Collective Bargaining

Late on Sunday 17 January the unions and the management of the Budapest public transport company BKV reached agreement. Six days of strike resulted in success for the unions, who had basically all of their demands satisfied. The only concession they had to make was accepting a cap stipulated by BKV that the total 2010 pay bill, including in-kind benefits, cannot exceed HUF 59 billion (Euro 216 million) (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 December 2009).
English: http://bbjonline.hu/index.php?col=1001&cat=&id=51369 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Hungary

On 14 January, the government discussed the drafting of a minimum wage act and negotiations to sign a social agreement for 2010. It decided to agree upon an increase of the statutory minimum wage, as demanded for quite some time by the unions. On 31 January the ministers will finalise the texts of the Minimum Wage Act, including the exact wage increase, and adopt positions on different proposals of the social partners regarding the development of the labour market which may lead to a social agreement, as well as a basis for future statutory changes pertaining to areas covered by the agreement.
English: http://www.vlada.si/en/news/press_releases/press_release/article/5/7269/ ...

On 14 January SKEI, the metal and electro-industry union, achieved a number of positive negotiation results using workers' willingness to strike and a strike announcement for 13 January. In the electro-industry, by 1 January 2010 basic wages were increased between 7% for the lowest wage scale and 1.5% for the highest scale. In the metal industry, by 1 January basic wage increases were agreed of 5% for all categories, as well as a minimum wage of Euro 724.51. In basic metals, iron and steel, the basic wage increase by 1 January was 3.2%, and the new minimum wage Euro 748.20.
English: message of EUCOBAN network of EMF / EFFAT / ETUF-TCL / EMCEF

Its New Concept Office proved not to be the "golden egg" for the Norwegian Post; instead, the Post planned to cut 300 jobs annually between 2010 and 2012. Under these conditions, the Postkom union reached an agreement to save jobs and maintain good working conditions. No redundant worker should be sent to unemployment, and alternative employment should be found within the group or externally. The process and the agreement's implementation will be followed; in case of deviations from planned change, Postkom has the right to go back to negotiations.
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/sec_20081016_gbkmEn

Trade unions have announced that they are determined to demand pay increases in 2010, be it moderate. The Democratic Labour Federation of Cyprus (DEOK) said its general council had agreed to pursue salary increases of 1.5% in the public and semi-public sector, and that it would responsibly support improving workers' incomes. The larger Pancyprian Federation of Independent Trade Unions (PEO) also said it would "follow a responsibly restrained policy in seeking increases", pointing out that increases would mirror the average increase of productivity of the past three years. PEO said it was particularly concerned by the violations of collective agreements, the exploitation of foreign workers as cheap and unprotected labour, and the refusal of many employers to accept workers' rights to organise.
English: http://www.cyprus-mail.com/cyprus/unions-want-pay-rises-despite-recession/20100107 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Cyprus

The Solidarnosc union stepped up its fight for a collective agreement with Solid Security in Warsaw, by leafletting on the issues affecting Polish security workers at IKEA's worldwide flagship store in Stockholm. IKEA is Solid's leading client in the Warsaw market. With help from the Swedish Transport Workers Union and other affiliates of the UNI Global Union, Solidarnosc also ran an advertisement in a leading Swedish daily newspaper, the Svenska Dagbladet, highlighting the key issues in this ongoing dispute: failure to pay into the Social Fund, which provides healthcare and leave benefits to the children of security workers, and discrimination against workers for union activity. "This action was a great example of international union solidarity," said Alice Dale, head of UNI Property Services.
English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/Apps/iportal.nsf/pages/sec_20081016_gbg7En

On 6 January, the General Workers Union (GWU) said it was prepared to accept a wage freeze at Air Malta given the dire financial situation of the national airline. Yet, the union stressed that the freeze should apply to all workers categories. The GWU noted that earlier talks concluded between management and the unions representing the cabin crews, pilots and engineers included financial benefits: "Therefore the GWU expects the same for its members."
English: http://www.businesstoday.com.mt/2010/01/06/t1.html via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Malta

On 6 January, unions and employers' organisations started hammering out new collective agreements for almost 600,000 private employees. According to the LO union confederation about 20% of them are non-unionised, against 15% in 1998. Companies are counting on reducing salaries or providing insignificant pay increases, and unions are not willing to give in. Employment consultancy firm Multidata contacted 105 companies facing negotiations and found that they were expecting to pay an average increase of 1.8%, whereas inflation is expected to be 2%. The government's economic advisory council earlier predicted that wage-earners would see an average increase of 2.7%.
English: http://www.cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/47894-union- ... via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Denmark

Cleaners, porters, cooks and other workers employed by the Sodexo company at North Devon District Hospital in the South West of England were due to take two days' strike action on 4 and 5 January. They are protesting about the failure of the company and the hospital to ensure that the workers are paid in line with the national health sector agreement (Agenda for Change). Higher pay rates should have been introduced in as long ago as 2006.
English: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/devon/8440475.stm; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=5837

The Malta Union of Teachers has declared an industrial dispute with the government, as it had announced to do if by 1 January 2010 no progress was made on the long-running issue of payment of allowances. According to the union, the government had committed itself in June 2009 to examine the situation with regard to allowances by 1 January, but it had not been informed of any progress. The union council will meet again on 11 January and may order industrial action if the situation remains unchanged. Teachers went out on a one-day strike over the same issue last year and also observed a work-to-rule.
English: http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20100105/local/teachers . via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Malta