Collective Bargaining

The Österreichischer Gewerkschaftsbund (Austrian Federation of Labour Unions) asked the political parties a simple question: ‘Do you support a rise of pension age to 67?’ Only one party turned out to be in favour of such a rise of the legal pension age. This liberal party (NEOS) was in favour of a rise that follows the development of life expectancy. The socialists and the greens want to improve working conditions in order that employees don’t have to stop working at an earlier age.

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An agreement which is valid throughout Europe was signed between the central management of Suez and two European Trade Union Federations at the headquarters of Suez in Paris. The French company has 89,000 employees worldwide in the field of water management and recycling of waste. In the future all job positions are to be accessible to both men and women, sexual harassment is to be combatted and with a view to reconciling family and working life, paternity leave, flexible working hours as well as working from home are to be promoted.

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On September 4, the Law No. 93/2019 was published, which brings significant changes to employment legislation, namely as regards the probationary employment period, fixed-term employment contracts, temporary employment contracts, the bank of hours scheme, among others. A brief summary of the main changes to the Labour Code: the fixed-term employment contract justified by a new activity of uncertain duration or the commencement of a company or establishment is now restricted to companies with less than 250 employees. The maximum duration of a fixed-term employment contract will be two years. Fixed-term employment contracts may be renewed up to three times but the total duration of renewals may not exceed the initial period of the contract. The uncertain term employment contract may only have a maximum duration of four years

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A strike at the Hennigsdorfer Elektrostahlwerke plants owned by Riva Steel in Trier and Horath began in June after the company unilaterally declared that collective bargaining negotiations had failed and stated that the company did not intend to conclude an agreement with IG Metall. The strike of 130 workers is one of the longest in the nation’s history. It seems that the strike is not only about wages. There are concerns that the company is attempting to set a union busting precedent. The strikers have therefore received support from various sides.

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The Serbian government unilaterally increased the minimum wage for the next year after social partners’ failure to agree. According to a government representative this was the “biggest increase of minimum wage ever recorded in the history of Serbia”. During negotiations the unions demanded a 20% increase while the employers were ready to agree only to 5 to 6%.

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Baggage handlers at Copenhagen refused to work on Wednesday, resulting in some passengers experiencing delays. The action was conducted by employees of the SAS Ground Handling (SGH) company, which serves airlines including SAS, Danish Air Transport, Eurowings, Icelandair, Qatar Airways and Thai Airways. The refusal to work has been deemed by the Danish industrial dispute court Arbejdsretten as being in breach of the collective bargaining agreement between 3F, the union representing the staff, and Copenhagen Airport.

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The ECB has published the ‘Staff macroeconomic projections for the euro area’. According to this report the real disposable income is expected to gain momentum in 2019 before weakening in 2020 and 2021. Both weakening nominal income growth and gradually rising inflation are expected to dampen real income growth in 2020 and 2021. The contribution of gross wages and salaries to nominal disposable income growth is projected to decline in 2020 and to remain broadly unchanged in 2021.

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Pilots have reached an agreement with Ryanair for the first time, a boost to the budget carrier which is facing industrial unrest elsewhere in Europe. Since 2017 the company has been facing strikes and labour unrest. Under the agreement, pilots will be paid more and will benefit from better protection in case of layoffs. The parties also agreed on future talks which would include the possible creation of a works council. But according to the union the Europe-wide slogan ‘Ryanair must change!’ remains alive.

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The government programme is called an ‘Inclusive and competent Finland’. Minister of Employment says this summed up what work means to people and society. Finland aims for an employment rate of 75%. That might be challenging in a country where access to labour and businesses’ recruitment challenges are growing issues. The current employment rate stands at 72.4%. The Minister underlined that the government programme aims to increase participation in the labour market for those who are partially capable of working, those who are difficult to employ, young people, older people and people with immigrant backgrounds.

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The minimum wage is set to grow from €520 per month in 2019 to €930 in 2024. The first step has already been taken. The government has decided to amend its own decision on the 2020 minimum wage. This means that the minimum wage is set to grow by about 15% in 2020 and 2021 and by 10% for the following three years. This is the strongest growth of the minimum wage since 2008-09 when it grew by 20% and 13%, but from a much lower base (from 35% of average wages to 41%). With the pace of growth proposed now the minimum wage should likely rise from 46% of the average wage in 2018 to 57% in 2024, significantly more than in most OECD countries.

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