Collective Bargaining

The CITUB and Podkrepa union confederations have decided to pull out of the National Council for Tripartite Cooperation, as a protest against what they claim is the government's persistent failure to honour its commitments and in support for demands for "honest pay". The two confederations warned that ordinary workers must not be left bearing the brunt alone for the global financial crisis. They are demanding a tangible increase in the national minimum wage (CITUB earlier called for a 18.2% hike from 1 January 2009) and 20% pay rises in the public sector. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No.'s 7 and 8).
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 11/2008; http://www.bnr.bg/RadioBulgaria/Emission_English/News/1211-B17.htm, via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Bulgaria)

The public sector seems to be heading for a major clash over pay increases for 2009. The unions are demanding a general norm of 15.9% for awards, with a similar increase in national minimum wage rates, currently HUF 69,900 (Euro 272) per month. The government, however, says it intends to freeze all wages under its direct control, and heads of state companies are being urged to take a similar line. The public service unions have renewed the statutes of their combined strike committee, declaring that the proposed austerity measures are unacceptable (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No.'s 7 and 8).
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 11/2008ÿ; http://www.budapesttimes.hu/content/view/9829/27/)

The government has confirmed to raise the national minimum wage by 9.8% to SKK 8,902 (Euro 266) per month from 1 January 2009, using the legislative amendment it passed earlier in 2008. That establishes the formula for calculating increases when those cannot be agreed between employers and unions. The minimum hourly rate will also go up by 9.8% to SKK 51.15 (Euro 1.53) (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No.'s 6 and 7).
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 11/2008)

After the parliament, on its own initiative, voted a 50% wage increase for teachers, which the unions insist should be applied from 1 October 2008, the government sought to postpone it until 1 April 2009, thus provoking industrial unrest. President Traian Basescu now finally has announced legislation to implement this award. Most recently the government, facing parliamentary elections on 30 November 2008, says it has reached an outline agreement with employers and trade unions on future pay policy in the public sector.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 11/2008)

After months of dispute at the Sellafield nuclear energy site, members of the Unite and GMB unions voted to accept a pay offer of the British Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA). In mid-September members of the Prospect union accepted a 2.5% pay increase plus a 2.5% bonus. During October, Unite and GMB members were engaged in limited industrial action, strictly performing work in their own job classifications. Now these members voted by a three-to-one margin to accept similar terms. They received four months back pay, and two separate bonus schemes of UKP 600 each. An added incentive in the negotiated proposal was a UKP 1,500 "goodbye bonus" as the NDA prepares to sell its nuclear assets to Nuclear Management Partners, a consortium of French, American and British energy interests.
(English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/?date=2008-11-17#2847)

A large majority of union members accepted the collective agreement agreed on 30 October by the IG BCE union and the rubber employers' association, covering 30,000 workers. The 15-month agreement, backdated from 1 September to 30 November 2009, calls for a wage increase of 2.5% by 1 November. On 1 July, another increase of 1.3% will be put into effect. The yearly training allowance is increased by Euro 25 per worker, effective on 1 January 2009. The rubber employers have committed Euro 4 million to the Association of Employment Promotion (VzB), which assures a flexible transition to retirement.
(English: http://www.icem.org/en/78-ICEM-InBrief/?date=2008-11-17#2848)

The IG Metall union and employers' association Gesamtmetall have reached a 18-month pilot agreement in the engineering sector for the bargaining region of Baden-Wrttemberg. It includes a pay increase of 4.2% to be entered into the pays scales: 2.1% from 1 February 2009, with an additional increase of 2.1% from 1 May 2009. There will be a one-off payment of Euro 510 to cover the period from 1 November 2008 until 31 January 2009, and an additional lump-sum payment of Euro 122 in September 2009. In negotiations with the works council, management can decide to push back the second 2.1% increase by up to seven months. The agreement ends on 30 April 2010.
It is expected that union branches in the rest of Germany will quickly ratify the deal as well; if so, it will finally cover 3.6 million workers. The IG Metall president, Berthold Huber, said that "the result will not put us in a state of euphoria", but that it combines income security for the workers with planning security for employers, a defendable outcome in the actual situation. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No.'s 7 and 8).
(English: IG Metall information via EUCOBAN network of European Metalworkers' Federation; http://www.imfmetal.org/main/index.cfm?n=47&l=2&c=18579; German: http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0A456501-D3FB2454/internet/style.xsl/view_4508_4525.htm?seitenid=483)

During the night of 5-6 November the joint negotiation team of the Metalworking, Textiles and Food-processing Union (GMTN) and the Union of Salaried Employees, Printing, Journalism and Paper (GDA-DJP) achieved pay increases for the 170,000 workers in metalworking. Their agreement, leading in Austrian industrial relations, secures wage increases of 3.8-3.9% (3.9% for the lower occupational groups), plus extra one-off payments resulting in an overall increase of 4.6%. As a consequence, the new collectively agreed minimum wage stands at Euro 1,457 per month. The unions preferred collectively agreed pay increases, but in the end settled with one-off payments, depending on the profitability (EBIT) of companies. In case of profits, the extra payment will range from Euro 100 to Euro 250. The agreement covers 12 months, backdated from 1 November 2008.
Nearly one week later, on 12 November, GMTN signed a new agreement with the metalworking crafts enterprises, covering about 90,000 blue collar workers and over 23,000 apprentices in more than 15,500 firms. The agreement includes increases by 3.8% in the collectively agreed minimum wage, bringing this to Euro 1,453 monthly, and in the apprentices' remunerations, and an increase in effectively paid wages by 3.6%, with an additional on-off payment of Euro 80. The agreement will enter into force on 1 January 2009.
(English: GMTN messages via EUCOBAN network of European Metalworkers' Federation; German: http://www.gmtn.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GMT/Page/GMT_Index&n=GMT_1.a&cid=1222795102403)

IT firm Atos Origin (8,800 employees in the Netherlands) has definitely decided not to conclude a new collective agreement with the four unions involved, but instead to have regular talks about labour conditions with the Central Works Council (COR). This end of a leading agreement puts more pressure on the existing company-based agreements in the IT sector. Only one out of the six remaining company agreements has recently been re-negotiated (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No. 8).
(Dutch: AutomatiseringGids, 7 November 2008)

On 7 November, the national executive committee of the PCS public services union decided to suspend the industrial action across the civil service planned for 10 November and the overtime ban proposed to commence on 11 November. The employer has agreed to a 28 day extension to the limitation of the current mandate for initiating industrial action to midnight 11 December 2008. PCS will take forward discussions to address the concerns that form the basis of the current dispute over government's 2% pay limit (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No. 8).
(English: http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/317AF477-88ED-4224-955F4C23CE3891F6)