The last collective agreement on pay in the French civil service was signed
on 9 November 1993. Five trade unions signed the deal - the French Democratic
Confederation of Labour (Confédération Française Démocratique du Travail,
CFDT ), the Federated Education Union (Fédération de l'Education Nationale-
FEN), the Independent General Confederation of Civil Servants (Fédération
Générale Autonome des Fonctionnaires, FGAF), the French Christian Workers'
Confederation (Confédération Française des Travailleurs Chrétiens, CFTC)
and the General Confederation of Managerial Staff-French Confederation of
Managerial Staff (Confédération Française de l'Encadrement-
Confédération Générale des Cadres, CFE-CGC). On the basis of the results
of workplace-level elections, these five unions together represented the
majority of civil servants.
Owing to the use of "social shock absorbers" to ease the blow of
redundancies, the restructuring of Italian industry - especially in the 1980s
- has proceeded without excessive social costs, though with substantial
economic costs to the state. A reform of these measures is envisaged as part
of the current reform of the welfare state and broader redefinition of
employment policies. Moreover, a still unresolved issue is the definition of
new measures to deal with the employment crisis in the service sector.
January-February 1998 saw a dispute at the Spanish airline, Iberia, organised
by the pilots belonging to the SEPLA trade union. The grounds for the dispute
related to the planned restructuring of the company.
The Federation of Transport Workers' Unions in the European Union (FST) and
theEuropean Community Shipowners' Association (ECSA) agreed a joint text on
working time and time off aboard ship in December 1997. The approximately
128,000 EU nationals and 26,000 non-EU nationals employed in the maritime
sector are among the workers excluded from the provisions of the EU Directive
(93/104/EC) on certain aspects of the organisation of working time.
In February 1998, it was announced that the Government is to draw up a
voluntary code on combating age discrimination in recruitment. The statement
came as the charity, Age Concern, launched an "Age discrimination awareness
campaign". A survey conducted for Age Concern estimates that more than 18
million adults have experienced age discrimination in employment, health or
welfare. The study found that 70% of the population believe age
discrimination exists, while only half of those who reported it were aged
over 45, showing that it is a problem that affects most ages.
At the end of January 1998, German unemployment reached a new post-war record
high, with more than 4.8 million people registered as unemployed. The
announcement of the latest unemployment figures on 5 February was accompanied
by nationwide protests of unemployed people all over Germany. The protests
were organised by independent organisations of jobless people, self-help
groups and trade unions' jobless committees and groups. The unions played an
important role in coordinating, organising and supporting the protests.
Following the breakdown of talks with employers' representatives,
Luxembourg's two main trade unions approached the Government in January 1998
and set out their proposals for transposing the EU Directive on parental
leave.
At its general council meeting on 10 February 1998, the LO trade union
confederation voted in favour of industry-level settlements in the spring
1998 bargaining round in Norway's private sector. In addition, LO wants to
bargain with the NHO employers' confederation over the principles which are
to apply to the forthcoming reform of further education and training. LO
would like to see these negotiations finalised before the sectoral bargaining
commences, but NHO has rejected such talks.
In August 1997 the authorities rejected a bid made by a group of activists
from the Austrian Freedom Party (Freiheitliche Partei Österreichs, FPÖ) to
form an association called the Austrian Free Trade Union (Freie Gewerkschaft
Österreichs, FGÖ) (AT9705113N [1]). They argued that its proposed name
might give rise to confusion with a social democrat organisation, the
Austrian Federation of Free Trade Unions (Österreichischer Bund freier
Gewerkschaften, ÖBFG). The ÖBFG is dormant but social democrat trade
unionists have kept the name alive in order to have something to fall back on
in case the Austrian Trade Union Federation (Österreichischer
Gewerkschaftsbund, ÖGB), the sole formal trade union existing in Austria,
should ever disband.
The Swedish Industrial Union (Industrifacket), which organises workers in the
leather and the clothing industries, campaigns actively against child labour.
In 1996 it drew the attention of the Swedish president of the European
football organisation, UEFA, to the fact that the footballs used in major
tournaments are manufactured by small children in Pakistan. The UEFA
president, Lennart Johansson, answered that he and the other representatives
of the sport shared the union's view on child labour. Mr Johansson in turn
took up the matter with the international football organisation, FIFA, and in
September the same year FIFA made an agreement with three international trade
union confederations not to order footballs manufactured by children. As a
result, the world's leading sports-equipment companies decided to invest in
projects to abolish child labour in Pakistani football factories.
The European Restructuring Monitor (ERM) has reported on the employment impact of large-scale business restructuring since 2002. This publication series include the ERM reports, as well as blogs, articles and working papers on restructuring-related events in the EU27 and Norway.
Eurofound’s European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) paints a wide-ranging picture of Europe at work across countries, occupations, sectors and age groups. This series consists of findings from the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS) 2021, an extraordinary edition conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. The survey was first carried out in 1990.
This publication series gathers all overview reports on developments in working life, annual reviews in industrial relations and working conditions produced by Eurofound on the basis of national contributions from the Network of Eurofound Correspondents (NEC). Since 1997, these reports have provided overviews of the latest developments in industrial relations and working conditions across the EU and Norway. The series may include recent ad hoc articles written by members of the NEC.
Eurofound’s work on COVID-19 examines the far-reaching socioeconomic implications of the pandemic across Europe as they continue to impact living and working conditions. A key element of the research is the e-survey, launched in April 2020, with five rounds completed at different stages during 2020, 2021 and 2022. This is complemented by the inclusion of research into the ongoing effects of the pandemic in much of Eurofound’s other areas of work.
Eurofound's representativeness studies are designed to allow the European Commission to identify the ‘management and labour’ whom it must consult under article 154 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU). This series consists of studies of the representativeness of employer and worker organisations in various sectors.
This series reports on developments in minimum wage rates across the EU, including how they are set and how they have developed over time in nominal and real terms. The series explores where there are statutory minimum wages or collectively agreed minimum wages in the Member States, as well as minimum wage coverage rates by gender.
The European Working Conditions Survey (EWCS) launched in 1990 and is carried out every five years, with the latest edition in 2015. It provides an overview of trends in working conditions and quality of employment for the last 30 years. It covers issues such as employment status, working time duration and organisation, work organisation, learning and training, physical and psychosocial risk factors, health and safety, work–life balance, worker participation, earnings and financial security, work and health, and most recently also the future of work.
Eurofound’s Flagship report series 'Challenges and prospects in the EU' comprise research reports that contain the key results of multiannual research activities and incorporate findings from different related research projects. Flagship reports are the major output of each of Eurofound’s strategic areas of intervention and have as their objective to contribute to current policy debates.
Eurofound’s European Company Survey (ECS) maps and analyses company policies and practices which can have an impact on smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, as well as the development of social dialogue in companies. This series consists of outputs from the ECS 2019, the fourth edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 2004–2005 as the European Survey on Working Time and Work-Life Balance.
This series reports on and updates latest information on the involvement of national social partners in policymaking. The series analyses the involvement of national social partners in the implementation of policy reforms within the framework of social dialogue practices, including their involvement in elaborating the National Reform Programmes (NRPs).
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