News update as of March 13, 2019 National legislation On the menu: Resolution to the dispute between the Yves Rocher Turkey subsidiary and the IndustriALL Global backed Petrol-Is union, Consumer legislation offers only weak leverage in the area of CSR, public sector contracts to prioritize ‘ethical’ employers in the UK, collective agreements renewed for FCA, CNH, and Ferrari and Ducati, downbeat start to 2019 for auto-sector jobs in Argentina.
EU: the 4th UNI Europa Conference was held under the heading ‘Changing Europe Together’ European legislation With the desire to ‘Change Europe’, thanks to stronger unions with increased negotiations influence, UNI Europa gathered its members together for a three-day conference, held in Rome from the 14th to the 16th of March 2016, to set out a strategic framework for the next four years. Unions’ strengthened capacity to attract members and to negotiate, using levers including union alliances, European Works Councils, and transnational company agreements came to the fore. In terms of transnational company agreements, the Conference adopted a set of guidelines and a negotiation procedure.
Great Britain: all the trade unions have renewed their 10 year political funds National industrial relations The 1984 Union law requires unions to ballot their members if they want to continue maintaining their political funds (that can be used to provide financial support for political parties) for a further 10 year term (see article n°8377). Given the political backdrop, with the general election to be held in 2015, and unions hoping for change, all the unions voted once again for the maintenance of these funds.
Great-Britain: government prepares reform to introduce collective defined contribution schemes National legislation The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government has announced its support for the legal reform of the structure of private sector pensions in order to introduce a new type called the ‘collective pensions scheme’ or ‘collective defined contribution schemes.’
