Union Rights

The Davar news website reports that last month the Regional Labour Court ordered Tel Aviv University to pay 150,000 shekels (€42,500) to the research laboratory workers’ union in compensation for obstructing its efforts to unionize. The Court said the university tried to fire the chair of the union and dock the salary of another union member. It ordered the university to rescind the dismissal of the union chair, Dr Moti Ronen, and bring him back to work under the same contractual agreements that preceded his dismissal. The university is also required to pay back in full the salary it docked

The two main trade union confederations – FGTB/ABVV and CSC/ACV – are jointly organising a national demonstration on 6 December. They want to raise the problem of defending living standards as inflation increases, particularly driven by soaring energy prices. The confederations want to ensure that there is real space for proper negotiations and are challenging the provisions of the 1996 law that restricts the scope for pay increases. In the recent biennial negotiations the margin for increasing pay above inflation was limited to 0.4%. The confederations also want to defend trade union rights

The FGTB/ABVV trade union confederation will appeal against the conviction of 17 trade unionists for their involvement in a road block during the general strike of 18 October 2015. On 19 October 2021, the Court of Appeal of Liège confirmed the judgement pronounced in November 2020 by the criminal court, with the activists given suspended prison sentences of 15 days or one month and fines ranging from €1,200 to €2,100 euros. The judgment was based on the offence of "malicious obstruction of traffic" provided for in Article 406 of the Belgian Penal Code which had been used before to convict a

Thousands of trade unionists took to the streets of Kiev again on 7 October in their long-running campaign against government proposals for labour reforms. The legal changes have been condemned by the international trade union movement and clearly contravene key International Labour Organisation conventions. The demonstration was also used to call for a range of measures including increases to the minimum wage and social benefits.

On 14-15 September the first regional seminar of a two-year project on trade union rights took place with participants from across the Mediterranean region. The project is being run jointly by EPSU and the European federations representing police (EuroCOP) and military personnel (EUROMIL). There were contributions from experts from the ETUC and International Labour Organisation and an exchange on the Transparent and Predictable Working Conditions Directive which includes an article providing member states with the possibility of excluding a large group of public service workers from its

EPSU is supporting the call by the international and European trade union confederations – ITUC and ETUC – for parliament to suspend the current discussion on labour law reform. The international trade union movement is backing the Ukrainian unions in their long-running campaign to block the reforms and to start a proper process of consultation with trade unions. Analysis of a number of draft laws shows that they are incompatible with International Labour Organisation conventions and EU social legislation, undermining workers’ basic employment rights as well as working time and health and