Collective Bargaining

According to a recent report of the Institute for Labour and Qualification (IAQ) of the University Duisburg - Essen, in 2008 the incidence of low pay (defined as the share of employees earning less than two-thirds of the median hourly wage, or Euro 9.06 in 2008) in Germany was 20.7% -- slightly less than the 21.5% share of 2006, but much higher than the 1995 incidence (below 15%) and also still quite high compared with other industrialized countries. In 2008, the low-pay incidence was with 29.9% among females more than double that among males. Across industries, the share of low-paid was highest in cleaning (78.4%), hospitality (60.5%) and security (54.0%). In retail the low-pay incidence was 34.0%, in the care sector 26.7%. The IAQ researchers go into efforts to conclude industry collective agreements that the government, if covering 50% of employees at national level, based on the Posted Workers Act can declare generally binding. In 2010 this has been realized for low-pay sectors such as waste treatment (January, 130,000 employed), commercial cleaning (March, 860,000), and the care sector (August, 810,000). Though the coming into being of these industry-specific minimum wages may diminish the share of the very low-paid, the researchers make the reservation that the agreed minimum wage rates remain quite low, below the low-pay threshold of Euro 9.06 (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 December 2009 and Year 3 March, May and July-August 2010).
English: G. Bosch, C. Weinkopf (2010) EWERC EC project Minimum Wage System and Changing Industrial Relations in Europe. National Report Germany. Duisburg - Essen: IAQ (http://www.mbs.ac.uk/research/europeanemployment/projects .)
Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry

Trade union leaders want carmaker Fiat to provide job guarantees and give workers a greater say in company policy to win their support of the company's efforts to boost productivity. Union leaders at Fiat's leading Italian plant at Melfi in the southern region of Basilicata are looking at German carmakers such as Volkswagen in providing a model for a deal between employer and workers to fight fierce competition from lower labour cost countries. "In the German model one can see how it is possible to be competitive even with salaries which are much higher than in Italy," the secretary general of the CISL union for Basilicata told a group of foreign reporters (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 July-August 2010).
English: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international-business/Fiat-unions ...
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Italy

The British Airways cabin crew dispute is set to return to the courts. On 17 September, the Unite union said it will lodge an appeal at the high court over the withdrawal of travel concessions for almost 7,000 of its members who went on strike earlier this year. A Unite spokesman said: "Sadly, one year on this dispute remains unresolved. We are being forced to defend our members and their rights to just treatment in the courtroom because BA refuses to play fairly at the negotiating table." One day later, it turned out that Unite has also accused BMI, Heathrow's second-largest airline owned by Lufthansa, of breaching staff contracts after failing to uphold a three-year pay deal in 2007 that included annual pay rises. Brian Boyd, a Unite national officer, argued: "Staff agreed to defer the increase to help the company during difficult times. They are still waiting for the company to honour its end of the bargain. Staff have not had an increase in earnings since 2008" (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 May and June 2010).
English: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/sep/19/unite-court-ba-airline-dispute
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2010/sep/20/bmi-high-court-pay-freeze

After the successful renewal of collective agreements in April, Harald Borsting, president of the LO union confederation, commented "I am extremely pleased to say that we have also addressed the issue of social dumping in the collective agreements with a view to combating wage dumping at the expense of Danish workers." According to a mediation proposal resulting from collective bargaining, employers' associations Confederation of Danish Industry (DI), Danish Construction Association (DB) and LO have agreed to work to act against social dumping, in particular in transport and construction. Furthermore, the associations have agreed to encourage their member companies to refrain from using foreign contractors that fail to observe Danish collective agreements. The central organisations have also agreed on ensuring speedy industrial disputes procedure in cases that involve social dumping. However, in construction the social partners were not able to reach agreement on chain ("third party") liability, the unions maintaining the demand for such liability. In September, the need to defend jobs against the growing threat of social dumping was confirmed by the congress of the Fagligt F‘lles Forbund (3F) union (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 February and July-August 2010).
English: LO, Danish Labour News (http://www.lo.dk/~/media/LO/English/DLN ...)
http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/5113
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/03/articles/dk1003031i.htm

In April 2010, after tough negotiations the social partners in the Bulgarian textiles and leather industry renewed their national collective agreement. The agreement was reached between the Bulgarian Association of the Knitwear Industry, the Federation of Independent Trade Unions in Light Industry at CITUB and the Federation of Light Industry at Bulgaria's second largest union CL Podkrepa. It preserved a pact on wages and jobs. The parties agreed that the minimum wage for knitwear workers should be not less than 110% of the national minimum wage during normal working hours. Also, additional paid leave for those working under hazardous health conditions and compensation for work carried out during irregular hours have been agreed. It has to be noted that the agreement is mainly followed in larger companies, although the government has formally extended it to small and medium-sized businesses. Most recently, representatives of the Bulgarian textile industry have stated that they have been overwhelmed with orders and had to turn down some of them due to lack of capacity. In July and August 2010, orders in the sector increased by 18 to 22%. The vice-president of the employers' association, Bertram Rollmann, said, "The problem is the lack of employees we lost during the crisis. We could employ up to 30,000 people in the next year."
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/06/articles/bg1006019i.htm
http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=120226

Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry

The yearly gathering of the Trades Union Congress (TUC) has taken a fierce stand against the cuts in public spending announced by the new Conservative - Liberal Democrat government coalition, estimated at 25% for most departments. The impact of Ireland's austerity measures should also be a warning to the government that cutting jobs and services risks threatening Britain's economic recovery, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told delegates. Moreover, "Decent public services are the glue that holds a civilised society together, and we diminish them at our peril," said Barber, adding "Cut services, put jobs in peril, and increase inequality - that is the way to make Britain a darker, brutish, more frightening place." Most recently the TUC position gets growing support. A growing number of reputed economists and think-tanks, including the Organisation for Economic and Co-operation and Development (OECD), suggest that fast-track belt-tightening could be the wrong medicine at the wrong time.
English: http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKLNE68C02R20100913
http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/politics ...

On 5 January 2010, AB InBev, a Belgian-Brazilian multinational brewing group, announced a large restructuring plan that included cuttingÿ304 jobsÿat its Belgian sites, within the context of a global plan with 800 job losses in western Europe. The national legal framework on information and social dialogue (the "Renault procedure") started immediately after the announcement. The InBev managementÿjustified its decision by the fall in alcoholic consumptionÿin Belgium. Nevertheless, unions and workers rejected this explanation since the group seemed to have escaped the economic crisis given large profits achieved in 2009. After a number of strikes and lengthy negotiations, the restructuring plan was suspended and a new period of information and consultation decided, after which new negotiations would take place. Yet, these negotiations actually seem to be near a deadlock. The InBev management continues to emphasize the need for cost reductions as well as for higher investments in marketing and innovation. The unions involved said to continue their opposition against dismissals, adding that the workload at InBev Belgium is already quite high.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/02/articles/be1002029i.htm
Dutch: http://www.express.be/sectors/nl/horeca/opnieuw-vakbondsonderhandelingen ...

Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry

On 8 September, the leaders of five industrial unions (the Electrical Workers' Union, the Paperworkers' Union, the Union of Salaried Employees TU, the Wood and Allied Workers' Union and TEAM) and the Construction Union announced their determination to cooperate closely during the on-going round of collective bargaining. At this stage cooperation primarily means an exchange of information and common analyses of inflation and other economic factors. Concrete forms of support are still open and to be considered later on if needed. The union leaders have not yet sought to specify their pay demands except for the Union of Salaried Employees TU, which is going for an increase of close to 3% in the wood mechanical industry. The announcement of the six union leaders follows the proposal of confederation SAK's president Lauri Lyly to have a common minimum union demand in the upcoming negotiations (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 July-August 2010).
English: http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2010/n26
http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2010/n25

On 17 May 2010, the employers' association (UIMM) and the trade unions (CFDT, CGT-FO, CFE-CGC and CFTC) signed an agreement to improve the job security of skilled workers in the metal industry. The agreement strengthens the management of employment and skills at company level by establishing a so-called period of mobility allowing workers with two years' service to take up a new post with another employer while retaining the right to return to their previous employment. When the former contract of employment is severed, the employee leaves the company with the agreed compensation and, if applicable, rights to unemployment benefits unaffected. A representative of the CFDT metal union commented that the agreement is an innovation that improves the job security of skilled workers, "because up till now, in order to try a new post in another company, an employee had to resign with the risk of regretting this if the new job was not successful". The agreement also contains several provisions that aim to strengthen the management of employment and competences, in particular by reinforcing the role of the Qualifications Observatory within the metal sector.
English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/07/articles/fr1007041i.htm
French: http://www.uimm.fr/fr/pdf/accords_metaux/2010-05-17_Accord-national ...

Special focus(Bargaining to exit the crisis in the private industry

Trade unions and most parties represented in parliament have criticized a manifesto with proposals that the Estonian Employers' Confederation has unveiled by the end of August. Political parties criticized the proposal to raise the pension age from the current level of age 63 to at least 67 and to ban support strikes that are allowed under the Collective Labour Dispute Resolution Act. Harry Taliga, president of the Confederation of Trade Unions, stated that employers aim to change the country's principles of social security. The employers' manifesto proposes to change the burden of social tax to fall on the employees instead of employers, by cap social tax payments to three average monthly wages, lower corporate taxes and abolish social tax from business income. Taliga asserted, "This will by no means improve employment rates nor bring high-paid jobs to Estonia." The current debate has to be seen at the backdrop of a fall of Estonia's gross domestic product (GDP) of 14% in 2009 and an unemployment rate of nearly 20% in the first quarter of 2010.
English: http://balticbusinessnews.com/article/2010/08/31/Employers_proposals_draw ...
http://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/26878/
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2010/06/articles/ee1006019i.htm