UK oil tanker drivers supplying Shell petrol stations have called off a planned second round of industrial action after being offered a reported 14% pay increase over two years. The offer was made to the drivers' union, UNITE, by Hoyer UK and Suckling Transport, who are contracted to distribute Shell supplies. It followed four days of industrial action, with more planned. The drivers will now consider the offer, which is likely to take significantly increase average earnings from their current level of around UKP 32,000 a year.
(English: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2279/region/1/section/0/order/1)
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After four rounds of tough negotiations, on 30 May a collective agreement has been reached in the chemicals industry by which the about 42,000 workers will get pay increases between 3.7 and 3.9%, for one year backdated from 1 May 2008. Meanwhile these results have been approved by the meetings of union and works councils representatives. The deal includes a 3.9% rise for the lowest wage scales and a lump sum of Euro 35 to be paid in June 2008. The chemical union (KV Chemie) negotiators claim this result to be one of the best in the current bargaining round in Austria.
(English Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008; German: http://www1.oegb.at/chemie)
The government has proposed a rise of 7% in the Polish national minimum wage for 2009, taking the adult rate to PLN 1,204 (Euro 334) a month. This increase, which still has to be agreed within the Tripartite Commission for Social and Economic Issues, is significantly lower than the 20% hike in the minimum wage as of January 2008. (See elsewhere in this Collective Bargaining Newsletter for minimum wage developments in Cyprus, France, Latvia and Lithuania)
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008)
The unilateral decision by the National Bank of Greece to award its staff a 6.1% pay increase in two stages in 2008 (3.5% backdated to 1 January, another 3% from 1 September) has upset the unions, who are demanding 10.5% across the banking sector. The unions claim that the bank is not only trying to bypass sector-level bargaining as such, but that it is jeopardising the whole process. The OTOE bank employees' federation has called on the government to intervene, but the Labour Ministry answered that it has no legal power to force any employer into collective negotiations. The National Bank has argued that if an eventual sector settlement is more generous, its pay levels will be adjusted to match, but that if it is less generous the bank will stick to its unilateral plan.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008)
After six weeks of strike action, nurses organised in the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (SAHP, Vrdfrbundet) have agreed to a new 27-month pay agreement, giving increases of 4% from 1 June 2008, 3% in 2009 and 2% in 2010, with renegotiation possible in the final year. The overall value of the deal is only 0.5% lower than a mediated offer that the union rejected earlier (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No 4).
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=260#a3858; Swedish: http://www.vardforbundet.se/templates/VFArticlePage4.aspx?id=13166)
The current round of sector-level bargaining in Finland has been ended, with pay gains on average runninmg at 5.5%, implying a 2.3% increase in purchasing power. Although economists argue that the nominal outcome is about 2%points higher than would be expected from Finland's more-customary centralised wage agreements, leading employer association EK is positive on sector bargaining as this offers more scope for flexibility and productivity improvements through company-level variations. On the union side, it is suggested that the SAK federation prefers a return to centralised arrangements, though not all SAK affilates would agree. The STTK federation is supposed to be more amenable to lower-level settlements, but still hangs on to a central negotiation framework.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 5/2008 and 6/2008)
The ver.di union has, in a collective agreement signed the German dock workers, for the first time secured a special type of annual holiday or rest-and-recreation grant (`Erholungsbeihilfe'). Only ver.di members (80% of the dockers) will get these grants, which are worth up to Euro 260 per person per year and are largely tax-deductable. The agreement allows wage increases of 4.8% for 2008. An additional lump-sum payment for workers handling freight containers is included.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008;
German: http://nds-bremen.verdi.de/presse/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=f914a32a-3150-11dd-5765-0019b9e321cd)
The Lithuanian union federations are pressing for a 25% uplift in the national minimum wage, which since 1 January 2008 stands at LTL 800 (Euro 232) monthly. In the first quarter of 2008, average nominal wage across the economy rose by 23.8%, and average gross wages in the private sector went up by 24.3% to LTL 2,136 (Euro 619) per month, leaving the minimum wage at 37% of this average (See elsewhere in this Collective Bargaining Newsletter for minimum wage developments in Cyprus, France, Latvia and Poland).
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008)
After an earlier false start (see this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No. 2), in late May social partners agreed upon a two-year national framework agreement on pay for Slovenia's private sector. The deal provides for a 5.2% lift of basic rates to affset higher-than-expexted price inflation in 2007, with a 3.9% increase in starting and minimum pay in August 2008. There will be an additional rise in January 2009 if inflation in 2008 tops 4.55%, and another 2.3% hike in starting and minimum rates in August 2009. A further increase may take place in January 2010, equal to the amount by which price inflation in 2009 exceeds 2.7%. The general minium annual vacation bonus is increased to Euro 665. Although falling short of the automatisms sought by the unions, the accord also sets out guidelines for productivity-linked awards in industry-level wage settlements.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008)
The government has proposed to raise the national monthly minimum wage by 12.5% to LVL 180 (Euro 257) from 1 January 2009. This increase has been agreed within the National Tripartite Cooperation Council but falls well short of what it should be under pay policy formulated in 2003, calling for the minimum wage to reach 50% of the average wage level by 2010. According to the original timetable and recent Finance Ministry forecasts, the minimum monthly rate for 2009 should actually be about LVL 220 (Euro 314). This implies a rise of 37.5%, an uplift that the government considers unaffordable (See elsewhere in this Collective Bargaining Newsletter for minimum wage developments in Cyprus, France, Lithuania and Poland).
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 6/2008)