31 March 2020
On 20 March the Airbus Group signed an agreement that was supplemented on 26 March with an addendum treating unworked time (hours and days) due to the coronavirus pandemic. The addendum sets out a production suspension regime for the period running from 23 March to 5 April and defines ‘arrangements for a gradual resumption of activity out to the end of 2020, in line the needs of the different company’s divisions sectors and their individual workloads.’
30 March 2020
Two new ‘crisis’ agreements, which were negotiated by video-conference, were announced last week at two major German companies in diverse sectors and differing economic conditions: Deutsche Telekom (60,000 employees) in the telecommunications sector (union: Verdi) and ThyssenKrupp (162,000 employees) in the steel industry (union: IG Metall). Although Deutsche Telekom is in much better financial health than ThyssenKrupp, which is currently undergoing a restructuring process, the two agreements have common...
27 March 2020
Social partners in Germany’s chemical industry, the IG BCE union and the employer confederation BAVC, this week unveiled a ‘crisis agreement’ that will apply until the end of the year. This agreement should make it possible to adapt certain provisions of the branch collective agreement, signed at the end of November 2019, and to increase the remuneration level of employees placed on short-time working.
27 March 2020
Signed on 26 March by all the representative trade union organisations within at Thales (the CFDT, CFE-CGC, CFTC and CGT), the purpose of the agreement at the aerospace group is “to govern the principles and measures adopted within the group to support the adaptation of activities that cannot continue under the same conditions over the coming weeks”. So as to make sure critical and strategic activities in particular are able to continue, as well as the business in general, the agreement contains commitments...
26 March 2020
On 25 March the CFDT trade union called for companies to abstain from paying dividends this a year that is beset by the negative consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic. ‘While the Covid-19 health crisis will have serious economic and social repercussions for many employees and companies, it would be indecent if, as in 2019, the CAC40 companies paid several billion euros in dividends to their shareholders this year. Some of these have already announced a dividend freeze for 2020… but unfortunately this is...
25 March 2020
On 24 March Italy’s banking sector employers and trade union bodies together signed a new agreement that includes the anti-coronavirus protocol from the preceding week (c.f. article No. 11732). The primary measure of the new agreement intends for bank branches nationwide to only be open for scheduled customer appointments. The agreement puts a close to the standoff between the sector’s social partners that saw trade unions seeking a total 15 day closure of all branch offices and the employers ABI body...
24 March 2020
While the halting of all non-essential activities that was decided between 21 and 22 March has provoked the ire of the trade unions for being too lax and which may prompt these union towards strike action (c.f. article No. 11753), agreements specifically designed to protect workers are nonetheless multiplying. On 20 March the Transport Ministry published guidelines (here) formulated together with the social partners that aim to protect workers in the transport and logistics sectors. Home delivery activities, which...
23 March 2020
Social partners in Germany’s metals sector announced on Friday 20 March their decision to suspend negotiations over the renewal of a branch agreement which was due to be agreed in principle in mid-April 2020. Instead, the IG Metall union and the employer federation Gesamtmetall have negotiated a so-called ‘collective crisis agreement’. Valid until 31 December 2020, the deal adopts a series of measures on compensation for short-time working and additional leave for parents in order to soften the burden of the...
20 March 2020
The majority agreement signed on 18 March with two of the three trade unions (CFDT and CFE-CGC) at the semiconductor manufacturing company temporarily adapts business activity in the context of the containment measures introduced by public authorities one week ago. This text allows five of the firm’s industrial sites to reduce their workforce by up to half over the period from 19 March to 2 April 2020, without any loss of present or future salary because “the rest days that would be imposed during the...
20 March 2020
The Inditex group, which owns fashion retailers such as Zara, has announced to unions and employee representatives that it will not, at present, activate the extraordinary short-time working mechanism that allows it to benefit from extraordinary state aid to cope with the decline in business activities. The group plans to keep paying the wages of its employees in full until 15 April, despite stores closing and sales coming to a halt amid the coronavirus outbreak. This announcement concerns the 25,000 employees at...
