Publications

In 1998's rather favourable economic climate, collective bargaining in France
was dominated by the reduction of working time, according to the Ministry for
Employment and Solidarity's annual bargaining report, published in June 1999.
Other trends recorded included: intersectoral bargaining falling off to an
extremely low point; a recovery in the amount of sector-level bargaining at
the end of the year; and considerable growth in company-level bargaining.

In June 1999, the Greek General Confederation of Labour (GSEE) and the
Confederation of Public Servants (ADEDY) officially adopted a position in
favour of applying a "Tobin tax" to short-term capital movements.

The Spanish government's 1999 National Action Plan (NAP) for employment, in
response to the EU Employment Guidelines, has been severely attacked by the
trade unions. The unions criticise the content of the NAP, approved in May
1999, and the funds assigned to it, and claim that it appeared late and
lacked social dialogue in its preparation.

In May 1999, France's Ministry for Employment and Solidarity published an
initial progress report on the 1998 law on the 35-hour working week, aimed at
fueling discussions on the second law on the issue, which is to be voted on
by the end of 1999. On 21 June, Martine Aubry, the Minister concerned,
publicly announced the principal outlines of the proposed second law. She
plans a one-year transition period between the law being passed and its
coming into effect, while her comments have triggered a debate on the
legitimacy of the agreements on working time signed by minority trade unions.

Worker representatives and the management of Michelin in Spain have used
collective bargaining to adapt prevailing legislation to their own
circumstances, by creating a contractual formula half way between the
full-time and the part-time employment contract. The result, agreed in June
1998, is a permanent contract that allows full-time workers to be switched to
part-time work in line with production requirements. The agreement stresses
the participation of worker representatives in this process. The agreement
permitted 400 new permanent contracts to be signed by June 1999.

Ireland's largest trade union, SIPTU, and the Danish-owned multinational
cleaning company, ISS, have concluded a formal "partnership" agreement,
believed to be the first of its kind within the industry, it was reported in
June 1999. The company has been in business for almost 100 years, starting as
a small security operation in Denmark, and is currently a major Europe-wide
company, with important operations in Asia and South America, and has over
100,000 employees worldwide. When ISS established its European Works Council
in 1995, it was one of the first such bodies in the services sector to
include representation from Ireland. ISS is the second-largest contract
cleaning company in Ireland but it has a very high rate of turnover among its
2,500 staff, which it is urgently seeking to address. The new agreement,
which is also aimed at staff retention, is likely to be examined by other
firms with high staff turnover problems.

Territorial Employment Pacts (TEP s) are an EU initiative aimed at
stabilising local and regional labour markets in selected European regions by
promoting consensus and cooperation between all relevant local actors. In
mid-1999, there are seven TEPs operational in six of Austria's nine
provinces. The agreement on an eighth pact is expected by September 1999. In
the two remaining provinces, Burgenland and Styria, TEPs are under
preparation. Burgenland, which stretches along the Hungarian border, is the
poorest province and has the highest unemployment rate, whilst Styria has the
highest rate of long-term unemployment outside Vienna. The first three TEPs
were initiated in the three westernmost provinces, all of which have
relatively low unemployment. However, all three experienced a surge of
long-term unemployment in 1997. The fourth, also initiated in 1997, covers
Vienna [1] where unemployment is above the national average. These four pacts
will all expire at the end of 1999 but will be renewed. The fifth pact, also
in Vienna, and the only one linked explicitly to Austria's National Action
Plan [2] (NAP) for employment implementing the EU Employment Guidelines [3]
(AT9901120F [4]), took effect in autumn 1998 and will run until the end of
2004. The shortest-term pact covers Upper Austria- it is limited to the
calendar year 1999 but will also be renewed. The TEP in Carinthia is
scheduled to run for four years from the beginning of 1999 to the end of
2002. The TEP for Lower Austria will run from the beginning of 2000 until the
end of 2004.

[1] http://europa.eu.int/comm/pacts/en/list/63.htm
[2] http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/naps99/napau_en.pdf
[3] http://europa.eu.int/comm/employment_social/empl&esf/empl99/guide_en.htm
[4] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/labour-market-undefined/national-action-plan-on-employment-poses-challenges

A new Bill presented to parliament on 6 May 1999 provides a new definition of
"occupational healthcare" in the Swedish Work Environment Act
(arbetsmiljölagen, /SFS 1977:1160, 2b§/
). It states that the employer should be responsible for making arrangements
for all kinds of occupational healthcare required by the working conditions
at the specific workplace. By "occupational healthcare", the law means an
independent expert resource in the areas of the work environment and
rehabilitation. Occupational healthcare should be designed so as to prevent
health risks in workplaces and to outline the links between the work
environment, organisation, productivity and health. The new paragraph will
become operative from 1 January 2000.

On 24 May 1999, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) held a major conference to
promote "partnership" at the workplace and to showcase some of the more
innovative of recent, union-based partnership agreements. The event was
attended by some 400 managers, policymakers and trade union representatives.
Of particular significance was the participation in the conference of the
Prime Minister, the trade and industry secretary and the director-general of
the Confederation of British Industry (CBI), all of whom supported the spread
of partnership arrangements though they stopped short of endorsing every
specific aspect of the TUC's partnership agenda.

Italy is celebrating the Millennium with a year of "Great Jubilee"
celebrations during 2000. In June 1999 the social partners signed a "protocol
of intent" on a "social truce" for 2000. The text sets out the partners'
strategies, objectives and commitments for starting the new Millennium in a
climate of social peace.