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Mettre à Jour: the European HR newswire
Issue 2007/09: May 3rd 2007
AUSTRIA: FIRST STEP TOWARDS OPEN BORDERSAustria has now opened up part of its labour market to workers from all the new member states that joined the EU on May 1st 2004 (NMS). Austrian enterprises currently lack 50,000 qualified specialists and there is an especially critical shortage of skilled labour in the metal industry. For this reason, the Austrian government has agreed to a pilot project that will allow 800 engineering turners, drillers and welders from the NMS to take up employment for a period of 50 weeks. This is likely to be extendable for a second period, although no detailed regulations for this will be issued until next year.Jobs may only be filled on condition that no suitable worker can be found from the established EU member states. It is also necessary to guarantee that NMS workers enjoy the same conditions of employment (including wage rates) as equivalent Austrian workers.FINLAND: NOVEL PAY AGREEMENT FOR 30,000 FINANCE STAFFEmployers and trade unions in the Finnish financial sector have concluded a new-style collective agreement that incorporates a pay element based on performance appraisal. The four-year agreement will begin with a 3.6% across-the-board increase payable on June 1st 2007, plus a further 1% 'salary pot', which may be apportioned according to job performance and paid to staff on October 1st 2007. Next October, there will be a general increase of 3.3%, plus a 1.55% pot for individual reviews (which must be determined and paid at the same time as the general increase). Increases for 2009 and 2010 will be agreed by June 15th 2009.Trade unions will monitor the development of the new system and its outcomes. They will also be involved in the training of staff carrying out the performance reviews.FRANCE: GREATER FLEXIBILITY FOR PREGNANT EMPLOYEESA new French law (2007-293 of 5 March 2007) gives female employees greater choice to decide on the timing of their maternity leave. They may now begin maternity leave at any date from three to six weeks before their baby is due (five to eight weeks for those who have already had two or more children) and every day that the leave is postponed beyond six weeks (eight weeks) may be added to their post-maternity leave period. Employers should note that any decision to postpone maternity leave must be entirely voluntary and not at the company's request. It is also necessary to obtain assent from the employee's medical practitioner before a delay in maternity leave can go ahead.GERMANY: EMPLOYERS RESPONSIBLE FOR SHORTFALLThe higher labour court in Munich, Germany, has ruled that employers are responsible for meeting any shortfall in the cashed-in or transfer value of contributions to insurance-based private pension schemes established on behalf of their employees.The case concerned an employee who contributed 178 euros per month into a company pension scheme (bAV) for a period of 35 months. When she sought to buy back her contributions on leaving the company, she was informed by the company's broker that the 6,230 euros paid into the scheme had a face value of only 639 euros. The court also stated that any prior agreements about deductions from contributions for administrative costs would be invalid unless the costs were written off over a period of at least 10 years.This ruling could have major implications for Riester pensions and corporate life insurance schemes. However, the case is now likely to go to the Federal Labour Court for a final decision (SA 1152106 of 15/03/07).LUXEMBOURG: REMOVING DUAL LEGAL STATUSIn April 2006 a tripartite agreement was signed in Luxembourg committing the social partners to remove the current legal distinctions between blue and white-collar workers by January 1st 2009. The government has drafted a bill to introduce a single status for workers, but the changes required will significantly increase employment costs for companies that have a high proportion of blue-collar employees.One reason why employment costs will rise is because blue-collar workers have four times more days lost through absence than white collar workers, and they will in future be entitled to the white-collar benefit of receiving the first 13 weeks of sick pay from their employer. Minimum salaries are also higher for white-collar workers and there are a wide range of other entitlements, ranging from holidays to severance pay, that will place an extra cost burden on employers.The government has offered to provide support to employers during a five-year transition period and has pointed out that the current 2% social security supplement for blue-collar workers will no longer apply. But to be truly cost-neutral, a single status reform requires the curtailment of benefits for white-collar workers - a proposal that has not yet been voiced even by employers' representatives.NETHERLANDS: LABOUR MARKET OPENED UPThe Dutch parliament has finally agreed to open up its labour market to all workers from the countries that joined the EU on May 1st 2004.The immigration authorities (IND) have now implemented the decision so that nationals of the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia and Slovakia no longer require a permit to work in any sector of the economy. The IND does, however, require nationals from these new member states to register their presence in the country once they have been resident for three months.Nationals from Bulgaria and Romania remain subject to work permit restrictions. Work permit applications made on behalf of citizens of these countries will only generally be considered by the IND if a position cannot be filled by candidates from elsewhere in the EU.NETHERLANDS: REPAYMENT OF TRAINING COSTSTwo recent rulings by the Dutch cantonal courts in Rotterdam and Nijmegen underline the importance of carefully drafting training repayment clauses in employment contracts. A Supreme Court ruling dating back to 1983 established that such clauses should state how long the employee must stay in post after the training has been undertaken and should also establish a sliding scale for repayment that reduces the amount of the potential payment over time. The latest judgements indicate that repayment formulations should be clear, unambiguous and consistently applied. Moreover, employers should take care when drafting repayment exemptions to avoid confusion concerning cases that amount to dismissal rather than resignation. An employee would effectively be resigning if they made an application under a voluntary redundancy programme, but few employers would wish to impose a repayment obligation in such circumstances.SWEDEN: THREE-YEAR DEAL IN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION SECTORA new national collective agreement in the Swedish building and construction sector gives a 10.2% increase in average wage rates over the next three years. Employers have also conceded a one-day reduction in annual working time in 2008 and a further one-day reduction in 2009 without loss of earnings.Pressure by trade unions to include clauses relating to 'inspection fees' in the agreement have been successfully outflanked. The 1.5% fees paid to trade unions by all employees have been ruled by the European Court of Human Rights as unlawful in respect to non-union members. However, employers have agreed to run the risk of contravening data protection legislation by handing over to unions details of wages paid to employees, so that union officials can check that sector rates are being paid.EU: PRICE PRESSURE BUILDS ACROSS EUROPEThere was a sharp increase in consumer price inflation in March with the monthly increase averaging 0.6%, compared with 0.3% in February. The largest rises were in Greece (+2.5%), Latvia (+1.4%) and Cyprus, the Netherlands and Portugal (+1.3). However, there was little or no increase reported for Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia. The highest annual rates of price inflation remain in Turkey (+10.0%), Hungary (+9%), Latvia (+8.5%) and the Russian Federation (+7.4%), whilst by far the lowest annual rate is in Switzerland (+0.2%).OTHER EUROPEAN NEWS IN BRIEFCYPRUS: Negotiations between the social partners and central government in Cyprus about the future of the social insurance fund have been repeatedly frustrated by the refusal of the PEO and SEK trade unions to accept any extension of the current retirement age. Union representatives also insist that no progress will be made until the government agrees to harmonisation of public and private sector pension schemes.EU: A European framework agreement on tackling violence and harassment at work has just been signed by a number of employer and trade union umbrella organisations. The signatories have undertaken to seek implementation of the agreement through their national-level associations over the next three years.EU: On May 16th 2007, the European Commission will be publishing a draft directive setting out a range of minimum sanctions against companies employing third-country nationals who are working in breach of their residence status. A day later, on May 17th, the Commission will be publishing assessments about whether Cyprus or Malta are ready to adopt the euro.FINLAND: It now looks increasingly unlikely that a national pay accord will be concluded in Finland when the term of the current accord runs out in September 2007. It will therefore be up to individual sector organisations and companies to determine an appropriate 'going rate' for pay increases.FRANCE: Ségolène Royal, the socialist candidate in the final round of the French presidential elections, has announced her intention to introduce a tax credit for trade union subscriptions if she is voted into office on May 6th 2007. However, Gaétan Gorce, a leading member of her party, has qualified her statement by saying that it is not at all certain that a new government would wish to take responsibility for funding trade unions.FRANCE: The smoking ban appears to have caused few problems in French workplaces. Between February 1st 2007, when the ban took effect, and March 15th 2007, the labour inspectorate visited 4,073 workplaces and found just 34 instances of infringement. Fines were levied in just two cases.GERMANY: Although the federation of the German building industry (HDB) and the central association of the German construction industry (ZDB) reached a 3.5% pay deal with the IG BAU building union at the end of March 2007, associations representing employers in the north and east German states have rejected the outcome. The former economic affairs minister, Wolfgang Clement, has been appointed as a conciliator, and now faces the difficult task of achieving concessions from the many cash-strapped construction employers in states such as Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.GERMANY: Germany's 20 million state pensioners will receive an increase in benefits of 0.54% on July 1st 2007. This will be the first increase they have received during the last four years and represents a monthly increase of just 6 euros for an individual receiving a standard pension of 1,100 euros.ICELAND: The annual rate of wage inflation in Iceland has fallen for the second month in succession. In March 2007 it stood at 9.8%, compared with 10.3% in February and 11.2% in January. The annual trend may be misleading, however, because the six-monthly wage inflation rate expressed on an annualised basis was 17.5% in March, up from 15.9% in February.LUXEMBOURG: Employers in Luxembourg no longer need to obtain prior authorisation from the Labour and Employment Ministry before they can implement overtime working. All they need to do is obtain consent from employee representatives (or in their absence individual employees) and submit a notification to the Labour and Mines Inspectorate on the day prior to the overtime being worked. If consent has been obtained, it will automatically be deemed to be authorised.LUXEMBOURG: A bill before the Luxembourg government sets out a new right to take educational leave. Under the proposals, an individual would be entitled to up to 80 days' paid educational and training leave (congé individuel de formation) during their working lives. The rate at which this could be taken would be limited to a maximum of 20 days every two years. During such leave periods, employers would be compensated by the state for salary costs at a rate capped at four times the national average wage.NETHERLANDS: The Dutch ministry of home affairs has concluded a pay accord with public sector unions that gives civil servants working for central government pay increases totalling 13.9% over four years. Current salaries are subject to an immediate 3.7% increase, backdated to January 1st 2007. Future annual increases will be 2.7% in 2008, 3.4% in 2009 and 3.4% in 2010. Year-end bonus payments will also increase during this period by up to 8.3%.NETHERLANDS: The Dutch Central Bureau of Statistics has reported a reduction of deposits by employees into company savings schemes (spaarloonregeling), with a decline of 0.3 bn euros in 2006 compared to 2005. This was partly due to the launch of the career saving scheme (levensloopregeling) in 2006 and the fact that employees are not permitted to take part in both schemes at the same time.ROMANIA: An increasing number of foreign financial companies are lining up to take advantage of Romania's new compulsory second-pillar pensions system. The second pillar will consist of a privately-managed personal savings account that will be mandatory for all workers under the age of 35 and optional for all those under the age of 45. The initial contribution rate will be 2% of earnings, but this will rise progressively during an 8-year transitional period to 6%. Romanian workers subject to the new pensions will have just four months to sign up to a scheme when the law comes into force on January 1st 2008.NORWAY: A new collective agreement has been concluded this week covering Norway's central government and municipal employees. This provides an across-the-board increase of 4.8%, which represents an annual rise of 9,500 kroner (1,170 euros) for the average public employee.ROMANIA: Labour productivity in the Romanian industrial sector grew by 15.3% over the year to February 2007. The highest-performing sector was the manufacture of construction materials (+82.8) and the lowest-performing sector was printing (-17.8%).RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Employees subject to compulsory social insurance in Russia now have their state allowances for temporary disability and maternity calculated on the basis of the total time they have been insured, rather than years of continuous service with their current employer. In addition, the allowances are now paid for each calendar day (rather than working day) of illness or maternity leave.RUSSIAN FEDERATION: The Russian Constitutional Court has declared as unconstitutional a provision in a federal law limiting the maximum amount of state financial assistance for pregnancy and childbirth. The law places an upper limit of 11,700 roubles (334.16 euros) for total state assistance. The Court stated that the law worsened the situation of women with high incomes by 'disproportionately limiting' the amount of assistance they can receive. The state Duma has been given six months to amend the law, after which the upper limit will become automatically invalid.RUSSIAN FEDERATION: A recent report from the Inter Press Service news agency indicates that federal and regional trade unions in Russia are beginning to lose large numbers of active members. 'At many workplaces', claims the report, 'unions simply do not exist'. A significant decline in unionisation is backed up by the federation of the independent trade unions of Russia (FNPR), which claims that only 29.5 million Russians are now members of trade unions. This compares to 40 million in 2000 and 73 million in 1992.SLOVENIA: The gross monthly wage in Slovenia, averaged over the first two months of 2007, was 1,232 euros. This was 5.6% higher than the equivalent period in 2006.SPAIN: The Spanish ministry of employment and social affairs has announced that contributions to the state pensions system have increased by 6.4% over the last year. The average retirement pension is now 757.18 euros per month.UNITED KINGDOM: The 14,000 cabin crew working for British Airways have voted to accept a two-year pay deal, plus improvements in the handling of sickness absence, measures to help resolve a shortfall in the company's defined benefit pension scheme, and an annual maximum limit of 900 hours on flying time. The deal will see pay increase this year by 4.6% (backdated to February 1st 2007) and by the rate of retail price inflation next year. In addition, BA has agreed to four new non-pensionable increments that will lift the basic salary for cabin crew at the top of the scale by nearly £3,000 (4,392 euros). UNITED KINGDOM: A two-year inflation-proofed agreement has recently been concluded between Carlsberg UK and the T&G transport union (now part of the new Unite union). The deal gives delivery drivers in the UK an immediate 3.9% rise, plus the consolidation of a bonus of £1,250 (1,831 euros) into basic rates. They will additionally receive a guaranteed increase next March, amounting to the annual increase in the retail prices index plus 0.4%. The agreement also introduces an 80% starter wage rate for new drivers covering the first 6 months of permanent employment.
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