Union Rights

The LPPSF industry trade union federation is celebrating a major legal victory with the conviction of an employer for pressurising workers to leave the trade union. This is a first for Lithuania. Many earlier attempts to bring employers to book have failed for lack of evidence. This time there was an audio recording of a manager threatening a trade union member with dismissal if she didn’t leave the union. The case involved the Transachema company where a trade union was established in 2018 and 80% of workers became members. The union began collective bargaining but a year of delays by the

The FPSU trade union confederation continues to lobby and campaign against legislation being proposed by the government that will seriously undermine worker and trade union rights. The confederation organised meetings with MPs at the parliament on 29 April. Unions have repeatedly pointed out, with support from international trade union bodies, that the proposed laws conflict with International Labour Organisation conventions as well as the Ukrainian constitution. Draft law 5371, for example, will create new categories of employees and effectively deny basic rights to organise and collectively

Services union ver.di has successfully fought off attempts by the Nord Residenz care company to shut down the works council. On 27 April, the regional labour court in Bremen in North West Germany ruled against the company’s attempts to dismiss the works council chair and her deputy, expel them from the works council and dissolve the works council itself. Nord Residenz is owned by the French multinational Orpea. Ver.di welcomed the many messages of solidarity support from trade unions across Europe and interventions by the state government and mayor of Bremen. Meanwhile, the union faces a major

The European and global trade union confederations (ETUC and ITUC) have written to the Romanian government to protest against the decision not to implement a pay increase for public sector workers. The letter also challenges the government on anti-union statements and threats to remove the right of trade unions to collect membership fees through check-off. EPSU also wrote to the government along similar lines in January and followed up this letter in March – with no reply received so far to either letter.

The government has imposed compulsory arbitration in a dispute between unions representing health and care staff in the private and non-profit sector and the NHO employers’ organisation. The unions were taking strike action in support of their demand for higher pay rates that would bring pay in line with comparable collective agreements in health and care. The NHO was refusing to negotiate and then the national health board intervened claiming that the dispute was posing a danger to life and health. Each side will now present evidence to an independent wages board whose decision will then be

The FPSU trade union confederation coordinated protests and picketing outside the parliament on 2-3 December as part of its long-running campaign against legislation that is set to seriously curtail trade union and worker rights. The legislation has been attacked by international trade union bodies and criticised by the International Labour Organisation. The legislative process has also involved the repeal of many laws on health and safety. At the same time, unions are calling on changes to the state budget to ensure increases in the minimum wage and state pension as well as action to address

Trade unions, employers and the government have signed a major agreement which sets out a range of measures for the coming two years. These cover green and energy issues as well as plans to increase unemployment benefit and pensions. Health workers dealing with COVID-19 will see a 30% increase on pay for the period August-December this year, around 6000 employees will benefit. There is also additional funding for municipalities to ensure that the collective agreement covering childcare nurses is fully implemented. This will particularly affect workers in small towns guaranteeing that they