Luxembourg's Economic and Social Council has recently responded to a
government request for its opinion, with a view to reforming the Law of 12
June 1965 relating to collective agreements and of the Grand-Ducal Order of 6
October 1945 dealing with the National Conciliation Office (Office National
de Conciliation).
Strikes in the Port of Rotterdam in the early months of 1997 demonstrate once
again its distinctive position in the Dutch system of industrial relations.
The ongoing process of reorganisation in the mixed-cargo sector, which has a
long tradition of trade unionism, is responsible for regular labour disputes
in the form of court action and both organised and wildcat strikes .
A two-year collective agreement was approved by the 225,000 employees in the
government sector (DK9702103N [1]) and the 662,000 employees in the county
and municipal bargaining area, offering a 4.25% pay increase, wage adjustment
schemes, and improved pension and maternity leave provisions. However the
1997 collective bargaining rounds represented more than adjustments of pay,
pensions and maternity leave; it was, as the Minister of Finance, Mogens
Lykketoft said, "a peaceful wage revolution", introducing a more flexible and
decentralised salary-scale system.
On 28 April 1997, the German Public Services, Transport and Traffic Union
(Gewerkschaft Öffentliche Dienste, Transport und Verkehr, ÖTV) and the
German White-Collar Workers' Union (Deutsche Angestellten-Gewerkschaft, DAG)
announced the foundation of a new joint subsidiary union for the employees of
international and European organisations which are located in Germany.
Through the newly established "International Public Servants Organisation"
(IPSO), both unions want to create an effective interest representation for
the employees working in organisations like the European Monetary Institute
in Frankfurt or the European Patent Office in Munich. The foundation of IPSO
should also avoid competition between ÖTV and DAG in the recruitment of
members in international and European organisations, and should lead to a
closer cooperation between the unions. The latter is particularly important
because of the fact that the DAG is the only significant German trade union
which is not a member of the German Federation of Trade Unions (Deutscher
Gewerkschaftsbund, DGB).
In Greece, temporary work, especially in the form of fixed-term contracts,
constitutes a policy widespread amongst enterprises in both private and
public sectors. Although the phenomenon of temporary work has decreased
considerably in comparison with the early 1990s, when its incidence was twice
that of the EU average (18% and 9% respectively), it is still quite high
(10.5% and 11% respectively). A factor contributing to this decrease was the
decision of the Government in the course of 1990 to dismiss 50,000 temporary
public employees as part of its attempt to rationalise the functioning of the
public sector.
One of Ireland's smallest banks, the Ulster Bank, is seeking to replace its
incremental-based pay system with a new performance-related reward scheme for
most of its 1,000 staff in the Republic of Ireland. The bank's proposals have
been resisted by members of the banking union, the Irish Bank Officials
Association (IBOA). They have, however, been accepted by its staff in
Northern Ireland who are part of the British industrial relations system.
Total Quality Management (TQM) has been a leading development of the 1990s in
Britain. Surveys find that almost three-quarters of organisations claim to
have formal quality programmes, which are believed to work by increasing
employees' interest in their jobs and their understanding of how their work
contributes to organisational goals. Many of these programmes have been
introduced in the past five years. Definitions of TQM vary but its core
comprises: a focus on the customer; the improvement and inter-linking of
business processes; and continuous improvement ("Making quality critical", A
Wilkinson and H Willmott, eds, London, Routledge, 1995.).
On 7 May, the Dutch Government withdrew a bill that would have allowed
employers exemptions from paying the statutory national minimum wage [1]
(NL9702103F [2]). Discussions in Parliament had arrived at a political
impasse.
In November 1996, the brewing group Interbrew, the still-expanding leader in
the market, announced the ending of bottling activities at its Belle Vue
Brewery in Molenbeek, an industrial district of Brussels. It meant the loss
of 103 jobs out of 167 in the company's bottling section. Since then,
management had been negotiating a company plan with the unions to avoid
redundancies, and an original solution was eventually found and approved in a
company referendum on 18 April 1997. This solution is based on the terms of a
legislative measure that had been ratified on 13 March 1997, called the
Vandelanotte order after the Flemish Socialist minister: it allows companies
facing difficulties or restructuring to preserve jobs through a reduction of
working time linked to the reduction of social security contributions over
two years.
Eurofound’s European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. This series consists of outputs from the EQLS 2003, the first edition of the survey.
Eurofound's European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. This series consists of outputs from the EQLS 2007, the second edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 2003.
Eurofound's European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) examines both the objective circumstances of European citizens' lives and how they feel about those circumstances and their lives in general. This series consists of outputs from the EQLS 2012, the third edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 2003.
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 EWCS 2005, the fourth edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 1990.
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 EWCS 2010, the fifth edition of the survey. The survey was first carried out in 1990.
This publication series explores scenarios for the future of manufacturing. The employment implications (number of jobs by sector, occupation, wage profile, and task content) under various possible scenarios are examined. The scenarios focus on various possible developments in global trade and energy policies and technological progress and run to 2030.
The hospital sector has been deeply impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals and their workers are on the frontline in the fight against the virus, and they face a number of significant challenges in terms of resources, work organisation and working conditions. This study will explore the role of social dialogue and collective bargaining in how the sector is adapting to the pandemic. What kinds of changes have been introduced, either through social dialogue or collective bargaining? Are the changes temporary or permanent?
This policy brief will provide an update on upward convergence in the economic, social and institutional dimensions of the European Union, as outlined in the European Pillar of Social Rights and its accompanying Social Scoreboard.
Given that compliance with lockdown measures is a first line of defence against COVID-19, maintaining trust in institutions is vital to ensure a coordinated, comprehensive and effective response to the pandemic. This report investigates developments in institutional and interpersonal trust across time, with a particular emphasis on the COVID-19 pandemic period and its impact. It examines the link between trust and discontent and investigates the effect of multidimensional inequalities as a driver of distrust.
This report explores the association between skills use and skills strategies and establishment performance, and how other workplace practices, in terms of work organisation, human resources management and employee involvement, can impact on this. It looks at how skills shortages can be addressed, at least in part, by creating an environment in which employees are facilitated and motivated to make better use of the skills they already have. This further supports the business case for a more holistic approach to management.
The financial services sector is pertinent for studying the impact of digitalisation, as the main ‘raw material’ of the sector is digitally stored and processed. Process automation in the sector is likely to lead to significant job losses over the next 10 years, as the high street bank presence declines and the online bank presence increasingly accounts for a higher share of overall activity. Such trends have already been identified in bank restructurings captured in Eurofound’s European Restructuring Monitor.
The report provides an overview of the scale of teleworking before and during the COVID-19 crisis and gives an indication of ‘teleworkability’ across sectors and occupations. Building on previous Eurofound research on remote work, the report investigates the way businesses introduced and supported teleworking during the pandemic, as well as the experience of workers who were working from home during the crisis. The report also looks at developments in regulations related to telework in Member States and provides a review of stakeholders’ positions.
The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have varied across sectors, occupations and categories of worker (for instance, according to gender, age or employment status). Hours worked have declined the most in sectors such as accommodation services and food and beverage services, and in occupations heavily reliant on in-person interaction, such as sales work. At the same time, it’s in these sectors that labour shortages have become increasingly evident as labour markets have begun to normalise.
This report focuses on trends and developments in collective bargaining that were evident from the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines potential new strategic approaches and priorities incorporated in negotiation agendas, as well as collective bargaining practices and coordination at sector and company levels in the private sector.
The COVID-19 crisis has increased inequality between social groups in health, housing, employment, income and well-being. While a small part of society was able to hold on to or increase its wealth, other groups such as women, young people, older people, people with disabilities, low- and middle-income earners and those with young children were acutely affected by the pandemic. Drawing on current research on how to best measure multidimensional inequality, this report highlights recent trends in inequality in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.
This study provides information allowing for an assessment of the representativeness of the actors involved in the European sectoral social dialogue committee for the electricity sector. Their relative representativeness legitimises their right to be consulted, their role and effective participation in the European sectoral social dialogue and their capacity to negotiate agreements. The aim of this Eurofound study on representativeness is to identify the relevant national and European social partner organisations in the electricity sector in the EU Member States.
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