31 May 2021
On 10 May, Italian insurance group Generali and its European Works Council signed a joint declaration with provisions to cover crisis situations beyond Covid-19. It guarantees the preservation of workers’ rights, makes health and safety a priority and paves the way for the extension of the right to disconnect.
3 May 2021
French automobile group Renault penned on 26 April, at the initiative of its management, the sector’s first global agreement on remote work, struck with industrial workers’ federation Industriall Global Union. The agreement, which represents an addendum to the innovative global framework agreement on quality of life at work signed by Renault in 2019, makes remote work the norm for all employees of the group, whenever the job type permits. The text, which has also been initialled by all of Renault’s...
7 April 2021
‘Telework is here to stay and unions need to learn how to organise workers online and address their concerns.’ With this in mind, IndustriAll Europe, the European industry trade union federation has identified both challenges facing the trade union organizations as they strive to continue keeping in touch with workers and recruit new members, as well as fresh opportunities to reinvigorate by capitalizing on some new methods that were deployed during the pandemic. The union federation message has drawn on a...
25 March 2021
Based on the observation that the pandemic ‘removes all our certainties’ and necessarily leads us to reflect upon the world of tomorrow, the ETUC’s Rethinking project seeks to position the confederation at a strategic level. This project draws on several debates that occurred towards the end of 2020 with various experts, academics and trade unionists. To capture their content and ‘strengthen’ the strategic thinking of the trade union movement, the ETUC has launched a website hosting 8 overview videos...
22 March 2021
Sodexo, the French food services and facilities management company, and the IUF (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations), signed a joint declaration on 19 March in which the French group makes a commitment to improving health and safety standards across its global operations, including at client sites, where the majority of its employees work. Sodexo says it will work alongside its clients to implement these health and safety...
17 March 2021
On 16 March, UNI Europa Finance together with the European insurance sector employers – Insurance Europe, BIPAR and AMICE – signed a Joint Declaration on Artificial Intelligence ‘to encourage social partners at all levels in the insurance sector to deal with artificial intelligence (AI) in a reasonable way that provides opportunities for the sector and its employees.’ The signatories, who are affected by AI use, maintain that AI technology per se is neither good nor bad and that its use must be shaped...
11 March 2021
On 05 March the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) * issued a decision that included conclusions pertaining to European Works Councils (EWCs) and information and consultation requirements. In its decision the CAC affirmed that as soon as collective redundancies are planned in at least two countries, an extraordinary meeting of the EWC must be organized, even if the redundancy plans do...
1 March 2021
The garment industry has been hit by an unprecedented crisis, resulting most notably from the cancellation of orders by major brands and retailers. Many workers in supply chains have lost work as a consequence, which is a particularly major blow for those in countries where social protection systems are either poorly developed or non-existent. The issues endured by this sector, which is highly globalised and on which millions of jobs and sometimes national economies depend, have very quickly drawn attention to the...
26 February 2021
International trade unions are addressing the issue of remote work. On Wednesday 23 February, UNI Global Union, the international services sector trade union federation, published a set of guidelines aimed at local trade unions, to give them the tools for negotiating agreements on remote work that take into account issues that have been identified, such as trade union rights, collective labour rights, surveillance tools, whether arrangements are voluntary and reversible, workload and the right to disconnect....
23 February 2021
23 February is the launch date for IndustriAll Europe’s ‘Telework: my right, my decision’ campaign, which is highlighting the need for telework to be regulated. The European Industry Union Federation believes collective bargaining is best placed to guarantee teleworking conditions, which are also beneficial for workers. Unregulated telework would, on the other hand, lead to infringements of employees’ rights with the potential for overwork, remote monitoring of digital tools, and even additional...
