On November 17, 2007, all six private sector trade union confederations in Slovenia organised a mass demonstration demanding higher pay in Ljubljana. In the negotiations that followed, the unions asked for an immediate pay rise of 3.5% because of the rising inflation and an extra increase of basic pay, not only the starting pay which is the lowest possible basic pay determined by sectoral collective agreements, to be agreed in sectoral collective agreements. The employers were only prepared to increase the starting pay and refused to negotiate sectoral agreements. On 25 January 2008 it seemed that a compromise was reached when the social partners concluded a tentative agreement on extraordinary pay adjustment in 2007 due to the unexpectedly high inflation in 2007. As a result, the unions cancelled the general strike which was planned for February 6. Yet, when legal experts from both sides began to draft a collective agreement on the basis of the tentative agreement, disagreements erupted anew. The employers offered a rise in overall pay instead of in basic pay; increasing overall pay would be much less favourable for workers. As a result of this broken social accord, the largest union federation, Zveza Svobodnih Sindikatoc Slovenije (ZSSS), has called for a mass strike for Wednesday March 12. The strike will be joined by members from other Slovenian national trade union centres.
(English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2007/12/articles/si0712049i.htm; http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/2613-Labour-Unions-Mass-for-General-Strike-in-Slovenia-on-12-March)
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On March 5 it became clear that the constituencies of three out of the four unions of police officers refused the `final' wage offer of the Minister of Internal Affairs for the 2008-2010 collective agreement. Two days later renewed negotiations ended up in a deadlock. The largest union, NPB, affiliated to the FNV confederation, announced to fall back on the available action schemes, including demonstrative and `public-friendly' actions like those already held in December. On March 9, because of the refusal of police officers to accompany football supporters, the match PSV Eindhoven - Ajax Amsterdam had to be postponed.
At the start of the negotiations in October, the Minister of Internal Affairs acknowledged that the wages of the countries' 54,000 police officers were lagging behind wages in the public service. In Mid-February, a compromise seemed close at hand, by which the minister offered pay increases of 3.5% in 2008, 3.3% in 2009, and about 3.25% in 2010, the latter depending on a new system of job evaluation. This offer was turned down massively by the membership of the three major unions. Especially the uncertainties for 2010 and later remain stumbling-stones.
(Dutch: http://www.cao-politie.nl/nieuws/actueel/2008/200802-29-shtml; http://www.politiebond.nl/index.php?pagina=nieuws&id=565; http://www.politiebond.nl/index.php?pagina=nieuws&id=567; http://www.politiebond.nl/index.php?pagina=nieuws&id=568; De Volkskrant, March 10, 2008)
On March 5, Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced a rise of the UK adult minimum wage by 3.8%, from UKP 5.52 to UKP 5.73 (Euro 7.57) in October 2008. The new rate for 18 to 21-year-olds will be UKP 4.77, up from 4.60, while 16 to 17-year-olds will get UKP 3.53, up from UKP 3.40. Both UNISON, the public services union, and Usdaw, the retail union, have welcomed this rise as a step in the right direction but have made some reservations too. UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis said there was no doubt the rise would benefit many low-paid workers; "However, it falls short of its aim to protect the poor from the constant price rises in essentials like fuel, food and housing", he added. Mr. Prentis recalled that in its evidence to the Low Pay Commission last year, UNISON made the case for an inflation-busting boost to the statutory minimum wage, and called for an end to youth rates and regional variations. Usdaw's General Secretary, John Hannett, said to welcome the news: "The rise will increase the quality of life for many of our members, the majority of whom are women." Yet, he added, "We are disappointed that the Low Pay Commission's recommendation to lower the age for the adult rate of the National Minimum Wage to 21 has been rejected. Usdaw will continue to campaign for the adult rate to be paid at 18."
(English: http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=4078; http://www.usdaw.org.uk/usdaw/news/1204725784_32613.html)
Since February 11, unions in the Dutch `metal and technique' industry, a sector employing 410,000 workers and encompassing installation technology, assembly shops, garages and the like, have organised a series of warning strikes to build up pressure for improvements in the collective agreement. On his weblog, Jan Berghuis, responsible officer of FNV Bondgenoten states to be very satisfied with the willingness of the constituency to strike. By March 4, already 250 companies had been striked. Union demands include a general pay increase of 3.5%, and an extra 10% for young workers under 21 of age. The unions notably want to augment the attractiveness of the sector for new entrants, but the employers' association combats that the 10% rise is a feasible means to reach this goal. Serious negotiations have not been taken place yet.
(Dutch: http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/acties_metaal_en_techniek/van_het_actiefront; http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/acties_metaal_en_techniek/weblog_jan_berghuis; NRC-Handelsblad, March 4, 2008)
JHL, the main Finnish public sector trade union, has joined with three other unions in attacking employers who use outsourcing to get workers transferred to different and inferior collective agreements. According to these unions groups both public and private employers have recently used practices of `collective agreement shopping', thus undermining existing collective bargaining structures. Internationally known companies, such as ISS, Sodexho, Nordea and Itella, were mentioned as `shoppers'. As a consequence, the unions argue, workers often lose in terms of both pay and levels of annual leave.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=249#a3603; http://www.sak.fi/english/whatsnew.jsp?id=32426&location1=1&sl2=2&ao=news&lang=en)
The collective agreement covering municipal workers looks set to be signed by the unions after several months of dispute over one element of the negotiations - compensation for emergency service workers who lose out from new early retirement rules. Although this was only a small element of the overall cost of the deal, the employers refused to budge. Partial compensation of up to €500 a year will be available to those workers affected, some of who could lose up to €200 a month. Overall the agreement includes pay increases of 2.2% from 1 June 2007 and 1 June 2008 with increases of 0.5% and 1.5% on the annual lump payments. The largest union involved, ABVAKABO FNV, has announced to try to realize better results for the emergency service workers through local negotiations.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=249#a3603; Dutch: http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao/bericht/stemmen_over_onderhandelaarsakkoord_cao_gemeenten;
http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao/bericht/abvakabo_fnv_zet_zich_in_voor_compensatie_flo_gat)
The Solidarnosc union federation wants the government to take a different approach to pay issues in the health service. Solidarnosc argues that the pay rates of professional groups should be set more systematically and linked in some way to the development of average earnings and to economic growth. For quite some time there are widespread disputes over pay in the Polish health sector and, according to union President Janusz Sniadek, the government is creating social tensions and even chaos by dealing with each professional group separately rather than negotiating across the whole of the health service. The OPZZ union federation has been pleading for pay rises of up to 11% in the public sector.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=249#a3603; http://www.solidarnosc.org.pl/en/archives/2008/jan/jan_24.htm; Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 2/2008)
Public services union UNISON continues to build a co-ordinated collective bargaining campaign - Pay Matters - in response to the government's policy of trying to limit public sector pay increases to 2% (See also Collective Bargaining Newsletter No. 1). On February 13, the union's national executive council met to discuss progress and to review in particular developments in local government. The council called upon branches and members to build bottom up pressure for fair pay rises beyond the government's limit and called for members across public services to speak out and provide the union with examples of what a 2% limit would mean to real people providing vital services. UNISON is emphasizing in particular the need to improve the pay of those on the lowest pay rates.
On February 18, UNISON, Unite and the GMB have rejected a three-year pay offer covering local authorities in Scotland. The employers' organisation proposed rises of 2.2% in 2008, 2.3% in 2009 and a further 2.2% in 2010. UNISON regional officer Dougie Back, secretary to the trade union negotiators, said: "This level of offer is unacceptable to local government staff. It doesn't approach the current rate of inflation, let alone begin to catch up the loss staff have suffered over recent years".
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=249#a3603; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=4032; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=4037)
A new pay agreement has been reached for the approximately 200,000 teachers employed by the Swedish municipalities, backdated to July 2007 and running until March 2010. The average pay increase for this period has been set on 10.2% totally. The teachers' unions said that their pay increases were lagging behind in their last wage accord, which explains the comparatively high increase.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 2/2008; Swedish: http://www.lararforbundet.se/web/ws.nsf)
Many Spanish collective agreements, covering about two-thirds of all workers, contain clauses providing for purchasing power to be sustained if price inflation exceeds the level forecasted at the time the agreements were signed. The inclusion of such compensation clauses has recently come under renewed criticism as Spanish business announced to have faced an extra wage bill of €3 billion because of this. Yet, the president of the national employers' association CEOE, Gerardo D¡az Ferr n, has defended such clauses, stating that without them unions' initial wage claims would be higher. Mr. D¡az Ferr n emphasized that guarantees in clauses have to be limited to sustaining purchasing power.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 2/2008; Spanish: http://press.jrc.it/NewsExplorer/entities/es/54148.html)