenge facing women who want to pursue an equal pay case. The gender specialist in the Ministry of Social Affairs, Christian Veske, admitted that someone who feels discriminated against should appeal herself. The country's equality commissioner, Margit Sarv, said that this takes a lot of courage, adding that only seven women have made an official complaint under the legislation in the last five years despite the country's large pay gap.
English: http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/26555/

From March 2010 on, the automotive industry in Slovakia is overcoming the recession and unions are demanding higher wages. Volkswagen Slovakia, hit by the economic downturn in 2009, has agreed a wage increase of 3%, with a one-off payment to employees of Euro 215. The unions had threatened strike action in March, when initial bargaining failed, but within a few weeks an agreement was met for 2010-2011. Bohdan Wojnar, the company's Human Resources Director said: "Our qualified and motivated employees are the basis of our business success. Our team, despite difficult economic conditions, worked to their full potential in order to supply our customers with first-class cars in top quality. This hard work has paid off now." Zoroslav Smolinsky, chair of the plant trade union, stated: "We managed to reach what we wanted."
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/04/articles/sk1004019i.htm