North Macedonia
The Independent Union of Energy Workers has signed the first ever collective agreement covering companies in the private sector. The union and employers agreed that the purpose of the agreement was to apply international labour standards, to equalize working conditions at sector level and to establish a framework of rights that the employees should be entitled to, which will maintain fair competition between employers.
At the end of January services union ver.di signed the first company collective agreement with the Sana group of hospitals. The agreement covers around 6,000 employees and the union says that it will mean that in future pay and working conditions will be more transparent and can be assessed in terms of equal opportunities. The agreement will run for 24 months and ver.di says that it will not only mean a substantial pay increase for many employees but those with young children will be helped out with a €100-a-month contribution to childcare costs. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://presse
After difficult and lengthy negotiations and strike action, the FP-CGIL, FIT-CISL and FIADEL trade unions have signed a new collective agreement in the private waste sector for the period 2011-13. The deal will mean an overall pay increase of around 7.7% or €134. The unions were concerned to maintain the sectoral agreement in the face of legislation to liberalise the industry and pressure to decentralise bargaining. Read more at > FP-CGIL (IT)
After a year of campaigning and in following the threat of industrial action and a boycott, the FOA public services union has signed a collective agreement with the Tinytots private childcare company. The union was very concerned about low pay rates at the company which operates four sites in Copenhagen. There was also evidence of lack of pensions, poor sick leave provision and working time rules. The FOA is now very pleased to be able to negotiate with the company and deal with what would have been a worrying case of social dumping. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse
