Collective Bargaining

As negotiations for new collective agreement for the sector are not making enough progress the countries’ ports are facing industrial action with trade union Ultrasport organising a 24-hour strike of port workers on 23 May 2019. The 24-hour strike followed industrial action in April 2019 when a one-hour walkout was organised after a worker lost his life due to injuries sustained in a forklift accident. One of the most pressing issues at hand is workplace security. According to the trade union the collective agreement has an irreplaceable role for the regulation and protection and is one of the central themes at the base of the dispute to safeguard the jobs at ports

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Following a dispute over working conditions and pay, airline, airport and air traffic control staff staged a 24 hour walkout that caused a half of the flights to and from Italy to cancel. Milan and Rome airports are the worst affected by the strike action. Besides the working conditions and pay dispute the strike is also partly a protest against failure to decide on the future of Alitalia which has been in administration for over two years as successive governments struggle to agree on a buyer. Alitalia is facing another, smaller, strike in June 2019.

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Employers of the country’s largest trade union FNV that are organised within their own union personnel union organised a rally outside of their headquarters. The union workers threatened with strike actions if the union management would go true with a reorganisation plan the union workers find to be ‘not worthy of a trade union’. The union management has now agreed upon withdrawing the reorganisation plan and will come up with a new plan.

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This year’s Living and working in Europe brings together Eurofound’s work on the living and working conditions of Europeans over 2015–2018. It has been a period of economic expansion and employment growth. But averages hide significant differences between countries and population groups, and developments across the continent. Over this four-year period, Eurofound has answered some key questions about the living standards, well-being and working conditions of Europeans, highlighting where policymaking needs to target its efforts if it is to be seen to deliver.

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Trade unions under the guidance of the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) took action in the Port of Ghent. ITF inspectors unsuccessfully tried to board the ship Pegasus to check the working and living conditions. The Blumenthal company employing some thousand persons on 50 ships is part of a bigger problem. The ITF estimates that more than one million people worldwide work under the non-regulated FOC system, which allows ship-owners to neglect national labour laws.

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In an ongoing dispute with the government an overwhelmingly 96% of chefs and 94% of support staff voted in favour of strike action in a ballot organised by trade union SIPTU. The total of 7000 health support staff that plans to go on strike work in 36 health care facilities throughout the country. The dispute with the government centres on the refusal to implement the findings of a job evaluation examining whether their roles and duties have expanded. When their roles and duties would be re-evaluated this could possibly see the health support staff receiving upgrades and pay rises.

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Trade unions have dismissed claims by the Chamber of Commerce and Industry that the recent minimum wage increase would have a profound negative impact on society and the economy. According to the unionists there is no data to back up claims by economists that higher minimum wage could cause job losses. As more and more signs arise that employer organisations want to prevent planned increases in the minimum wage that will come into effect in 2020 unions have announced they will fight with all available means what they believe are concealed attempts to change the law on minimum wage.

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A TUC analysis shows that 374,000 more employees are working from home than 10 years ago. But working from home is still not an option for everyone as their bosses are not giving them the option of homeworking. The TUC estimates that around 4 million more UK workers would like to work from home for at least some of their working week but aren’t given the chance. The analysis furthermore shows that are almost twice as many men as women homeworkers, older workers are more likely to work from home and that managers work at home more than any other group does.

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The local trade union organisation organised a protest in which more than 1,000 employees demanded higher tariff salaries. Last April they already declared a strike alert expressing their dissatisfaction with the salary hike negotiations. In response the company’s management points to the worsening situation on the steel market. Although the trade unionists are aware of the difficult situation within the sector, they believe employees deserve adequate salaries.

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The ongoing spontaneous actions by air traffic control centre Skeyes staff caused a closure of the Belgian airspace. Actions started already in March (see our March 2019 and April 2019 newsletters). They have caused a lot of trouble for the company while cancellations of flights forced e.g. Brussels Airlines to demand compensation of 4 million euros from Skeyes. Passengers were also victim because strikes at Skeyes are third party strikes and not the direct responsibility of the airlines, hence the right to financial compensation for passengers is no longer valid. On May 17, 2019 a Brussels court ruled that Skeyes has to pay 200,000 euros a day for each next strike. Following the ruling unions decided to cancel further actions.

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