U.K.
Powergen, owned by the German utility company E.ON, has decided to increase staffing at its five UK call centres by 980 following a decision to end its call centre operations in India. The company has been using call centres in India since 2001 but decided to increase jobs and staff training in the UK when complaints about its call centre services rose to twice the industry average.
Read more at > Guardian newspaper (EN)
The government has passed a decree that effectively ends outsourcing in central and local government. Outsourced workers in central government will be directly employed by the central government institutions while those in local authorities will be transferred to local authority-owned companies, rather than directly to the local authorities. The changes have been welcomed by trade unions although some have expressed concern about the difference in rights and pay and conditions for those in local authority companies and about the fact that the changes were implemented by decree with no
The JHL public service union and Jyty private sector union have negotiated a new agreement covering the Helsingin bus company and avoided industrial action. The employers had initially refused to negotiate a deal in line with the general framework agreement but have now conceded and the planned strike on 2 May will not now go ahead. Read more at > JHL (EN)
