Agreements

The Council of Employment, Social Policy, Health and Consumer Affairs (EPSCO [1]) met on 20 and 21 June 2013 in Luxembourg. The council meets around four times a year, and is composed of employment, social protection, consumer protection, health and equal opportunities ministers. [1] http://www

Reforms and austerity measures in the health and social care sectors have affected the quantity and quality of services. Cost-cutting reforms have reduced the number of service providers and state-funded services because organisations cannot afford to pay employees’ salaries. Consequently, the

A new working time model for people who work on Saturdays in Austria was unveiled on 8 July 2013. The alternative to existing Saturday work rules was proposed by social partners, along with the commerce section of the Federal Economic Chamber (WKO [1]) and the Union of Salaried Employees, Graphical

The European Commission (EC [1]) issued the results of a so-called ‘fitness check (348KB PDF) [2]’ of EU law on the provision of information to and consultation of workers on 26 July 2013. [1] http://ec.europa.eu/index_en.htm [2] http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=10415&langId=en

A wildcat strike was launched by around 80 independent parcel post workers in the Netherlands on 25 June 2013. The self-employed drivers, known as ZZPs, who work for PostNL [1], had rejected proposed lower pay rates offered by the postal company for the delivery of each parcel. The drivers had been

A year after the first Grand Social Conference (*FR1205031I* [1]) in July 2012, the Government of France [2] held a second. It invited 300 representatives of employers, trade unions, and regional and local authorities to take part. The second Grand Social Conference [3] was held on 20–21 June 2013.

After nine months of negotiation, an agreement has been signed by social partners in France on the quality of working life and professional equality. The deal was signed by all three of the country’s employer organisations. Three of the five union confederations put their names to the document – the

In July 2013, the Institute for Economic and Social Research (WSI [1]) in Germany published its interim report (1.34 MB PDF, in German) [2] on the 2013 collective bargaining [3] round. The study was put together using data from the Collective Agreement Archive (Tarifarchiv [4]) of the Hans Böckler