22 February 2006
The strikes which are affecting public services in several German Länders since February 6, continued, Tuesday February 21, after the failure of a first top-level negotiation held the day before, in Berlin, between representatives of the German public sector and the services trade union Verdi. A new negotiation at the top level should be held “around March 10” announced a Länder representative, Ralf Stegner, vice-president of Tarifgemeinschaft der Länder (TdL). (Réf. 06164)
22 February 2006
The CBI rejected the Turner commission’s recommandation, made last November 30, to compel employers to contribute to staff pension schemes. The employers’ organisation argues that auto-enrolment without compulsion is the best way to increase pensions savings. The CBI argues that forcing companies into compulsory pensions contributions “would put hard-pressed firms, especially smaller ones, under great economic pressure and significantly raise labour costs while failing to boost savings levels overall”....
21 February 2006
On February 7, 2006, social partners (CEOE and CEP for employers, and UGT and CC.OO for trade unions) and the Minister of Labour reached an agreement on vocational training for employment (AFPE), which reorganizes the vocational training system. (Ref. 06165)
21 February 2006
The real estate industry will lack 8000 qualified construction workers next year. Some mesaures have been taken, in order to attract foreign workers from non EU countries. (Ref. 06162)
20 February 2006
Trade unions keep trying to change the law. But government and Parliament do not want to give civil servants the right to strike. (Ref. 06160)
20 February 2006
After March 10, if there is no agreement between trade unions and the employer, the latter can fix himself the rate of increase of the average salary. (Ref. 06157)
20 February 2006
The death of two sisters, both workers for the Euroshoes factory in Doupnitsa (small city in the south-west of Bulgaria), lead to a wave of inspections throughout the country and launched a debate on the level of working conditions. The Italian Parliament is also getting interested in the “bad” practices of the Euroshoes company, of Italian nationality, abroad. (Ref. 06156)
20 February 2006
The strike in the public sector extends and makes Germans angry. (Ref. 06153)
17 February 2006
The trade unions and the employers’ organisations argue in favour of a new social contract which would tackle labour and employment issues. (Ref. 06148)
16 February 2006
Started on February 14, 2006 in Böblingen, wage negotiations in Bade-Wurtemberg’s metal industry, which employs nearly 800 000 people, were postponed to March 17 after only three hours of discussions. The talks in this Land are followed very closely in Germany, because agreements which are concluded there often set the tone elsewhere. (Réf. 06137)
