Publications

Swedish employees are entitled to leave of absence for a number of reasons,
and the Government's plans to introduce yet another one - for starting or
working in their own businesses - were not met with overwhelming enthusiasm
when they were made public in spring 1997. The Swedish Employers'
Confederation (Svenska Arbetsgivareföreningen, SAF) and the National Agency
for Government Employers (Arbetsgivarverket) objected, and the Swedish Trade
Union Confederation (Landsorganisationen, LO) doubted that there was a need
for an act of the kind proposed.

There has, in recent years, been an increasing focus on corporate conduct in
terms of social, ethical and environmental performance. The experience of
large multinational corporations such as Nike and Shell, which have been
faced with protest campaigns against their social and environmental policies,
has galvanised actors in this area. Many organisations are beginning to
recognise that their profitability in the long term depends as much on on
their performance in satisfying the aspirations of their "stakeholders" -
including customers, suppliers, employees, local communities, investors,
governments, and interest groups - in terms of their social and environmental
record, as it does on price and quality.

Since the 1980s, intense product market competition among the industrialised
countries has led to a search for new products and new methods of production.
At the same time, new technology is changing the ways that labour markets
work and UK labour institutions have increasingly come into question. The UK
in particular has experienced a sharp decline in the coverage of collective
bargaining and of unionisation. Most of these developments have either been
the consequence of, or the reason for, increasing flexibility. Yet what is
"flexibility", what does it mean and what is it doing?

On 24 November 1997, the general meeting of the peak employers' association
(Vereinigung der Arbeitgeberverbände in Bayern, VAB) in the federal state
(Land) of Bavaria decided to merge with the Bavarian peak trade association
(Landesverband der Bayerischen Industrie, LBI). The new Landpeak association
for Bavarian enterprises is called Vereinigung der Bayerischen Wirtschaft
(VBW). On 17 December the constituent assembly of the VBW elected Erich
Sennebogen as president.

A new three-year collective agreement was signed at Cargolux SA, the
Luxembourg air freight company, in December 1997. It contains substantial
improvements, including the restoration of certain benefits lost in 1995.

Although half of the private sector bargaining area conducted collective
bargaining in the spring (DK9705110F [1]), 1997 was a relatively peaceful
year on the Danish labour market, with fewer conflicts than in previous years
when bargaining occurred. According to statistics from the Danish Employers'
Confederation (Dansk Arbejdsgiverforening, DA) the number of working days
lost due to industrial action in 1997 - at 82,992 days - was significantly
lower than in 1995 and 1993. The main reason for the lower figure is that
only half of the private sector area conducted collective bargaining in 1997,
while the whole area did so in 1995 and 1993.

[1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined-working-conditions/the-1997-danish-collective-bargaining-round-completed

Ireland's Labour Court made its biggest ever individual equal pay award
recently when it held that four communications assistants represented by the
Civil and Public Services Union (CPSU) and employed by the Irish Aviation
Authority were entitled to equal pay with two male radio officers. The
government department with overall responsibility for the Authority, the
Department of Public Enterprise, has decided to accept the ruling, which was
issued on 28 November 1997 and which means each of the four women will
receive a total of IEP 100,000 on a backdated basis.

A strike in the mining companies, Hunosa and Minas de Figaredo, escalated
into a well-supported general strike in the whole Spanish mining industry in
January 1998.

Joining the European Union in 1995 made it necessary for Austria to improve
the regulations on employee protection against hazards. This included
particularly the appointment of safety officers in enterprises, the
documentation of hazards, and the availability and job descriptions of
occupational medical practitioners. A plan was drawn up to implement better
protection in stages, starting in 1997 with firms employing more than 100
workers. On 1 January 1998, firms with between 51 and 100 employees became
subject to the new regulations, and on 1 January 1999 those with 11 to 50
employees will follow. Finally in 2000, the remaining companies with 10 or
fewer employees will also be covered.

An unusual collective agreement has been concluded between the Swedish Energy
Employers' Association (Energiföretagens Arbetsgivareförening, EFA) on the
one hand, and the Association of Graduate Engineers
(Civilingenjörsförbundet, CF), the Swedish Union for Technical and Clerical
Employees in Industry and Services (Svenska Industritjänstemannaförbundet
SIF), the Association of Management and Professional Staff (Ledarna) and the
Union of Service and Communication (SEKO) on the other. The agreement, which
came into force on 1 January 1998, regulates general terms of employment for
around 15,000 workers in private energy enterprises and in the state-owned
Vattenfall group. The agreement fulfils many of the current requirements put
forward by employers, and the managing director of EFA, Björn Tibell, calls
it "pioneering".