Collective Bargaining

Civil servant that work for the federal authorities staged a protest against proposals to, amongst other things, reform the rules governing their sick pay entitlement. The reform introduces rules that enable workers no longer to save 21 sick days and transfer them to their holiday and sick pay on full pay entitlement for the following year. The changes apply to federal civil servants and the ‘special corps’ that include the police, the fire service, military personnel and those working for courts of law. Members of the Civil Protection Agency and fire fighters marched in their uniforms.

Read on: in English … in English (2) …

Trade unions announced that they are prepared to take measures if a government amendment that will make it easier to dismiss individuals for companies with less than 20 employees is tabled. According to the unions this have a major impact on workers as 97 % of companies have less than 20 employees and a total of 36% of the countries’ workforce are working in companies with less than 20 employees. The Transport Workers' Union (AKT) announced an overtime work stoppage for several of its industries which will affect trucking, bus conductors, bus station enterprises, car repair shops and road tanker transport. The industrial workers will join service, food, and electric workers in a 24-hour strike on 3 October in their protest.

Read on: in English … in English (2) … in English (3) …

The fight for better working conditions of pilots and crew members at Ryanair culminated in a series of industrial actions (see our July/ August newsletter). Although some results were achieved, trade unions have announced a 24-hour strike for 28 September. Eight unions in five European countries called on their pilot members to participate in the strike action. Italy’s Uiltrasporti and FILT-CGIL, Portugal’s SNPVAC, Belgium’s CNE/LBC, Spain’s SITCPLA and USO, and VNV and FVN in the Netherlands. Besides the pilots, other crew in Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal will join the industrial action that forces Ryanair to cancel 190 flights.

Read on: in English … in English (2) … in English (3) ….

Trade unions have accused furniture retail chain Ikea of undermining workers’ rights in Ireland, the US and Portugal, and asked the Dutch government to mediate. The international UNI Global Union and other workers’ groups including trade union Mandate said in a letter to the Dutch government’s point of contact with the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) that Ikea Group had acted against OECD guidelines by not curbing anti-union conduct by managers in the three countries. Therefore, it is impossible to bargain in a climate free of fear and intimidation.

Read on: in English …

The draft budget for 2019 provides for salary increases as agreed by the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Health. Salaries of nurses will grow with 16% in 2019. According to this proposal, an additional budget must be available for salaries of medical staff, for reconstruction, medical equipment, screening or reversible deaths. The salaries of medical staff will increase by more than 200 million euro.

Read on: in English …

A judge has ruled that 16 temporary workers at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol are receiving a supplementary payment of between €6,500 and €50,000 each, according to an announcement by Dutch union FNV. The workers were cargo handlers and worked through a company called Flexcargo for DHL or Menzies. They did not receive the normal irregularity allowance. Most of the workers, many of whom are from the UK and Poland, are in the meantime directly employed by DHL.

Read on: in English … The FNV statement: in Dutch …

According to the chair of the building and woodworkers union GBH, the planned reform of the social security, will lead to a decrease of the control on compliance and regularity in the sector. Especially in the construction sector, it is of the utmost importance that there is a decent control, for instance, whether someone is genuinely self-employed. The reform is an open invitation to circumvent regulatory.

Read on: in German …

Members of the nurses unions are recommended to reject recent government pay proposals aimed at addressing staff shortages in the health service. The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) have recommended this. They say that the proposals do not address the serious recruitment and retention issues in the profession. Unions have not ruled out the possibility of industrial action. INMO union members will be balloted in October 2018 on whether to accept or reject the Government’s proposals. If rejected, a ballot to strike will follow.

Read on: in English …

The government has prepared legislation that will transfer the powers to grant licenses to private-hire drivers (known in Spain as VTC) from the central to the regional governments, giving the latter the power to restrict the activity of such companies by, in effect, demanding that they apply for a second license, this time from the local authorities. UNAUTO, the business association covering the sector of private-hire drivers strongly oppose the move, whilst the taxi associations accuse firms like Uber of intruding in the sector, of not paying taxes, and of benefiting from the cheaper cost of a license compared to that of a taxi.

Read on: in English …

The workers of SOVA, the Intelligence and Safety Agency, started nine months ago with a strike in a fight for a re-assessment of positions and more staff. Observers have noted that inside the management nobody has paid attention to the conflict or dealt with the demands. The government has dismissed the acting director.

Read on: in English …