Collective Bargaining

Despite temperatures well below zero thousands of people took to the streets in protest of an amendment to the Labour Code that allows for employers to demand 400 hours of overtime that was passed in parliament. This so called ‘slave law’ does not only almost doubles the amount of overtime that an employer can demand of his or her employees but also states that payment for this overtime can be delayed by up to three years. Opposition parties and trade unions announced more actions coming next month. Massive demonstrations such as these are a rare sight in the country under the current presidency.

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After earlier strike actions at the supermarket chain stores (see our September and November newsletters) trade union Verdi called out a two-day warning strike just before Christmas... Until the end of May, Real still had a collective agreement with trade union Verdi but then the company decided to go a different path and cut employment costs by abandoning the collective agreement they had with union Verdi.

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During the month cleaners at Luton Airport engaged in industrial action over a wage dispute. Part of the industrial action was a 2 week-long strike that also covered the Christmas days. The cleaners union Unite points out that while the company makes a yearly profit of nearly 40 million pounds it is not willing to pay their cleaners the real living wage. The company said that it had offered staff a 9% increase over three years but according to at that rate cleaners at Luton Airport still won't be earning a real living wage in 2021.

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After 40 days of strike by the stevedores their union SEAL and the port administration finally reached an agreement that put an end to the strike. One of the main problems of the workers was the lack of job security and formal contracts, workers were usually just hired for one day’s work. Union and management have agreed to 56 casual workers being offered contracts by the stevedoring companies, and a further 10 to 37 being offered the same in the near future. The strike has blocked a total of over 20.000 cars from a nearby Volkswagen plant. Volkswagen had no alternative route for transporting the cars and is believed to have put pressure on the port management to come to an agreement that would end the strike.

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The upcoming collective bargaining round in the public service could become tough with trade unions Verdi, the German Civil Servants Union (dbb), the Union of Education and Science (GEW) and the Gewerkschaft der Polizei (GdP) demanding a 6% wage increase or at least 200 euro gross a month more for workers in the civil service of the federal states. In total, there are 2.3 million employees in civil service of the federal states who would benefit from the wage hike. The new pay collective agreement should have a term of twelve months. The collective bargaining round starts on 21 January 2019.

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A new law banning controversial zero-hour contracts "in most circumstances" will come into force in March 2019. The Employment (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill was passed by both houses of the Oireachtas and will now be presented to the President for his signature. Under the new law, zero-hour contracts will be outlawed except in situations of genuine casual employment and where they are essential to allow employers to provide cover in emergency situations or to cover short-term absence. The legislation will also compel employers to pay a new minimum payment to employees called into work but sent home again without work. The Employment Bill has been described by politicians and media as one of the most significant pieces of employment law in a generation.

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After a year of negotiations with employers for a new collective bargaining agreement, the unions representing bus drivers have found themselves in a deadlock. The agreement, which defines hourly rates below the minimum wage and allows bus drivers to be on the job for as much as 360 hours a month is unacceptable to the drivers. In response, they have announced plans to increase union pressure tactics, while not ruling out a halt of all public transportation. It remains unclear what the bus drivers are going to do now negotiations are deadlocked.

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The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) says that unions in the private sector would be justified in seeking baseline pay rises of at least 3.4 per cent in 2019. In addition, where sector specific or enterprise specific performance is above the average for the economy, unions should take this into account when formulating wage claims. According to an ICTU report conditions are improving in the private sector with weekly earnings up 3,6%.

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When hiring a cleaning specialist or a part-time gardening assistant it is not always easy to keep social security and tax bills accurate. All employers in the country are required to settle and pay statutory social security contributions such as pensions and payroll tax deductions. Furthermore, there may be the obligation to take out non-occupational and / or occupational accident insurance, to pay half of the compulsory health insurance and to conclude a daily sickness benefit insurance. The government has therefore developed a guideline to help people who want to employ workers for small tasks.

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W In online gig work, self-employed workers complete projects remotely for clients obtained through online labour platforms. Surveys suggest that similar proportions of European workers engage in online gig work and local gig work, yet the two differ significantly. The online gig economy is transnational and spans a full spectrum of skills, from data entry to software development. This article goes into what this development might mean for the future of the labour market. And as online workers are not organized into unions, and in many countries could not legally be organized even if they wanted to, since they are self-employed what does the upcoming gig-economy mean for the quality of work?

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