EurWORK European Observatory of Working Life

Articles

EurWORK articles cover working life in Europe, in particular the fields of industrial relations and working conditions. The articles are based on quarterly reporting provided by the Network of Eurofound Correspondents.

  • Topical updates summarise and update developments around selected topics, which are relevant across a number of Member States at the same time
  • Spotlight reports cover in more depth country-level events, debates and changes in regulation related to working life, aiming to provide a balanced view of all parties’ positions
  • Research in Focus articles report on important research findings (including surveys) from the national level, often, but not exclusively, in the area of working conditions
  • In brief articles are short news items drawn from the correspondents' quarterly reports
  • Country updates summarise developments at national level and are published 4 times a year
13895 items found

  • European social partners issue joint declaration on Confidence Pact for Employment

    • EU Level
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    At a special Social Dialogue Committee meeting held on 29 November 1996, the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), and the European Centre of Enterprises with Public Participation (CEEP) adopted a joint contribution to the /Confidence Pact for Action on Employment in Europe,/ in preparation for the Dublin European Council summit held in December. In their statement, the social partners express their deepest concern at the high level of unemployment which continues to prevail across the EU, and criticise what they perceive as a lack of coordination and implementation of a Europe-wide strategy to combat the problem effectively. They pronounce themselves in favour of Commission President Santer's proposal for a Confidence Pact, and see their declaration as "a committed response to his proposals on the themes of youth unemployment, lifelong learning, and better use of Structural Funds for job creation, in a macroeconomic environment conducive to growth and employment".

  • Proposal to exempt long-term unemployed people from legal minimum wage

    • Netherlands
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    The Dutch Government wants to allow employers temporary exemptions from the legal minimum wage [1] (WML- wettelijk minimumloon), and to that end, a bill was submitted to Parliament in 1996. The target group consists of long-term unemployed people aged between 20 and 65. The purpose of the bill is to give such people the prospect of qualifying for a full-time job while working. The definition of "long-term unemployed" is taken from an existing statutory regulation. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/minimum-wage-4

  • Social partners agree three-year national programme

    • Ireland
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    The primary objectives of Partnership 2000 (P2000) are: " the continued development of an efficient modern economy capable of high and sustainable economic and employment growth and operating within the constraints of international competitiveness, ensuring that Irish society becomes more inclusive, that long-term unemployment is substantially reduced, and that the benefits of growth are more equally distributed. The strategy provides a framework within which specific issues or programmes will be developed, in the normal way."

  • Civil servants' pay negotiations break down.

    • France
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    Following the freezing of civil servants' salaries imposed by the Government for 1996, the Government announced the convening of pay negotiations which have been continually put off since the spring of 1996, but which will now not take place at all.

  • National General Collective Agreement 1996-7 enters second year

    • Greece
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    The second part of the two-year National General Collective Agreement 1996-7 (EGSSE) came into force at the beginning of 1997. The principal purpose of the EGSSE is to set minimum pay levels, which have a two-fold significance: providing a framework for the social protection of unskilled workers and acting as a guideline for negotiations at more specific levels - enterprise, industry-wide or occupational. Whatever is agreed at the level of the EGSEE covers, without exception, the whole of the private sector, as well as the broader public sector (public administration is excluded). The wages of public servants have until now been determined by the Government, but this will have to change following Greece's ratification of International Labour Organisation Conventions Nos. 151 and 154, which consolidate the right of public servants to collective bargaining.

  • TUC launches pre-election campaign

    • United Kingdom
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    The Trades Union Congress (TUC) launched its campaign to put workers' rights at the centre of the general election on 14 February 1997. The campaign, which will cost GBP 1 million, includes newspaper and cinema ads, billboards and leaflets.

  • Forthcoming mass redundancies at Tele Danmark: the Danish telecom sector in transformation

    • Denmark
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    On 29 January 1997, Tele Danmark informed its employees of its decision to reduce staff by 2,500 and take on 500 new employees. The decision, which was due to come into effect by mid-1998, is part of an efficiency plan, which will cut annual costs by DKK 600 million and implement major organisational changes.

  • Basic pay up 2.3% in western Germany in 1996

    • Germany
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    According to a recent analysis by the Institute for Economics and Social Science (Wirtschafts- und Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut, WSI) basic wages and salaries in western Germany grew on average by about 2.3% in 1996. Thus, pay increased by about 0.8 percentage points above the inflation rate, which stood at 1.5% in 1996. Altogether, about 15.1 million employees were covered by collective agreements signed in 1996. The highest pay increases, at 2.8%, were in the energy and water industry and in the iron and steel industry. The lowest increases were in banking (1.5%), post and telecommunications (1.4%) and public services (1.3%).

  • Social partners start discussions on reform of the July 1993 agreement

    • Italy
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    The issue of wage flexibility as a means of promoting employment growth was initially put forward by the ex-president of Confindustria (the most important Italian employers' association), Luigi Abete, as a problem which had not been adequately dealt with in the 1993 income policy agreement. CISL, one of the three main trade union confederations, later took up the wage flexibility issue and proposed flexibility in starting wages (the so-called "entrance salary") as a means of tackling the extremely serious employment crisis in some southern regions of Italy.

  • Forges de Clabecq: struggle against decline in steel production

    • Belgium
    • EF report
    • 27 February 1997
    • Eurwork
    It is expected that the fate of the Forges de Clabecq steelworks will be sealed on 15 June 1997. However, whatever the outcome of the recovery operation by the Swiss-Italian industrial concern, Duferco, something will have changed in this Belgian enterprise located some 15 miles from Brussels in the province of Brabant. Beyond the event in itself - the closure of a firm leading to the loss of 1,800 jobs - which has not itself been exceptional over the last few months in Belgium, it is the style of activity undertaken by the Forges de Clabecq union delegation [1] that has revealed a new union climate. [1] www.eurofound.europa.eu/ef/efemiredictionary/union-delegation

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