Representatives of plant-level unions discussed joint strategies to protect workers’ rights at Inter-IKEA Industry factories. The meeting took place at the headquarters of Solidarnost. The common issues the unions discussed were: wages, retirement programs, seniority benefits, and occupational health and safety preventive fund. The representatives think that to solve these issues an open dialogue with national management and negotiations are needed.
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[close]Trade unions have gathered enough signatures to force their ‘67 is too much’ referendum. With this campaign that was launched on 27 April 2017 the unions want to reduce the country's retirement age to 65 from the current 67 years of age, reduce penalties for early retirement and extend the transition period for equalising the retirement conditions for women and men. The number of signatures needed was at least 10% of all the registered voters or 373,568 people and the unions’ collected more than 600,000 signatures in total. In December 2018 parliament approved the government's proposal to raise the retirement age to 67 and to reduce pensions for people who retire early.
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[close]In a three-day protest hundreds of public contract workers demanded the same treatment as their colleagues with permanent contracts. The workers and their union wanted to speak to the president and ask him why the government does not comply with EU laws on contracting. The union has already filed 100 cases with the labour disputes tribunal and has filed complaints with the EU and the European Parliament. As the government does not seem willingly to compromise the union warned they are likely to start an indefinite strike.
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[close]C State hospitals are facing a 24-hour strike to protest cutbacks and the increased contributions paid by patients for medicines and healthcare. According to trade union POEDIN Public health needs investment in human resources, medical equipment and infrastructure so that citizens can stop paying out of pocket some or all of the cost of treatment.
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[close]The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that companies in the EU must "set up an objective, reliable and accessible system" to record how many hours their employees work every day. The member states can define the specific arrangements for implementing such a system. Such systems are needed to secure that the EU's working time directive and the charter is respected, the court said. The Ministry of Economics was not yet able to make clear how this could be implemented in the country.
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[close]Housekeepers at NH Hotel that work for the subcontracting company Elior are on strike for more than a month now. The housekeepers and their union CNT demand the payment of all unpaid hours of work, the payment of meal and transport allowances, the reimbursement of salary deductions deemed unfair, the payment of an exceptional premium in compensation for the injury, an increase of qualifications in the conventional wage schedule, the 50% Sunday increase, a 13th month and a new work organization that is more respectful of employees' privacy.
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[close]Addressing the Unite trade union conference, the congress general secretary accused employers in the accommodation, retail and hospitality sectors of seeking to work low paid employees as hard as they can for as long as they can, for as little as possible. The general secretary said that as someone who sits on the Low Pay Commission where she hears all the submissions regarding whether the National Minimum Wage should be increased. At the conference the general secretary also stated that collective bargaining has a crucial role to play in ensuring economic inclusivity - as well as making it more difficult for employers to pursue a strategy of driving down pay to increase their own competitiveness.
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[close]In a new article in the scientific journal Work, Employment and Society is analysed how unions succeed in organizing transnational workforce at the construction of the Copenhagen Metro City Ring. Despite several subcontracting firms that actively sought to circumvent Danish labour-market regulation. Transnational workers in large construction projects are often poorly integrated in the national labour-market regulation, which causes that current collective agreements are not always enforced. Trade unions have thus been able to change their organizational and enforcement strategies so that they better include transnational workers in the country. To be able to do this successfully the union created shared goals and identities across different groups of workers and actively tried to change the public owners' attitude to employment conditions.
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Academic trade union demands wage hike of 30%
May, 2019
The academic trade unions have sent a sectoral agreement draft to the council of rectors of the Estonian universities. In the draft, the unions petition for improved working conditions, and for a salary increase by at least 30 percent. Higher education employees want the agreement to take effect starting 2020. Among other things, the unions are petitioning for the extension of the minimum leave for academic employees from currently 35 days to 56 days, due to the nature of their work. Last year scientists also organized a protest outside Riigikogu to highlight the problem of funding in the academic sector.
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[close]Thyssenkrupp’s management and labour leaders from IG Metall reached an agreement on a reorganization announced on Friday that could result in 6,000 job cuts. They reached an agreement that acknowledges the need for an overhaul while ensuring the fair treatment of employees.
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[close]After months of negotiations trade unions have signed an agreement with the Laconsegna food delivery platform that gives their riders a permanent contract with rights and protections. This is the first agreement in the country that governs subordinate work for riders. The agreement recognizes riders as subordinate workers with the right to apply the national contract, get the hours they actually worked paid instead of being paid not on the basis of deliveries and recognition of the rights and protections that are assigned to all workers in the sector such as paid vacation and sick leave. Trade unions expressed their hopes that the agreement reached with the food delivery platform will lead the way to other agreements that protect the rights of workers in the gig economy.
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