Collective Bargaining

Workers on London's Underground rail network are balloted on strike action in a dispute over job security and pay. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said it feared 3,000 jobs could be at risk. Nearly 10,000 RMT members will be asked to vote in the ballot that opened on 24 March and closes on 8 April. "London Underground seems to think that observing agreements is optional, and its plan to cut jobs is simply unacceptable," said RMT General Secretary Bob Crow. He said managers had refused to rule out compulsory redundancies, including among staff at the formerly privately owned Metronet maintenance group which became part of Transport for London (TfL), which operates the Underground, last May. The RMT is also protesting against an "unacceptable" five-year pay offer that it said gave no real-term increase for four years.
English: http://www.rmt.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=120842

The IF Metall union has reached an agreement with employers aimed at preventing massive job losses. The agreement was signed between IF Metall and three employers' federations covering metal, engineering, chemical, textiles and other manufacturing sectors. The one-year deal allows employers and plant-level unions to agree special arrangements, such as reduced working time or educational leave,ÿ in order to avoid making workers redundant. Under the scheme workers are able to keep their jobs and receive 80% of their regular wages,ÿbecause of the additional compensation paid by employers on top of official unemployment benefits. The agreement was reached at national level but arrangements must be negotiated at local level.
English: http://www.itglwf.org/DisplayDocument.aspx?idarticle=15716&langue=2;
http://www.eucoban.eu/ETUF-TCL/Reports/IF-Metall-Agree-Crisis-Deal-in-Bid-to-Prevent-Massive-Job-Losses; http://www.emcef.org/news/list2.asp?jobid=100

Miners at Europe's largest coal company, Poland's Kompania Weglowa, are taking measures that could lead to an early April strike following a 19 March mediation session. That session produced little movement in efforts to resolve 2009 wage negotiations. The state-run company's 65,000 miners at 16 colleries are led by NSZZ Solidarnosc, Kadra, and the Polish Miners' Trade Union, with smaller unions also involved. Miners engaged in a two-hour warning strike on 12 March, but during the 19 March talks management's 4.6% wage offer still fell several %-points short of miners' demands. Also locked in wage talks are 40,000 miners at two other state-owned coal servicing and production companies, Jastrzebska Spolka Weglowa and Katowicki Holding Weglowy. Management of both companies is seeking to impose a wage freeze on miners this year.
English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/3088-Polish-Miners-Now-Ready-for-April-Strike-After-Mediation-Fails

The GTMN union succeeded to negotiate a collective agreement for workers in the fur and tanning industries, including an increase of the collectively agreed minimum wage of 3.5% and the same increase of the apprenticeship allowance. The agreement will enter into force 1 March 2009 and has a duration of 12 months.
English: http://www.eucoban.eu/ETUF-TCL/Reports/Collective-agreement-in-the-fur-and-tanning-sectors

On 20 March, the new national bargaining round between the Norwegian Confederations of Trade Unions (LO) and the NHO employers' association started. As the main national bargaining round was in 2008 and the national agreement as of that year has a validity of two years, the actual round focuses on wages. The basis is the current economic situation and price and wages outcomes in the first year. As directives for the new round, LO's General Council has adopted: general improvement of purchasing power; better compliance with equal pay at various levels, and guarantee arrangements leading to increased collectively agreed wage rates and special additions for the lowest-paid. "We want an increase in purchasing power for everyone, but we will also take into account the special situation in Norway when it comes to the international financial crisis, especially the employment situation," LO president Roar Fl†then stated.
English: information Fellesforbundet (private sector union) for ETUC; http://www.forbes.com/feeds/afx/2009/03/20/afx6193137.html

Women's groups across Germany protested on Friday March 20 to highlight the yawning pay gap between the sexes in the country. The date has not been chosen by chance. According to the protest organisers, this is the date up to which German women on average had to work this year - on top of last year's salary - to earn as much as their male counterparts did in 2008. On average, women in Germany earn nearly a quarter less than men, compared to an average of 17% in the EU, with several factors specific to Germany making it hard for women to bridge the gap. "The tax system in Germany encourages women to take a part-time job when their husband earns more than them," Astrid Ziegler, a researcher at the WSI in Dsseldorf, said. A scarcity of places at German day care facilities, as well as the fact that schools are not open all day, also make it difficult to combine a job with family life, she added.
English: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20090320-18131.html
via: http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Germany

On 16 March, the UNISON public service union stated: "Women should not be expected to pay the price for earnings injustice." Calling for radical changes to the outdated 1975 Equal Act, UNISON director of organising and membership Bronwyn McKenna said: "Employers are profiting from pay inequality and using the recession as an excuse to perpetuate discrimination." She stressed, "The Equality and Human Rights Commission must take a tighter grip on the issue and end the gender pay gap once and for all." Ms McKenna's comments came as it emerged that this body responsible for safeguarding equality in the UK is to tell the government that the economic climate is too fragile to impose equal pay reviews on business.
English: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=5223

The SGB union confederation has reported pay increases for 2008-2009 in the private sector varying from 2.4% (construction industry) to 3.25% (retailing - Co-op) and 3.6% (electricians - craftsmen), and in the public and semi-public sectors from 1.5% (call centres) to 3.5% (Swisscom). Collective bargaining coverage rose from 49% in 2006 to 52% in 2009. For 2009-2010, the bargaining agenda of SGB includes: no wage lowering during the crisis; income maintenance and preservation of purchasing power; a halt to gender discrimination in wages, and the extension of collective agreements to groups of precarious workers.
English: information Vasco Pedrina, USB confederation, for ETUC

The labour legislation of the Czech Republic allows partial unemployment arrangements in which the employer pays wage compensation for the time employees on their payroll do not work, conditioned by agreement between employers and trade unions. The OZ KOVO (Odborovy zv„z KOVO) metal trade union reports the widespread use of this possibility, but points at the same time at many employers trying to press individual workers to take up their holidays outside the frame of collective bargaining; to agree with individual contracts on short-time with corresponding wage cuts; to take unpaid time-off, and to leave on early retirement.
English: information OZ KOVO for ETUC

The crisis has hit the metal industry severely. In February 2009, about 200,000 metal workers have been included in the Cassa integrazione, the country's temporary unemployment system. The Cassa integrazione provides about 60% of former wages for maximum 12 months. Benefits used to be 80%, but the first Berlusconi government reduced them to 60% with a maximum amount of Euro 750 per month. Currently metalworkers' federation FIOM-CGIL's bargaining policies are aiming at, among other things, blocking dismissals, notably of precarious workers; rotating use by workers of the Cassa integrazione; extension of the Cassa integrazione period till 18 months, and lifting its payments to 80%. In the tripartite table, the latter demands have also been extended to government, including the demand to expand the system to the precarious workers.
English: information Sabina Petrucci, Europe Secretary FIOM-CGIL for ETUC