Collective Bargaining

The statistical office published the final wage data for 2016. The median gross wage in 2016 landed at 6603 Swiss francs, an increase 0ver two years with 1.2%. The gender wage gap in 2014 was 15.2%. This gap slowly decreased in the two-years period that the office applied. Another report revealed that the number of households depending on social and economic protection has reached a record high level. The necessary budget increased from 3.5 million Swiss francs in 2007 to 9.8 million Swiss francs in 2017 (an increase of 181%).

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Municipal rubbish collectors in Strovolos went on strike to protest the use of private companies for garbage collection. They are asking the municipality to examine the suggestions made by the trade unions to create inter-municipal services. Municipalities are forced since the economic crisis to hire private companies because they are not allowed to fill vacant jobs in the garbage collection which has led to too much workload for the public garbage collectors. Unions are worried about the use of private companies replacing public garbage services because private garbage collection companies refuse to bargain. The practice will gradually lead to loss of municipal posts as dustmen who eventually retire will no longer be replaced. The refusal to negotiate collective agreements for the workers leads to lower salaries and even illegal employment.

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Trade unions at the country’s state-owned airline LOT last month announced that they were planning to go on an indefinite strike from 1 May (see our April newsletter) but this indefinite strike was deemed illegal by court and therefore eventually called off. Instead LOT workers held several ‘go slow’ actions whereby workers only ‘worked to rule’. The willingness to take action came after more than three years of negotiations with the airline over pay.

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The OECD launched, in cooperation with the ILO, the report ‘Building trust in a changing world of work’. The report stresses the critical role of social dialogue in creating decent work and inclusive growth. It also stresses that new efforts are needed to ensure the recognition and realisation of the rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The report highlights the crucial role of social dialogue in enhancing the inclusiveness of labour protection and the important role played by social partners in shaping the future of work, through workplace cooperation, collective bargaining and tripartite social dialogue.

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Aviation industry union FNV Luchtvaart had reached agreement with two of the three independent baggage and passenger handling firms at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport earlier this month and later this month the third passenger handling firm Aviapartner also committed itself to the agreement. Workers at international airport Schiphol’s’ handling firms asked for a pay increase of 3% or at least 75 euro a month, less work pressure by hiring additional staff and healthier work schedules (see our April newsletter). The union has agreed terms with Menzies Aviation, Swissport Handling and Aviapartners that will lead to a wage increase of about 5% over two years.

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Amidst a dispute over staff pay and conditions, the Coventry University Group (CUG) was trying to undermine union rights by setting up a ‘sham’ trade union – the Staff Consultative Group. The CUG signed a recognition agreement for it to represent staff – denying them official UCU representation. After protests and a petition named ‘Stop the anti-union dirty tricks in the Coventry University Group’ that was signed over 10000 times unions and CUG have come to an agreement on trade union representation. The agreement provides UCU with a voluntary recognition as a trade union for academic staff at the CU campuses, working alongside the Staff Consultative Group and others.

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Following a joint recruitment campaign by Petrol-Is Chemical and Rubber Workers’ Union of Turkey a sufficient number of workers at Yves Rocher’s subsidiary, Kosan Kozmetik, joined a trade union. After the workers joined the unions they approached the company with an offer to discuss collective bargaining. The company rejected the offer and instead started to intimidate and even fire workers that had joined the unions. A total 0f 85 workers has been dismissed. All the dismissal cases have been taken into the judicial process since the termination of contracts due to union membership is unjustified.

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In March over one thousand Madrid based Amazon workers went on strike with a two-day walkout demanding better pay and conditions. It was the country’s first ever strike at Amazon. In April, Amazon announced that it has decided not to renew the contract of over 100 temporary workers at a logistics centre that participated in the strikes (see our March and April newsletters). This month protests continue with more than 1,000 Amazon workers walking off the job at the company’s San Fernando fulfilment centre to protest overreliance on zero-hour contracts and abuse of temporary workers.

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Telecom Italia has asked the government to approve a temporary layoff scheme for 4000 workers as part of the new 2018-20 business plan the telecoms group unveiled in March. The telecom operator is unable to cut jobs due to union pressure. Their alternative is a state-sponsored scheme whereby workers remain at home for a certain period of time as the company adjusts to lower market demand but are not laid off.

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A FES-report compares the SEE countries in the area of wages, tax policy and income redistribution. Inequality levels in Croatia are moderate to low, showing a gradual, downward trend, converging with the average level of inequality of EU28 countries. The redistributive impact of social transfers and pensions in the countries considered varies: for instance, social transfers and pensions accounted for a reduction of 19 Gini points in Croatia, 15 points in Macedonia, and as much as 24 points in Serbia in 2015 (as opposed to 21 points for the EU28 in 2015). Other forms of social transfers, including social assistance or unemployment benefits, had a substantial impact on inequality in Croatia, similar to that of the EU28.

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