Sweden, Bulgaria

In the light of the recent controversy over attempts by a Latvian building company to undercut the Swedish collective agreement in the construction sector (the Vaxholm case), the two main union federations have come together to resist social dumping. The co-operation agreement says the federations will step up their work together and encourage improved links between their member organisations. [Read more at > LO->http://www.lo.se/home/lo/home.nsf/unidView/7906F4F2F15D46FBC12570A800491F00] In the meantime Internal Market Commissioner Charlie McCreevey has appeared before the European Parliament

The new centre-right government has said that it will support the Byggnads construction union at the Vaxholm case hearing in the European Court next month which is set to rule on the union's right to protect collective agreements in the construction sector. The Vaxholm case involved the union in a blockade of a school building project because the Latvian contractor on the site was paying its workers according to a Latvian collective agreement and not the agreement for the Swedish construction sector. Although the Labour court in Sweden ruled in favour of the union it referred the case to the

The EIRO industrial relations observatory reports that new legislation has introduced the right to strike for workers in the civil service, energy, telecommunications and healthcare sectors for the first time.

A new report from the LO trade union confederation underlines the importance of maintaining high levels of minimum wages across the economy and preventing the gap between the high and lower paid from increasing. The report rejects the argument that low pay is primarily a temporary phenomenon affecting young people and argues that low pay of any kind has an impact on other wage earners. It also points out that many older workers still experience low pay and that it tends to affect families with poverty and low pay likely to be passed on across the generations. LO argues that measures are needed