Publications

On 8 April 1997, Jacques Barrot, the Minister for Employment, gave the press
a preview of the forthcoming legislation on the reduction of social security
contributions and the statutory working week. Among the subjects dealt with
will be a revision of existing legislation on banning women from working at
night, which Mr Barrot deems necessary.

On 9 April 1997, the telecommunication conglomerate Deutsche Telekom AG and
the Deutsche Postgewerkschaft (DPG) postal workers' union signed a package of
enterprise-level collective agreements for the employees at the Telekom
subsidiary Deutsche Telekom Mobilnet GmbH (DeTeMobil). After five months of
negotiations, this package represents the first such collective agreement in
the mobile telephony industry since the beginning of the step-by-step
liberalisation of the telecommunications sector.

Workers at TAP-Air Portugal issued a general notice to strike on 24-25 April
1997 in protest at revised flight and rest-time schedules

Pay for 15,000 newspaper distributors has been increased by SEK 2.75 per hour
retrospectively from 1 January 1997 and by SEK 0.45 from 1 August 1997,
according to the new collective agreement between the Swedish Publishers'
Association and the Swedish Transport Workers' Union. The agreement runs for
one year. A novel feature of the agreement is that employees from now on have
undertaken to distribute periodicals and other items of mail together with
the newspapers. The employers have thus achieved one of their important
demands.

Currently the minimum wage in the tourism sector is ATS 54 net per hour. The
Hotel, Restaurant, Personal Services Workers (Gewerkschaft Hotel,
Gastgewerbe, Persönlicher Dienst,HGPD) is seeking an increase of the minimum
gross monthly full-time wage from ATS 11,440 to ATS 12,000 (payable 14 times
per year). This is a nominal increase of 4.9%. With current inflation
projections running at 1.9%, a real pay increase of 3.0% would result. The
minimum net monthly income would be increased by ATS 378.40 from ATS 9,358 to
ATS 9,736.40, a nominal increase of 4.0%. On the basis of 173 hours per
month, the net hourly rate would increase by ATS 2.18 from the current ATS
54.00.

In a recent report (/Social Europe/ 4/96, published in March/April 1997), the
European Commission assesses the progress towards the achievement of the
goals of the medium-term social action programme covering the period between
1995-7. This social action programme, adopted in April 1995, is seen by the
Commission as marking a breakthrough for new ideas and policies. The basic
concept underlying the programme is that social policy is a productive factor
facilitating change and progress, rather than a burden on the economy or an
obstacle to growth.

The announcement by the French auto manufacturer, Renault, of the closure of
its plant with a workforce of 3,100 in Vilvorde in the Flanders region of
Belgium, has caused a wave of indignation throughout Europe. The closure is
part of a European restructuring project which also includes the axing of
2,800 jobs in France. The response by the unions, of an unusually rapid and
massive nature, took the form of strikes in all the group's European plants,
and a series of joint demonstrations.

Portugal's major Lisnave shipyards are being privatised. New industrial
readjustment and work organisation strategies are reforming human resource
management and training standards. However, in a company that has strong
trade union traditions, discussions with employee representatives on
restructuring have been conducted in a relatively formal and
institutionalised way, with little participative input from the employees
concerned themselves.

All industrial relations activities in Spain have been at a standstill in
early 1997, pending the conclusion of negotiations between trade unions and
employers' organisations on labour market reform. However, initial agreements
have been reached on types of employment contract and on dismissal

The issue of the use of national and European subsidies to support employment
in a particular country, region or sector, has come under the spotlight in
recent weeks in the context of the controversy which has arisen from
Renault's announcement of the closure of its factory at Vilvoorde in Belgium
(see Record EU9703108F [1]). Renault's request for subsidies to expand its
operations in Spain was blocked by European competition policy commissioner,
Karel Van Miert, in order to investigate whether EU funding was being used to
transfer employment to a region offering lower wage and social costs.

[1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/observatories/eurwork/articles/undefined-working-conditions/the-renault-case-and-the-future-of-social-europe