After its first round of negotiations with provincial government employers, public service trade union ABVAKABO FNV says that two issues have been settled - the agreement will run for 12 months and arrangements for reducing working time for older workers have been clarified. However, the next bargaining rounds could be more difficult. The union says that it might make concessions on pay if job security can be guaranteed as well as improvements in training and career development opportunities. In contrast, it appears that the employers are looking for a pay freeze, a few minor technical changes to conditions and the possibility of a 40-hour week.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/306#a5017
Dutch: http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao/bericht/eerste_onderhandeling_cao_provincies/
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The FOA public service union has criticised municipal employers for failing to ensure that pay increases are implemented for all workers in April in line with the three-year agreement that was signed last year. It says that workers in the education sector in particular may have to wait to see the 2009 pay increase in their salaries. The union will be approaching the LO union confederation to see what action should be taken on this. It has also criticised the municipal employers for the time taken in producing an updated collective agreement. The municipal sector like the central government sector has a wage adjustment mechanism that means wage increases may be higher or lower than initially negotiated to keep them in line with developments in the private sector. FOA general secretary Dennis Kristensen raises the question of whether it is time to abandon the formula even if this means that from year to year public sector pay deals might be higher or lower than those in the private sector.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/306#a5017
Danish: http://www.foa.dk/sw494771.asp
Services union ver.di has negotiated a new collective agreement covering 15,000 employees of the Helios group of hospitals. A pay increase of Euro 30 a month plus 3% is backdated to 1 March this year with a further 2.4% paid in March 2010. There is also a Euro 225 lump sum to be paid this year, and from 1 January 2010 pay rates in the East will be 100% of those in the West. The agreement runs until 31 December 2010 and ver.di believes this will bring pay at the company in line with pay in competing companies as well as with pay in the public sector.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/306#a5017
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews ...
On 11 May, the government announced that the national minimum wage is to rise by 7 pennies (cents) to UKP 5.80 an hour in October 2009.The rate for 18 to 21-year-olds will increase by 6 pennies to UKP4.83 and, for 16 and 17-year-olds, it will rise by 4 pennies to UKP 3.57. It was also announced that, from October 2010, 21-year-olds will be covered by the adult minimum wage. Trade union leaders showed mixed feelings about this long-awaited decision. UNISON general secretary Dave Prentis said: "I am pleased that the government hasn't listened to the CBI (the employers' association, ed.) and others who wanted a zero-pence increase (...) But we believe that the minimum wage should be higher - an extra 7 pennies an hour won't go far to help pay the rising costs of essential items such as food, fuel and housing (..) A minimum wage of UKP 7.45 an hour would give many more workers a decent living and go some way to helping the government hit its eradication of poverty pledge."
English: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=5336
http://www.minimumwage.org.uk/news.asp
Responding to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) which suggests that Slovenia should reduce its minimum wage, the largest trade union confederation, ZSSS, stated it would never agree to such a step. In a session of the Economic and Social Council, Andreja Poje, ZSSS economic adviser, said that the current minimum wage was not a threat to economic stability and that its influence on employment was positive. ZSSS executive secretary Ladislav Rozic commented on the OECD's proposal for a cut in social security contributions, saying that in Slovenia these were among the lowest in the EU. He noted that workers contribute 15% to the social security purse, while employers contribute 8.85%.
English: http://www.ukom.gov.si/en/news/news_from_slovenia/news/ .
On 7 May, a two-year collective agreement for the metal industry was reached, entering into force backdated from 1 January 2009 till 31 December 2010. In this agreement, the "Ecocheque" system introduced in the national Interprofessional Accord (IPA) has been followed. This cheque, intended to be spent to goods and services with a sustainable character is paid by the employer, but neither the employer nor the worker does have to pay taxes or social security contributions over this cheque. The agreement includes payment in Ecocheques of Euro 125 on 1 October 2009 and Euro 250 on 1 October 2010. The automatic price indexation is maintained, implying pay increases on 1 July 2009 and 1 July 2010 based on the real rate of inflation, as a rule to be paid in Ecocheques. Temporary employees have been granted the same rights as permanent employees. All early retirement formulas have been maintained.
English: information CCMB and ABVV-Metaal / FGTB-Metal, via EUCOBAN network of European Metalworkers' Federation (EMF);
Dutch: http://www.abvvmetaal.be/page.asp?id=2164&langue=NL
For 30 April John Bencini, president of the Malta Union of Teachers (MUT), requested his members working in primary and secondary state schools to strike in protest against inadequate working conditions. A strike in church-run schools scheduled for the same date was called off after on 28 April MUT and the church authorities signed a new collective agreement. The basis for its dispute with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Youth and Sport is to be found in the implementation of the educational reform agreement that MUT had signed with the government in 2007. Media reports stated that the strike was a success, with almost no teachers, assistant heads or head teachers turning up to work. Following inconclusive meetings in May between MUT and the Ministry, the union ordered all teachers in state schools to confirm to a work-to-rule directive from 1 June on, doing no more than the minimum required by their job description.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2009/05/articles/mt0905019i.htm
http://www.mut.org.mt/index.htm
The Finnish Post and Logistics Union (PAU) announced plans for a six-hour work stoppage on Wednesday 22 April. Earlier, the postal union had threatened more severe industrial action, which might have led to a complete shutdown of postal deliveries. However, in negotiations during the weekend of 18-19 April the union reached agreement with the management side, Itella, on terms for necessary cutbacks of personnel. Union president Esa Vinkula emphasised that the action target was not Itella, which operates the Finnish postal service, but the company's owner - the Finnish state. Vinkula said that the agreed package makes it significantly more difficult to take early retirement, adding, "The government or some other parties have clearly decided that the "retirement pipeline" should not be used any more." Moreover, the agreement requires money to be provided by the state.
English: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Industrial+action+by+postal+workers+expected+to+slow+but+not+stop+mail+delivery/1135245339233 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Finland
The new part-time unemployment scheme that the government introduced as of 1 April meets quite some union resistance. Especially the three unions representing workers in manufacturing and transport, FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Bedrijvenbond and De Unie, want employers to supplement unemployment benefits to 100% of the former wage instead of 85% as the scheme provides for without supplementary payments (if a worker is 50% unemployed). The president of the FME-CWM, the Metal Employers' Association, argues that maintaining the union demands may lead to the dismissal of thousands of workers. The social partners have taken the issue up to the Labour Foundation, their top negotiating body, and promised that this Foundation will soon produce recommendations for negotiators at industry level (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 January, February and March).
Dutch: De Volkskrant, April 16, 2009ÿ; NRC-Handelsblad, April 21, 2009
The day after the Easter holidays workers from the Kremikovtzi steel mill have continued their protests, rallying over unpaid salaries and the imminent closure of the plant. The Federation of Metallurgy - CL Podkrepaÿ andÿ Metalicy, representing workers of the plant, accused the Bulgarian authorities of failing to act, and demanded the government to pay out arrears in wages (since November 2008) to the 5,000 Kremikovtzi workers as well as to provide compensations to 2,000 workers who will lose their jobs by the end of June. The executive director of the plant denied earlier rumours about the Brazilian company CSN, the only bidder, was not interested any more in the acquisition of the insolvent plant. However, unions are demanding from the government to render more active support and commitment in the search for a new buyer of the plant.
English: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=102938 via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Bulgaria;
http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&l=2&c=19237&nb=2