Collective Bargaining

(03 april 2008) After last week’s disappointing recommendations from the arbitration commission, verdi is now recommending to its members that they accept a new offer from the federal and local government employers. Ver.di’s collective bargaining committee voted 64-25 in favour of the employers’ latest offer which is a significant improvement both on earlier offers and on the proposals from the arbitrators. If backed by the ver.di membership the deal will mean an increase in 2008 of at (...)

(28 March 2008) After five rounds of negotiations unions and employers agreed earlier this month to appoint an arbitration committee to come up with proposals to help resolve their differences. Ver.di’s demand was for an increase of 8% over two years while the employers had made little change to their offer of a 5% increase but with longer working hours. The arbitration proposals were announced today (27 March) and ver.di leader Frank Bsirske described them as unacceptable and too close (...)

(Brussels, 10 March 2008) The ETUC General Secretary and the ETUC President sent a letter to the Financial Times arguing that the judgment of the European Court of Justice in the Laval case was unwise and upsets the social balance in the EU. The ETUC is also calling for action from EU governments to repair the damage done and restore faith in social Europe.
To read the press article:
For more information on the Laval case on the ETUC website (...)

Energy sector workshop on social dialogue and collective
bargaining in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg
and the Netherlands
30 January 2008 - 9.30-17.30
EPSU building, 45 Rue Royale, Brussels
7th Floor - Room “Conseil”
Part of EPSU’s 2008 project:
Regional Conferences to develop the theme:
The Future of European industrial relations in the Public Services
Industrial relations in the energy sector
We would like to invite you to take part in a workshop on (...)

EPSU is organising a workshop for energy trade unions in Germany, France, Benelux. The aim is to reflect on collective bargaining developments in a restricted region where companies, governments and regulatory instances work together to create a single market. This regional market, linked to the liberalisation of the electricity and gas markets, will have implications for the trade unions.
For the documents in English - French - German - (...)

EPSU Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining Conference The future of European industrial relations in the public services
3-4 December 2007
International Trade Union House (ITUH) Room Auditorium
5 Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 1210 Brussels EPSU’s 2007 Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining Conference will take place in Brussels on 3-4 December and will focus in particular on the future for European industrial relations in the public services. This will be an important debate (...)

(10 April 2007) The Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe which considers the correct application of the Social Charter has condemned the Bulgarian government for not respecting the right to strike for civil servants and other groups of public service workers such as in electricity and health care. The verdict came after the ETUC and the Bulgarian confederations CITUB and Podkrepa brought a case before the Committee in 2005.
EPSU General Secretary Carola Fischbach-Pyttel (...)

FOLLOW-UP
EPSU Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining Conference
As part of the Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining in the Public Services - a web-based Resource Project
5 March 2007, 9.00-16.30 International Trade Union House - Meeting Room B 5 Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 1210 Brussels
In recent years we have used a collective bargaining working group early in the year to review the success of the collective bargaining conference and to advise on plans for future work, (...)

Over 100 participants from 24 countries gathered in Brussels last week for the fifth EPSU conference on collective bargaining and social dialogue. The main debates focused on developing draft policies on migrant workers and the recruitment and retention of young workers. However, the conference also provided delegates the opportunity to discuss issues around older workers and work-life balance.
The conference began with an overview of intersectoral social dialogue presented by ETUC deputy (...)

EPSU Social Dialogue
and Collective Bargaining Conference
As part of the Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining in the Public Services - a web-based Resource Project 30 November-1 December 2006
International Trade Union House (ITUH) - Room Auditorium
5 Boulevard du Roi Albert II, 1210 Brussels
EPSU is organising a Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining Conference in Brussels on 30 November and 1 December 2006. This conference will discuss key issues in collective bargaining (...)

Annual survey - “excessive flexibility” and “flexicurity” - transnational bargaining
The three main issues on the agenda at the ETUC Collective Bargaining Committee in Brussels on 5 October were:
latest results from the annual survey of collective bargaining,
excessive flexibility, and
transnational bargaining - the proposed legal framework for European collective agreements.
The survey of collective bargaining so far this year suggested that negotiated remain at (...)

An interesting article as been published in an academic journal which analysis the role of trade union responses to changing production relations that accompanied the process of European integration and in more particular the European Economic and Monetary Union. It is one of the view contributions that regards in some detail how European trade union federations such as EMF and EPSU have reacted.
The article is: Bieler, Andreas (2005) ’European Integration and the Transnational (...)

Over 50 trade union officers from around Europe gathered in Seville last weekend to debate some of the key issues facing European trade unions. The ETUC’s annual summer school on collective bargaining brought together representatives from confederations from 20 countries along with officers from nine European Industry Federations and advisers from the ETUC and the ETUI-REHS research and education organisation.
The ETUI-REHS provided the school with an overview of the latest collective (...)

As part of its Social Agenda for the period 2005-2010, the European Commission initiated a discussion on setting up an optional legal framework for transnational bargaining.
The Commission recognises that there is a growing number of agreements (well over 100) at transnational company level covering issues such as health and safety, restructuring and training. It notes that in some cases the agreements are given a legal basis at national level and may include some form of dispute (...)

The portability of individual pension rights was one of the main debates with Henri Lourdelle of the ETUC explaining the implications the current draft directive on portability. While EPSU supports measures to improve the portability of pension rights across Europe there was a feeling that the directive didn’t go far enough in improving individual rights. Delegates also revealed some concern that the directive might compromise their collective agreements in this area. EPSU will be (...)

After 14 weeks of strike action the German services union Ver.di is celebrating a positive result in its dispute with the regional government employers. The strike, the longest in the public sector for over 80 years, began in February and was in protest at the regional government employers’ attempts to increase weekly working hours. The employers gave notice of their decision to end the existing agreement on hours back in 2004 (...)

EPSU Conference on Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining Information Project, 12-13 December 2005, ITUH, Brussels
Around 100 participants from 25 countries have helped EPSU make further progress towards co-ordinating collective bargaining policy. In key debates on low pay and outsourcing, the conference indicated how the Federation could take these issues forward through exchanging information and co-ordinated campaigning.
Proposals on a campaign around low pay will be drawn up in the (...)

This conference(*) will discuss key issues in collective bargaining at both European and national levels. In particular, it will develop two important areas of EPSU policy that featured at last year’s conference - low pay and outsourcing.
Speakers from the ETUC and the ETUI-REHS institute will start the conference with overviews of inter-sectoral social dialogue and collective bargaining.
The main themes will then be:
low pay - presentation of a draft policy document on tackling low pay (...)

Commission President Barroso and Commissioner McCreevey were summoned before the European Parliament after Commissioner McCreevey had argued that Swedish collective agreements might be obstacles to the free movement of Services. The debate was not re-assuring. The internal market and the free movement of services are seen as rights that could limit the scope of collective agreements.

Last weekend (16 October) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso stepped into the controversy created by Commissioner for the Internal Market, Charlie McCreevey. McCreevey had been quoted a week earlier apparently declaring his support for court action by a Latvian company challenging the collective bargaining system in Sweden (>click here for the facts of the case).
This is how McCreevey’s comments were reported by one news website > eubusiness
Barroso claimed that McCreevey’s (...)

The ETUC collective bargaining committee met recently (12 October 2005) to discuss the initial results of its annual survey of collective bargaining around Europe.
Also on the agenda were the key points of a resolution on collective bargaining to go to the ETUC executive committee in December and latest developments on European Commission proposals for an optional framework for transnational agreements. The meeting also had a presentation of the international internet-based salary (...)

The main topics discussed were:
Improving the exchange of information of collective bargaining information between ETUC, European Federations and Confederations;
The Commission initiative for an optional framework for transnational agreements;
Low pay;
False self-employed.
ETUC will prepare its strategy based on the suggestions and recommendations of the seminar. These will be discussed in the ETUC Coordination of Collective Bargaining Committee 12 October. This yearly (...)

Questionnaire FSESP: L’externalisation dans les services publics
EPSU Fragebogen: Outsourcing im öffentlichen Dienst
Cuestionario de la FSESP: Externalización de los servicios públicos
EPSU kartläggning: Outsourcing inom offentliga tjänster
EPSU affiliates in the public utilities have been discussing the impact of outsourcing as a major threat to workers’ pay and conditions and the maintenance of collective agreements. The Public Utilities Standing Committee has agreed that there was potential to (...)

Recent trends
Public sector across Europe
Longer hours in German public sector
What happened at Siemens and Daimler-Chrysler
Working time directive
Over the last few months working time has become the burning issue in European industrial relations. A small number of factory-specific agreements in Germany and France have increased the working week for some categories of employee. Since then the cry has gone up from employer organisations around Europe for longer working hours.
In (...)

IG Metall Department for Collective Bargaining - 2004-02-23- Sectoral agreement pages 1-2
Siemens agreement pages 3-4
Daimler-Chrysler agrement pages 5-6
Collective Agreement on Pay and Working Time Flexibility (February 2004)
1. On February 12th, 2004, IG Metall settled a pilot collective agreement on pay increase and additional forms of working time flexibility in Baden-Württemberg (South-West of Germany). In the meantime, the content of that agreement is adopted by almost all other (...)

The ETUC Coordination of Collective Bargaining Committee started its work with the traditional summer school. Issues on the agenda: overview of developments, collective bargaining in new member states, working time directive and European Works Councils. Most attention was focused on the efforts of employers to reduce labour costs, for example by lengthening the working week through blackmail like in the case of Siemens, Bosch and other companies. While they are isolated cases and responses (...)

The German union Verdi brought its negotiators together to discuss the coordination of collective bargaining in Europe. Examples of European coordination such as in EPSU (wage coordination guideline, EPSUCOB@, social dialogue committees, regions and transnational companies were given across the wide range of activities in Verdi. Important questions linking wage policy with broader macro-economic questions such as sustaining demand in the economy, redistribution of wealth and preventing wage (...)

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