News Flash

Over the year to Q3 2012 hourly labour costs in the business sector rose by 7.7% in Estonia, 7.1% in Bulgaria, but only by 0.5% in Slovakia and the Netherlands and 0.3% in Slovenia. Labour costs fell in a number

From January 1st 2013 employers in Austria will be required to pay a flat-rate “dissolution” supplement (Auflösungsabgabe) of 110 euros on top of social insurance contributions for each employee dismissed. No supplement will be payable where, for instance, an employee’s

Gross hourly earnings in Turkey rose over the year to Q3 by an average of 9.5%. The largest sectoral increase was in private sector services (12%), followed by 8.9% in manufacturing and 6.6% in construction.  The annual increase in consumer

Cabin staff working for the Germain airline Lufthansa have finally agreed to accept a pay deal brokered through an independent conciliator. A large majority of the 18,000 staff have voted in favour of a 3.95% increase, a one-off payment of

A number of major changes were introduced in the Irish government’s 2013 budget that will take effect on January 1st 2013:

* Maternity Benefit: Benefit will be treated as taxable income, but will still be exempt from the Universal

The European Commission has published country-by-country demand projections for 24 occupational groups covering the period 2010 to 2020. These show that the expected demand for corporate managers will range from -43.3% in Romania to +82.1% in Cyprus. Machine operators and

The upper house of the Dutch parliament has voted through a measure that will require large companies to change their external accountants every eight years. Firms will also not be able to provide business consulting services to companies they audit.

A draft law to protect whistleblowers has been submitted to the Czech parliament by Deputy Prime Minister Karolína Peake.

Under current legislation an employee who is dismissed after reporting wrongdoing in their workplace must be able to prove that their

The Irish Equality Tribunal has awarded a claimant 95,000 euros because she was found to be unfairly selected for redundancy on the grounds of her pregnancy. This ruling illustrates the stringent conditions which are applied by the tribunal in such

An extra higher rate income tax band is to be introduced in Finland next year. Currently all income above 70,300 euros is taxed at 29.75%. In 2013 an additional rate of 31.75% will be applied on those elements of income

An analysis of recent UK pay deals by Incomes Data Services has found that collectively agreed pay rises averaged 2.5%, with employers predicting similar increases next year. The survey found few pay freezes, although the number of rises in excess

Several governments have recently declared a change in the level of their national minimum wage.

In the channel island state of Guernsey the statutory minimum wage has increased to GGP 6.30 (7.76 euros) per hour for employees over the age

The Netherlands central statistics office has reported that wages rose on average during Q3 2012 by 1.7% – the biggest rise since the end of 2009. The largest increases were in the industrial (2.3%) and construction (2.1%) sectors.

The regional labour court of Dusseldorf (Germany) has recently permitted social plan provisions awarding less favourable benefits for employees approaching pension age. The clause in question reduced the claimant’s redundancy pay because he was entitled to a statutory retirement pension

On-call arrangements have now been tightly restricted in Italy (Law 92/2012) and may only be used in specifically defined circumstances. These are: intermittent duties provided for by national collective bargaining agreements, duties limited to weekly, monthly or yearly terms, or