Agreements

The basic working week in Portugal’s public sector was increased from 35 to 40 hours by Law No. 68/2013 (in Portuguese, 945 KB PDF) [1] as part of the government’s austerity measures to cut costs in the sector. The law came into force on 28 September 2013. At the beginning of September, however, a

The Estonian Seamen’s Independent Union (EMSA [1]) has more than 2,000 members, more than 1,400 of whom work on ships owned by the AS Tallink Group (Tallink [2]), the biggest shipping company in Estonia. The first collective agreement between Tallink and the EMSA was concluded in 1997 and since then

On 9 October 2013, the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria [1] adopted an updated employment strategy for 2013–2020. The strategy was developed in response to the falling employment rate as a result of the global economic and financial crisis and by the deepening unprecedented

Collective agreements are legally binding documents, and since 2003 the Labour Code has made it possible for them to be extended by ministerial decree. In 2010, four branch collective agreements were extended for the first time to wood and furniture, water supply, brewing and the paper and pulp

As part of the reorganisation and modernisation of the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority (CyTA [1]) and with the immediate objective of reducing its operating costs, CyTA announced a voluntary early retirement scheme in December 2013. It aims to cut staff by between 550 and 600 and is expected to

Having successfully negotiated national interprofessional agreements on the ‘generation contract’ (*FR1209031I* [1]) in 2012, and on safeguarding jobs (*FR1302011I* [2]) on 11 January 2013, the social partners have completed the negotiation of a major reform of vocational training. Talks started in

The craft sector in Italy has a consolidated system of bilateral bodies, regulated by cross-industry agreements at national and regional levels. The sector is also regulated by sectoral collective agreements (*IT0812059I* [1]). This bilateral system has ensured income support benefits for craft

On 12 November 2013, four unions which represent social work employees signed an agreement to establish a new joint union committee. They are the Lithuanian Education Trade Union (LŠPS [1]), the Lithuanian Civil Servants Trade Union (LVTPS [2]), the Federation of Lithuanian Public Service Trade