Because of anticipated personnel shortages the government plans to hire foreign doctors and drafted a regulation listing 29 specialties in which foreign specialists could be hired on more lax requirements. The Latvian Health and Social Care Workers' Trade Union (LVSADA) responded with anger stating that the way to address anticipated staffing shortages is to start paying decent salaries to local medics.
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[close]According to several experts, ordinary workers are paying the price of the financial crisis and reforms that were imposed in the aftermath of the strike. While consumer prices have not fallen, salaries went down by an average of 15% since 2010. According to the country’s leading labour think-tank the Labour Institute, salary cuts should have led to a cut in the prices of products and services but they didn’t because product markets are to a great extent monopolies or oligopolies. The country has a serious skills mismatch with a highly educated workforce that is often overqualified for the jobs that are available.
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[close]The strike in regional transport, organised together by trade unions FNV and CNV is still going on as no agreement on the dispute on wage and working schedules was reached (see our April newsletter). Workers are on strike in support of their demands for a 3% wage increase, lower workload, more training and breaks to use the bathroom. The trade unions of bus and train drivers in privatised public transport companies have been negotiating with employers for equal pay with their colleagues working for the national railway company NS. A train driver working for NS earns up to 10% more than workers for private company Arriva.
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[close]The protests against the reform plans continue with students and railway workers in action. The ‘two out of five days’ strike at the railway is still going on with no agreement in sight. The railway workers keep striking despite government’s pledge to take over €35 billion of SNCF’s debt. Moreover, on 22 May more than 15,000 public sector workers, including teachers, police officers, transport staff and air traffic controllers, took to it to the streets in Paris to protest against the planned economic reforms. Air France pilots, cabin crew and ground staff have been holding strike actions since February 2018 (see earlier 2018 newsletters). Unions are asking for a 6.6% pay rise that the company deems ‘impossible’. At first Air France came up with a proposal for a 1% increase to be paid in two stages, and then offered a 2% increase. Air France workers are still holding on to their demands while Air France CEO Jean Marc Janaillac decided to resign after airline staff refused a new pay deal designed to end weeks of strikes.
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[close]After unsuccessful negotiations with Lidl management - the company offered four times lower than the Lidl workers’ demands (see our April newsletter) - several strikes were held in Lidl shops to protest understaffing and work pressure. After a wave of strikes covering more than a week and the blockade of all five of Lidl’s distribution centres, Lidl’s management finally acceded to the union’s request. Each store will get the equivalent of 42 extra staff hours per week to alleviate working pressures.
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[close]Workers at two TGI Friday's restaurants - Milton Keynes and Covent Garden London - held a 24-hour strike action on 18 May 2018 in a dispute over minimum wages and tips. They had been given two days' notice that they would be stripped of 40% of their income from tips - a loss of up to 250 pounds per month. Workers at two other TGI Friday's locations, members of Unite, voted 100% in favour of possible strike action on 25 June, with other locations set to follow.
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[close]Industri Energi, the trade union that represents the largest part of workers on offshore oil drilling rigs, has concluded a new wage deal. The Safe union, a smaller involved union, still has to ask its members to decide whether they accept the deal. According to Industri Energi the deal means a ‘solid increase’ in pay, while the Safe union said the pay rise was smaller than it had hoped for.
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[close]The Central Organisation of Finnish Trade Unions (SAK) is critical about government plans to increase flexibility that will lead to more overtime. The SAK fears that extending overtime hours could result in fewer new hires. If approved, the proposed law would increase the allowed overtime from 2250 hours to slightly above 2300 hours per year. Under the new rules, in a four-week period, the number of working hours could not exceed an average of 48 hours per week.
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[close]Uber has introduced for its drivers a modified insurance scheme that provides them with workers' rights following increasing pressure from unions. Uber offered, since 2017, a pay-for insurance scheme to drivers to cover losses in the event of illness or injury. This scheme is now enhanced and made free for all taxi drivers who have completed at least 150 trips over a period of eight weeks, or Uber Eats workers who completed at least 30 deliveries over a period of eight weeks. Drivers can access a lump sum of £7,500 in medical cover, £50,000 for a permanent injury related to the job, bereavement pay, and sickness pay of up to £75 per day for 15 days and £30 a day for a further 15 days. According to the trade unions, the deal still falls short of what the drivers would likely be legally entitled to if they took their case to court.
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[close]According to a study by market research company GfK, the Romanians’ purchasing power recorded the fastest growth in the European Union in 2017, namely 7.8% (against an EU-average of 1.9%). But, in nominal terms, the country’s purchasing power of 4,556 euro remained at one of the lowest levels in the EU. This is almost 4 times lower than the EU average of 16,436 euro.
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