Union Rights, Europe, Austria

(October 2016) A new study from the ETUI trade union research insititute argues that the EU Takeover Bids Directive needs to be revised, as it does not provide an adequate level of workers’ rights in its current form.The report includes case studies of takeovers as well as analyses of national legal frameworks regulating takeovers and of transversal issues related to takeovers.

(November 2016) Employees at the European Patent Office (EPO) in The Hague organised a march on 24 November in protest against further anti-union action by the EPO's President Benoit Battistelli. The staff union SUEPO organised a protest against Battistelli early in 2016 after he sacked union representatives and the latest incident involves the dismissal of Laurent Prunier, elected member of the Central Staff Committee and Secretary of SUEPO. The union received the support of the Dutch confederation FNV and the matter will also be discussed in the Dutch parliament.

(January 2017) The European Trade Union Institute has launched a new online service that will monitor developments in labour markets, pension reforms and strike activities as well as changes to legislation on industrial action. The Reforms Watch information service includes country files and will be updated through regular news reports. This is also linked to existing information on collective bargaining and industrial relations.

(May 2017) Trade unions representing prison workers across Europe met in Brussels on 10 May to discuss a range of issues relating to continuing austerity, collective bargaining and trade union rights. Key issues that emerged during the meeting included the increase in violence against prison staff, problems of understaffing and developing issues around digitalisation and, in some countries, radicalisation of inmates. The meeting was part of a two-year project run by EPSU with the next meeting in December focusing on childcare workers.

(May 2017) The revised labour code has been a major issue of debate in Lithuania for the last three years. The ETUI research organisation has just published a an update on this and other labour market, industral relations and pensions developments in the country. This is part of the ETUI's Reform Watch website covering all EU Member States.

(June 2017) The ETF European federation for transport workers has reacted angrily to recommendatoins from the European Commission in its "Open and connected Europe" document on the so-called service continuity, including measures affecting the right to strike of air traffic control staff. The federation believes the measures infringe the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and says it reserves the right to challenge them in the European Court of Justice. The ETF is also highly critical of the mobility package launched by the European Commission last month, arguing against dangerous proposals on

The European Trade Union Institute has published an updated analysis of the treatment of social issues in the European Semester - the process of economic policy coordination. This reveals, for example, the extent to which the country-specific recommendations address the question of collective bargaining, with the European institutions calling for reforms in many countries, with the accent on decentralisation of bargaining despite the lack of evidence that this produces any economic benefits.

On 20 December the European Commission published is draft directive on transparent and predictable working conditions to replace the Written Statement Directive. The initial response from the ETUC is to welcome the requirement on employers to provide information to workers on day one and to extend this right to a range of atypical workers. There are also positive measures related to training, prohibition periods, protection of trade union reps and the rights of flexible workers. However, the ETUC wants to see additional measures to tackle the worst forms of precarious employment, particularly

There has been some improvement in industrial relations at the European Patent Office (EPO). As we reported in 2016 (November epsucob@NEWS 15) there had been considerable conflict in the organisation with several trade union representatives dismissed and who took up cases through the International Labour Organisation (ILO). The chair of the EPO union in Munich, Ion Brumme resumed his job in the middle of August, two and a half years after his dismissal. Both he and another colleague were cleared by an ILO tribunal. Brumme has urged the new EPO president to restore relations with the SUEPO

In a case involving a Russian railworker who was dismissed after a one-day strike over pay, the European Court of Human Rights has confirmed that the right to strike falls under the protection of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights as an important aspect of the right to freedom of association. The court based its arguments on conclusions of the International Labour Organisation's supervisory bodies, which take the right to strike as an indispensable corollary of the freedom of association.