Collective Bargaining

The 1.5% pay increase agreed for the private health and social care sector has been confirmed and extended to cover employers who are not members of the BAGS employers' organisation. This means that a further 40,000 employees, on top of the 80,000 employees already covered, will be covered by the agreement which provides for a minimum wage of Euro 1,300 a month (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 January 2010).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/360;
German: http://www.gpa-djp.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page/Index&n=GPA_0.a&cid=1269529707959;
http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page/Index&n=S03_0.a&cid ...

Part-time employees are now entitled to equal hourly pay pro rata what their full-time counterparts receive, thanks to an amendment to the law on Employment and Industrial Relations. The amendment came into force on 12 March. The regulation applies to all part-time employees who are employed as from the date of publication, in the Government Gazette on 12 March 2010.
English: http://www.independent.com.mt/news.asp?newsitemid=103370

On March 29, public service unions and government officials reconvened for talks aimed at resolving the row over public sector pay and reform. Public service unions have been engaged in a go-slow industrial action for two months in protest at pay cuts. Labour Relations Commission (LRC) Chief Executive, Kieran Mulvey, said that negotiators had "brought a lot of the issues a long way" in the marathon talks. However, he admitted that the crucial issue of pay still had to be tackled. A day earlier, the Community Platform, representing 29 national anti-poverty and equality organisations, urged the government to work with the trade union confederation (Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU) to agree a solution for low-paid public sector workers and avoid social welfare services being affected by industrial action over the coming weeks. Speaking on behalf of the Community Platform, Anne Costello said it stood in solidarity "with those public sector workers who have been hit so hard by the unequal choices made by this government."
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0329/; http://www.rte.ie/news/2010/0329/pay.html via http://www.labourstart.org/

After five rounds of negotiations for a new collective agreement, unions and employers in cleaning have not approached. The employers' association sticks to a pay freeze, while the FNV Bondgenoten Union emphasizes the modest demands of the cleaners, in starting up the "two dimes campaign" as part of the "Clean Enough" campaign, pointing at the net demand of Euro 0.20 hourly extra each for 2010 and 2011. The selective strike and related actions continue. The earlier attitude of major cleaning principals that they were no party in the conflict seems to change as both Dutch Railways (NS) and Schiphol Airport have announced to be willing to play a mediating role. Meanwhile, public support for the strike is growing. With the cleaners' actions as a trigger, in the Dutch parliament and in a number of municipalities discussions have started up concerning sustainable procurement, including minimum wage and quality of work standards (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February 2010).
Dutchÿ: http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/branches_bedrijven/branches/
English: http://unionrenewal.blogspot.com/2010/03/cleaners-strike

The latest figures published in the Labour Research Department's Workplace Report magazine, based on LRD's database of negotiated settlements, suggest that there is now little gap between the increase in lowest basic rates in new deals and those under existing long term agreements. For the three months December 2009-February 2010, LRD's published mid-point for settlements monitored was 1.6%. This is only slightly up on the previous 1.5% figure (November-January). Pay freezes still account for just over a quarter (28%) of December-February settlements. In new settlements only (excluding existing long-term agreements) the mid-point for the three months up to and including February was 1.5%, with pay freezes making up almost four out of ten (39%) of these.
English: http://www.lrd.org.uk/issue.php?pagid=1&issueid=1373

"Diplomkaufleute" (a German business administration degree, similar to MBA) covered by collective agreements earn on average Euro 4,434 monthly, that is Euro 410 more than their colleagues in companies without such agreements. This is a striking result of a recent on-line survey through the continuous WageIndicator web survey (in Germany called Lohnspiegel), in which about 3,000 German MBA's participated. While their monthly average salary stands at Euro 4,210, average earnings across industries are highest in banking (Euro 4,713). Other striking results in the Lohnspiegel survey are that experience also pays off (with salaries of those with over 20 years experience averaging Euro 5,283, as against Euro 3,254 for starters), and that female MBA's with an average Euro 3,705 earn 18% less than their male colleagues (Euro 4,506). At the very start of their career, female MBA's experience a gender pay gap of 14%.
German: http://www.lohnspiegel.de/main/zusatzinformationen/diplomkaufleute

The ver.di services union welcomes the decision in favour of a minimum wage for nursing staff ("Pflegemindestlohn") and hopes that the decision will soon be put into practice. Ver.di board member, Ellen Paschke, said: "This decision is long over due. Anyway, it terminates extreme forms of wage dumping." Earlier, representatives of employers and employees in the relevant committee at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs agreed upon a minimum wage, to be effected as of 1 July 2010, for the western part of the country of Euro 8.50 and for the eastern part of Euro 7.50. Paschke added that employee representatives and part of the employers were in favour of a clearly higher minimum wage, and that a differentiation between West and East 20 years after the unification could hardly be justified.
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=2f47715e-37f9
Lufthansa cabin crews may join pilots in new strike
March 24, 2010
One month after Lufthansa flights were disrupted by a pilots' strike, the pilots' union Cockpit is planning a new four-day strike. This time, however, the airline is facing more pressure as negotiations with the UFO cabin crew union head towards an impasse. Prior to enteringÿa second round of negotiations with Lufthansa on Wednesday 24 March, UFO representative Joachim Muller said that he doubted a strike could be avoided. Lufthansa wants to increase the hours cabin crews work before their overtime pay starts, alter the structure of their pay raises, and link portions of their income to profit levels. UFO may coordinate its efforts with Cockpit, which is planning to strike from April 13 to 16. The two unions will have a joint meeting April 12 in Frankfurt.
English: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5384770,00.html

Metro workers in Bucharest have won a new collective agreement ending a five-month-long dispute. The workers represented by the Uniunea Sindicatelor Libere Metrou (USLM) union suspended strike action planned for 18 March after managers of the state-owned company Metrorex and the union signed a new collective agreement. The settlement includes a reasonable wage increase, a commitment to retain all jobs, the harmonisation of benefits for certain categories of employees and a pledge to improve working conditions. The existing agreement had expired on 1 November 2009; negotiations on new agreements normally take place 30 days before expiry. USLM organised a protest on 29 October calling on government to approve Metrorex's budget for 2009-10; its failure to do so blocked negotiations. It also took a number of other steps to resolve the matter, including a picket in front of the Romanian government headquarters as well as strikes on 12 and 17 November, which the government suppressed through legal action.
English: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/4328

The GMB union has welcomed the announcement of the government that it has accepted the recommendations from the Low Pay Commission (LPC) on the new rates for the National Minimum Wage. The new rates, which will come into force on 1 October 2010, will be UKP 5.93 (currently Euro 6.64) per hour for workers aged 21 and over (a 2.2% increase); UKP 4.92 (Euro 5.51) per hour for 18-20 year olds (plus 1.9%), and UKP 3.64 (Euro 4.07) per hour for 16-17 year olds (plus 2%). Paul Kenny, the union's General Secretary, said: "The increase is much needed by the lowest paid in these difficult times and will help to boost consumer demand and thereby sustain the recovery underway."
English: http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom/latest_news/national_minimum

On 24 March (budget day), PCS, the public and commercial services union, responded to the government budget as up to 200,000 civil and public servants from across the country stayed away from work in a strongly supported budget day strike over cuts to redundancy pay. Mark Serwotka, PCS General Secretary, said: "Today's budget of so called efficiency savings, makes it clear that the reason the government is ripping up the contracts of loyal civil servants is to make it easier and cheaper for whoever wins the election to cut them. It is ludicrous to think that efficiency savings can be somehow pulled out from down the back of the sofa and have no effect on services."
English: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm