13 January 2020
The leadership of the Communications Workers of America, a large trade union that has a strong presence in the telecommunications industry, has decided to expand into the sectors of tech and video games, with the launch of a nationwide unionisation campaign.
7 January 2020
A study conducted by a German university claims that e-commerce platform Zalando has been placing its workers under pressure and/or surveillance using the performance management tool Zonar, a software used for so-called ‘360° feedback’ on employees. Zalando categorically denies the allegations made in the report. Nonetheless, the regional data protection officer in the state of Berlin announced an inquiry into the software, the use of which has been prohibited until further notice. The case raises several...
20 December 2019
On 19 December, after a year of negotiations, social partners in Italy’s banking sector agreed a provisional deal to renew the national collective agreement (CCN), which applies to more than 280,000 workers and expired in December 2018. The strong points of the deal include a €190 pay rise, which is close to the trade union demand of a €200 increase, the right to disconnect, improved protection of employees from commercial pressures, the creation of a joint committee on new technology and several measures to...
20 December 2019
Spain’s banking sector trade unions and employers’ bodies have concluded an agreement on employees’ right to disconnect (log out) during rest periods. The agreement is part of the negotiation over implementation in the sector of the March 2019 decree law (c.f. article No. 11038) that requires all employers to keep a record of employees’ working time so as to be able to identify unpaid overtime hours.
18 December 2019
Christelijk Nationaal Vakverbond, the National Federation of Christian Trade Unions (CNV) is the country’s second largest trade union body with a support base of over 350,000 members and it has opened a debate on the potential for reducing weekly working hours down to 30. In a statement from 14 December (here in Dutch) the union recalls, “We have seen weekly working hours reduced from 40 to 38 and then again to 36. We should progress to the next stage so workers can strike a better work-life balance.” The...
18 December 2019
In the space of just a few weeks tech giant Google has fired five of its staff, and not, according to the former employees in question, because of any breaches of internal regulations or any workplace rules, but instead because they were too liberal in expressing their opinions, and in particular as regards company collaboration with the US immigration authorities. The former employees have now taken their cases to the National Labor Relations Board (Federal Agency responsible for enforcing U.S. labor law in...
13 December 2019
Sign the new deal or lose your job. This was the offer Ryanair made to the 164 employees at its base in Girona, north of Barcelona. The airline company had announced the closure of four sites in Spain, before ultimately agreeing to keep the Girona premises open, provided staff sign individual contracts that would drastically alter their pay and working conditions without recourse to collective bargaining. Under the new contracts, employees will work the equivalent of nine months per year, with interspersed periods...
11 December 2019
Employee involvement in work organization, competences and skills development, productivity bonuses in partial exchange for additional leave times, combatting sexual harassment, protecting the environment…. such are some of the more innovative topics being addressed in national collective agreements and company level agreements signaling a departure from the traditional domains normally occupied by Italy’s collective negotiation landscape.
10 December 2019
On 03 December, Belgium’s insurance sector federation Assuralia, together with the CGSLB, CNE-CSC and SETCa FGTB, trade unions agreed on a 2019-2020 sector agreement that impacts 23,000 employees in the sector and that will run for a period of two years until the end of June 2021. With information kindly provided by Valérie Van Walleghmen, the recently appointed secretary general of the SETCa FGTB union, Planet Labor can develop the main points of this agreement namely purchasing power, ongoing efforts to...
10 December 2019
On 18 October Poland’s OPZZ trade union together with the Ebert Foundation (close to Germany’s Social-Democrat party) hosted a seminar aimed at exchanging information over online workers and practices aimed at protecting their interests. The seminar saw representatives participating from both German (DGB, Ver.di) and Polish (OPZZ, NSZZ) trade unions, as well as from the German Ministry for Labor and the Family and from the Polish Ministry for Labor and Social Policy.
