16 May 2022
Food delivery workers in the United Arab Emirates have gone on strike for the second time since the start of the month. On Tuesday 10 May, delivery workers on motorised vehicles working for Talabat, the Middle East subsidiary of German group Delivery Hero, refused to deliver meals in the vast megalopolis of Dubai. They are demanding a $0.54 increase in pay per trip on the current rate of $2.05, pointing to the fact that fuel prices in the country have risen by 30% since the start of the year. According to workers...
13 May 2022
Online food delivery group Deliveroo and the British trade union GMB have announced the signing of a “Voluntary Partnership Agreement”. The agreement signed on 12 May will, for the first time, entitle Deliveroo’s more than 90,000 delivery riders to representation by the GMB in the event of disputes.
13 May 2022
Ana Mendes, Portugal’s Minister of Labour, Solidarity and Social Security, met with representatives of the employers’ and trade union confederations on 11 May, at the Standing Committee for Social Dialogue (CPCS). The aim of the meeting was to “quickly” conclude the government’s decent work agenda (see article n°12758), however there is yet to be a commitment on a date for the bill’s submission to parliament. The government’s objective is to make progress on the subjects...
11 May 2022
The social partners in the chemical (47,000 employees) and electrical engineering (67,000 employees) sectors have negotiated average wage increases of 4.75% and 5%, respectively, over one year, both of which are valid from 01 May 2022. In neither case will the salary increases be less than €120 per month for the chemicals sector, or €130 per month for the electrical engineering sector. This clause will mean those on the lowest salaries will benefit from increases of up to 5.9% and 6.7% respectively in these...
11 May 2022
Between 09 and 16 May, and under the aegis of the new Agency for Social Relations of Employment Platforms (ARPE), 120,000 digital platform workers are being invited to elect their own representatives. Lying ahead is the prospect of commencing a collective bargaining process that should allow them to secure a set of protections, while still maintaining their status as independent workers.
9 May 2022
On Monday morning, Yasmin Fahimi was elected president of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB – Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund), after receiving 93.23% of votes at the annual congress of the organisation that federates the country’s eight main sectoral unions, with a combined 5.7 million members (11.8 million in 1991). Fahimi succeeds Rainer Hoffmann, who had held the post since 2014, and becomes the first-ever woman to take a role held by 11 presidents in the 73 years of its existence. Amid the...
6 May 2022
Legrand, the French electrical products and systems specialist, signed a new agreement on workplace equality on 22 February. The agreement, signed by all trade unions at the group (CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT, FO) and applicable for three years, will improve training on workplace equality and introduces a procedure for reporting sexist behaviour. Existing measures are reinforced and extended to cover new topics, in the name of “inclusion of all employees”.
4 May 2022
On 02 May, the newly formed Amazon Labor Union (ALU) failed in its campaign to unionise the e-commerce giant’s LDJ5 warehouse on Staten Island, New York. With a 61% turnout, 62% of the voters rejected the bid to unionise. Just weeks before, the ALU had struck an historic victory when workers at Amazon’s nearby JFK8 warehouse voted for unionisation. After intense anti-union efforts by Amazon management the 02 May result represents an effective counterstroke by the company.
2 May 2022
On 28 February 2022, the French pharmaceutical group together with three trade unions, namely the CFDT, CFE-CGC and CFTC (excluding the CGT) signed an employment and careers management agreement (GEPP- Gestion des Emplois et des Parcours Professionnels). The GEPP runs from June 2022 to December 2025 and provides for measures to support employees whose jobs are destined to disappear, to develop in-house job/careers mobility, and to support the employment of the group’s older employees.
2 May 2022
Several signs suggest that Germany could be starting on a course for rising salary levels. With domestic inflation now at the high end of the Eurozone average, (7.4% April, 7.3% March) wage increase demands are accordingly on the rise. In the week 25 April, the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) announced that higher salaries would be its main objective for 2022. Marcel Fratzscher, president of the renowned German Institute for Economic Research (DIW), said wage adjustments are “absolutely necessary” to compensate for the sharp rise in prices. While the chemical industry recently decided to postpone sector wage negotiations...
