Netherlands
Abvakabo and CNV Publieke Zaak are taking legal action against the energy multinational RWE. The company is taking on workers at two of its Dutch gas subsidiaries, Haarlemmermeergas and Obragas, on poorer pay and conditions, including a 40-hour instead of 38-hour working week, than those specified in the sectoral collective labour agreement.
Read more at > Abvakabo (NL)
And at > CNV Publieke Zaak (NL)
Difficult negotiations along with warning strikes eventually produced pay increases of 3.4% for employees of the two energy companies RWE and Vattenfall. The Vattenfall agreement covers 20,000 workers and runs for 13 months from 1 January 2011. The RWE agreement is also for 13 months and runs from 1 November 2010 to 30 November 2011. [Read more on Vattenfall at > ver.di (DE)->http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=ab24cf98-3469-11e0-7db0-001ec9b03e44] [And more on RWE at > ver.di (DE)->http://energie-bergbau.ver-und-entsorgung.verdi.de/tarifarbeit/private_energieversorger
Negotiations are about to resume at the RWE energy company after the second round of bargaining ended without any progress. The company made an improved offer of 2.3% over 12 months but this was rejected by ver.di as wholly inadequate bearing in mind the positive outlook both for the company and for the economy over the coming year. Read more at > ver.di (DE)
