EUROPEAN UNION:

This week Members of the European Parliament will vote on a resolution calling for further measures to achieve gender equality throughout the European Union. The focus of the debate will be a report drawn up the Belgian socialist MEP, Marc Tarabella. This points to the continuing pay gap between men and women and calls on more EU member states to introduce paternity leave entitlements. The most significant clauses for employers in the resolution are:

* Concern about the lack of response from the European Commission following a previous parliamentary recommendation seeking to revise the EU's current equal pay Directive.

* A proposal to make 22nd February 'International Equal Pay Day' and to establish a European charter of women's rights.

* The need for all EU Member States to acknowledge companies that take action to promote equality between women and men and facilitate work-life balance.

* The establishment of paternity leave on an EU-wide basis - closely linked to maternity leave rights.

* Legislation at EU member state level to introduce "binding targets" that will "encourage gender balance in corporate, administrative and political positions of responsibility". Although the European Parliament has limited powers, its resolutions often influence national governments and shape the agenda for future EU legislation.

FRANCE: CHANGES AHEAD FOR STAFF REPRESENTATIVE BODIES

Employers and trade unions in France have been talking for some time about modernisation of the social dialogue and the changing roles of staff representative bodies (IRPs).

The employers' body Medef would like to encourage individual companies to adapt IRPs to reflect their special circumstances and focus on issues such as the reconciliation of family and working life. Unions, on the other hand want to establish a body of rights for all IRPs to uphold and for them to be guaranteed a strategic role in the operation of all enterprises. They are opposed to the mainstreaming of work-life balance questions because they believe that employers would just use "soft" policy concerns to "mix everything up" and prevent discussion about "hard" issues such as the treatment of subcontractors and pay determination criteria.

As a first step towards reform of workplace representation it has been agreed that employers will draw up a new "roadmap" indicating the avenues for future discussion. At the same time unions will work on an inventory of common rights and duties for IRPs.

SPAIN: HOLDING FAST TO PENSION AND LABOUR REFORMS

In a recent interview with the national daily newspaper El Mundo the Spanish Manpower and Immigration Minister Celestino Corbacho said that he would stick to his plan to raise the retirement age despite a threat of union protests. The minister also felt confident that during the next three months agreement would be reached on changes to the workers' statute so that companies will be encouraged to offer more permanent, rather than short-term, contracts. The government has made clear that failure to reach a voluntary agreement on this issue will mean that its own proposed "carrot and stick" approach will be adopted. This would establish fiscal incentives for the creation of permanent contracts, but impose higher social security payments on less stable temporary contracts.

PAY, TAX AND BENEFIT TRENDS

BELGIUM: The Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme, has given employers and trade unions one month to commence discussions about a new national agreement. Social partners in the private sector last met in December 2008 when concluding the 2009/10 intersectoral accord.
BELGIUM: A five-day blockade has been lifted by workers at Heineken NV's Belgian production facility following an agreement that redundancies will be avoided "wherever possible". The Alken Maes brewery was set to lose around a quarter of its staff under a group restructuring programme. However, most of the necessary manpower reductions will now be achieved on a voluntary basis through an extension of the company's early retirement scheme.

CZECH REPUBLIC: A meeting between the Czech government and both sides of industry has agreed a package of 38 measures to aid economic recovery. These include a commitment to improve the business environment and reduce the administrative burden on companies. The Czech cabinet is also currently discussing ways to reduce the public sector borrowing deficit to below 3% of GDP so that an application can be made to join the eurozone in 2016. This will mean the introduction of additional tax rates for those on higher incomes.

GERMANY: General Motors has reintroduced bonus payments for senior executives at Opel, its German car manufacturing subsidiary. Last year's 10% cut in base salaries will be not be reversed, but new variable payments will reward the successful implementation of GM's challenging plans for the company. Opel sales within Germany rose by 31% in 2009 due to the government's car-scrapping scheme. Nevertheless, the
company plans to shed 8,300 jobs across Europe - including 4,000 in Germany.

GREECE: Although an Act authorising the payment of early retirement bonuses and pension enhancements for former employees of the recently liquidated Olympic Airlines was signed in September 2009, it was never published in the Official Gazette. Now the Greek government has decided to withdraw the measure due to the current economic crisis, saving the exchequer an estimated 800 million euros.

GREECE: The Greek Labour Minister, Andreas Loverdos, has decided to introduce legislation which will clarify a long-standing dispute about how banks should be represented as employers during negotiations with the Federation of Bank Employee Unions (OTOE). This issue has held up progress towards a collective agreement covering the entire banking sector.

ITALY: The index of hourly negotiated wage rates in Italy rose over the year to December 2009 by 2.8%. On average in 2009 there was an increase over the previous year of 3.0%.

MONTENEGRO: In December 2009 pay in Montenegro averaged 653 euros gross and 470 euros net (of tax and social security). Financial intermediation, the most highly paid sector, enjoyed average gross pay levels that were 99.1% higher than for the working population as a whole.

NETHERLANDS: A new collective accord in the Dutch engineering sector has increased basic wage rates by 0.5% from July 1st 2010, and 1.15% from January 1st 2011. Employers and trade unions have also agreed to maintain the current early retirement scheme which was under threat because the sector's pension fund PME had been hard hit by stock market falls during the recession. From 2011 funding for the scheme will be achieved by an equal contribution from employers and employees. This will continue until PME has completed its recovery plan.
NORWAY: The Norwegian Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrom has decided to impose compulsory arbitration in order to end a strike at a hospital in Bergen. The dispute between the Confederation of Norwegian Enterprise Services and Norwegian Nurses Association was over changes in minimum wage rates and welfare scheme entitlements.

PORTUGAL: Portugal's Ministry of Finance has just commenced negotiations with public sector trade unions over renewal of the collective agreement for the Civil Service. The government's position is that there is no room for any general pay increase during 2010, although there may be some scope for changes in career structures, performance reviews, training and collective bargaining procedures.

SWEDEN: The latest indices published by 'Statistics Sweden' indicates that Labour costs in the private sector rose over the year to November 2009 by just 0.8%. The containment of Swedish labour costs has been partly achieved by the reduction in employer social security contributions for young workers effective in January 2009.

IN THE COURTS

FINLAND: The Labour Court in Helsinki, Finland has found that a company dismissed an employee without justification, even though the dismissal arose because of their unruly conduct. The employee concerned had become intoxicated during a works rail excursion, threatened the train conductor and been evicted from the train. However, the court took the view that their good service record of over 30 years and only mildly insulting behaviour should have been taken into account before disciplinary action was taken. Their former employer was ordered to pay compensation, interest since the date of the writ, a reimbursement to the unemployment insurance fund and court costs. [VR Ltd v A. Ct TT-2010-18]

FRANCE: The French Supreme Court has recently considered the vested training rights of an employee who left their employer prior to May 7th 2005. When the right to 20 hours training a year (DIF) came into effect on May 7th 2004 employers had the option of giving the right immediately to employees with one year's service or to wait a year and give it to all employees. In this case the employee ended service with their employer in April 2005, one month before they introduced DIF. In the court's view this left the individual with no vested rights, unless they had been covered by a sectoral agreement obliging their employer to introduce DIF prior to May 7th 2005. [Cas soc 08-41.697. 20/01/10].

GERMANY: The German Federal Labour Court has ruled that an employer may require written German language skills where this is a clear requirement in order to perform a job. The case concerned a Spanish production assistant who had been hired on condition that they attended language courses funded by the employer. When, after two years, they discontinued the language training they were warned that they must resume the course programme or be dismissed. When their linguistic skills were subsequently tested they were discovered to be inadequate and the termination took place. The court found that the dismissal was for a legitimate reason and did not amount to indirect discrimination on grounds of nationality or ethnic origin. (BAG: 2 AZR 764/08).

GERMANY: The Federal Administrative Court in Leipzig Germany has ruled that the minimum wage operating in the postal sector is unlawful. The wage was set in January 2008 when Deutsche Post was privatised as part a liberalisation programme across the sector. However, the Court has decided that the German Government violated the rights of other postal companies by failing to consult them about an amendment to the wage regulation limiting its scope to enterprises whose main business was the delivery of mail.

OTHER EUROPEAN HR NEWS IN BRIEF

CZECH REPUBLIC: The Czech Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is currently working on a Labour Code amendment that would give labour inspectors the power to impose fines on employers found to be infringing the privacy of employee communications. According to a recent survey by consultants Ernst and Young, four out of five Czech employers monitor employees' online activities and 58% limit their internet access.

CZECH REPUBLIC: The European Commission has decided to close infringement proceedings against the Czech Republic for failing to bring domestic legislation on occupational social security schemes in line with EU equal treatment Directives. This move follows the adoption by the Czech parliament last year of a comprehensive antidiscrimination law.

FRANCE: From now on, the work certificate issued to French employees upon leaving their employment must contain a statement about the balance of hours due under the employee access to training scheme (Droit Individuel à la Formation or DIF). Decree 2010-64 requires the certificate to include the number of unused DIF hours, the value of the benefit (the hours multiplied by 9.15 euros) and the name/address of the training agency responsible for its execution.

GERMANY: New regulations on genetic testing by, or on behalf of, employers came into force in Germany on February 1st 2010. There is now a general prohibition against genetic testing, except in special circumstances where genetic characteristics may expose an individual to the risk of serious health problems in a particular job. The regulations also add genetic characteristics to those grounds already protected under
anti-discrimination legislation. Moreover, employers may not penalise employees who refuse to undertake a genetic test.

GERMANY: Initial talks with the German trade union IG Metall during the current metal and electrical industry collective bargaining round have focussed on job security issues. Negotiations on a new agreement are moving ahead fairly quickly in Baden-Wurttemburg and North Rhine-Westphalia - which both normally set the benchmark for other German regional deals.

HUNGARY: It is generally expected that the principal Hungarian opposition party, Fidesz, will win the next general election in April 2010. The weekly newspaper Heti Válasz has reported that amongst its agenda items for a new term in office will be the improvement of financial support for workers with disability, funding guarantees for private pension schemes and the retention of childcare allowances for three years (they are due to be cut to two years from May 2010).

MALTA: Non-fatal accidents at work in Malta were 3.8% lower in Q4 2009 than in the equivalent quarter a year earlier. 86.3% of accidents affected men, half took the form of wounds and superficial injuries and one third involved those aged 45 and over.

NETHERLANDS: The municipal council in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, is poised to vote later this month in favour of a complete liberalisation of Sunday opening for retail outlets. Currently opening is restricted to 12 Sundays during the year. Restrictions could be lifted as early as February 28th 2010.

POLAND: During Q3 2009 79% of Polish workers were employed for 40 hours or more per week. During the labour force survey's reference week 6.2% of employees were on annual, maternity, parental or study leave and just 1.1% on sickness absence.

RUSSIAN FEDERATION: The Russian Ministry of Economic Development has forecast that in 2010 the economy will grow by 3.1%. According to the state statistical agency Rosstat the Russian economy shrank by 7.9% in 2009 - the largest annual fall in GDP for the last 15 years.

UNITED KINGDOM: The UK's Financial Services Authority (FSA) has just issued a consultation paper based on recommendations put forward in November 2009 in an independent report on corporate governance in the finance sector. The FSA is seeking to tighten controls over those with "significance influence functions" and to encourage banks and insurers to establish board-level risk committees. It is also extending governance rules to all those conducting financial service businesses in the UK, including those authorised in other EU jurisdictions. The onsultation period ends on April 28th 2010.

UNITED KINGDOM: New UK sick pay regulations will come into force on April 6th 2010. These will replace the current system of "sick notes" with "fit notes". Doctors will no longer be required to declare an individual "fit for work". When stating that an individual is unfit they will be invited to choose one of four changes that may help get them back to work - phasing their return, altering hours, amending duties or orkplace
adaptations. Furthermore, the maximum period that a medical statement may cover will be reduced during the first six months of illness to three months.

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