The government is planning on a pension reform in the second quarter of 2018 that will increase the pension age from 65 to 67. The Union of Autonomous Trade Unions (SSSH) is opposing the planned reforms. The SSSH states that the country already has higher unemployment rates that will only increase further when the retirement age is going up. They also point out that life expectancy is about three years less than in the rest of the European Union.
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[close]For non-Swedes, the functioning of the labour market can seem positively baffling. This article provides a clear introduction to the ‘Swedish model’ including the position of collective bargaining and trade unions. Based on the division of responsibilities between the state and trade unions, the two work in tandem to guarantee good working conditions and fair treatment of every worker. The autonomy of the social partners to negotiate about wages and working conditions is a key feature of the model.
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[close]Unionised workers in several NGOs have started initiatives for better wages. NGOs provide work for around 645,000 people and aim to create a fairer world. However, the working conditions for many of its employees seem to deny them the very rights they are employed to safeguard for others. During the crisis, the central and regional governments drastically reduced the budgets for this so-called ‘third sector’, which generates an annual €14 billion in revenue and represents 1.5% of the country’s GDP. Consequently, some of the country’s 30,000 NGOs froze or lowered the salaries of their staff – a situation that has never been redressed.
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[close]Two unions warn that, although the EU member states reached an agreement to tighten posted worker controls, another door has been opened to social dumping. They refer to the fact that the country has relieved the import of workers with or without qualification under the pretext that shortages stall the economic development. The unions describe the mechanism that the workers enter through Bulgaria, but in practice they work in Western Europe for extremely low wages.
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[close]Workers at a waste management plant organised a one-day strike to pressure their company to sign the collective agreement that officially expired in December 2017. The workers said that they will give the company three weeks to sign the collective agreement. They threatened to go on an indefinite strike if the company fails to do so. The company says it has to finalise their agreements with the state.
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[close]Since the government changed sectoral bargaining laws in 2011, workers’ ability to have industry-wide representation was restricted. Unions have to represent more than 7 % of the sector’s workforce to agree to sectoral representation. As a result, pay and working conditions deteriorated. Moreover, the changing banking environment characterised by massive investments in IT infrastructure and cutting offline units and jobs forces trade unions to save jobs and obtain benefits for employees who lose their jobs. Banks already cut around 15,000 jobs during the last decade. The current collective agreement which expires at the end of this year, says employees who lose their jobs are eligible for compensation benefits up to 12 monthly salaries. But in recent years, the unions detected a tendency to reduce benefits for workers who lose their jobs, due to limited job creation. The Federation of Trade Unions in Insurance and Banking (FSAB) is preparing for a historic fight to regain the sectoral bargaining rights. A sectoral agreement would cover all the 100,000 workers employed by the finance companies and raise standards in the industry.
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[close]The telecom workers trade union organised a rally outside a downtown office of Croatian Telekom to protest wage cuts and lay-offs. The gross salary of the workers at Croatian Telekom centres of 800 euro has been cut by 15%. Besides the wage cuts, the union claims that Croatian Telekom laid off half of its staff in the past four years to replace them with cheaper labour from employment agencies. Management claims that the workers have very good salaries above the national level that will increase under the new model instead of be cut.
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[close]A IMF paper examines whether there is a competitiveness challenge in Italy and evaluates the framework of wage bargaining. Wages are set at the sectoral level and extended nationally. However, according to the IMF, they do not respond well to firm-specific productivity, regional disparities, or skill mismatches. Nominally rigid wages have also implied adjustment through lower profits and employment. The paper is a classical example of the IMF-reasoning that decentralisation of bargaining leads to higher employment rates.
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[close]The spring round of collective bargaining started on 7 March with the negotiations for the approximately 8,000 employees of the paper industry. The electrical and electronics industry (50,000 employees) followed on 12 March. The wage negotiations in the chemical industry (45,000 employees) will start on 5 April 2018. Part of the demands of the workers in the domestic industry are an increase in minimum wages or minimum salaries, increase of actual wages and or actual salaries with special consideration of the recipients of low incomes and a legal claim to leisure option. Negotiators state that the industry is doing well and now is the time for workers to be properly involved in the success.
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[close]The statistical office published its latest data on the labour market evolution. Labour market participation is still low and the unemployment stays at a very high level (14.7% by the end of 2017). Compared to the third quarter 2017, employment decreased in the fourth quarter by 118 300. The highest part (86%) was due to the seasonal character of the jobs in agriculture, forestry and fishery and in households producing goods and services. Unemployment increased, compared to 2016, with 1.6%.
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