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EUROPEAN REVIEW

ISSUE 35 - Page 2

Unions ready list of demands as Finns take over
AT THE BEGINNING OF JULY FINLAND INHERITED the rotating Presidency of the EU. Known for its combination of new, technologically advanced industries with high spending on education and social welfare, the country takes over at a time when a number of contentious issues need to be settled. European trade unions hope that the positive approach of the Finns at home can be translated into Europe-wide success.
One area in which they have excelled, according to the ETUC, is in research investment and it is hoped that they can teach the rest of the EU some lessons on how to avoid the short-termism of the financial markets. Praising companies such as mobile phone giant Nokia, the unions ask what can be learned from its success in training workers and handling change in a smooth way. The Finnish government is expected to raise the question of ‘flexicurity’, a term for new labour relations which allow for the rapid changes in company organisation caused by globalisation while ensuring new jobs are of high quality. It has often been characterised as ‘protect the worker not the job’. The ETUC wants to see an open debate on this topic not a focus on getting workers into any job, it ‘should be seen as an instrument for productive change, not any change at any cost’.  Related to this, the European Globalisation Adjustment Fund, which seeks to help workers made redundant by company restructuring, is welcomed by the ETUC but it wants the social partners to be more involved in the process of finding 
 Vanhanen, M. new jobs and condemns the exclusion of those affected when firms, for instance, move jobs from one EU Member State to another.
Coming to specific legislation, the unions hope that the Finns can find an agreement on the Working Time Directive but insist that work hours must be limited and health and safety must not be compromised. They add that the individual opt-out has to disappear and ‘on call’ periods counted as working time. A watch will be kept on the progress of the Services Directive to make sure that the amendments introduced by the European Parliament are not watered down. However the ETUC also want a new framework directive on Services of General Interest. A Green Paper on the future of labour law, which is expected to be published this summer, should be used to bring workers in new, and often precarious, forms of work under legal protection. Communications on work-life balance and the gender pay gap will also be written during Finland’s term of office and the ETUC wants to help write them.
Finnish prime minister and new EU president Matti Vanhanen
On education, it hopes that the new Presidency will use Finland’s good record on lifelong learning to promote access to high quality vocational training and find an agreement on a new European Qualifications Framework.


Merkel signals shake-up in German labour law
GERMAN CHANCELLOR ANGELA MERKEL has spoken to trade unions about the need for more labour market flexibility and, in particular, for a reduction in the rights that German worker-members of company boards enjoy. In a speech to the German equivalent of the TUC (DGB) she said that the rôle of workers in corporate decision-making must adapt to ‘the new business realities across Europe’. She also rejected a union demand for a minimum wage of €7.50 an hour. Jeers and whistles greeted her assertion that ‘more people are competing for the best ideas than in the past, and the high standard of living we have achieved can no longer be taken for granted’. DGB chairman Michael Sommer pledged that the union movement ‘would do everything to ensure unfavourable policies are not implemented’. 
Ms. Merkel favours a minimum wage which would differ from sector to sector, company-based collective bargaining and incentives for unemployed people to take low paid jobs. On the German system of co-determination which requires all companies with more than 2,000 staff to have half their board members chosen from employees, the Chancellor said ‘other European countries have completely different arrangements’. The German employers’ association wants worker board members to have a maximum presence of one third. However Mr.Sommer replied that there was very little chance of the co-determination committee, on which he sits, approving these plans. Meanwhile the flexibility reforms made by the previous government led by Gerhard Schröder do not appear to have helped the economic situation. A recent report lambasted them for being billions of euros over budget without achieving the desired aims of finding permanent jobs for unemployed people and reducing the duration of unemployment. Merkel is committed to maintaining this ‘Hartz IV’ system as the price for support from Schröder’s party, the SPD, now led by Kurt Beck, in her coalition.



Bargaining round-up

NEGOTIATIONS IN GERMANY between the social partners in the metalworking industry centred on training as well as pay this year. The union IG Metall has settled for a 3% wage increase but also pushed for new training provisions. While the original demand was for 5%, some business leaders said that even 3% would hasten the relocation of manufacturing industry away from Germany. However the trade union replied that flexibility was built into the deal as one-off payments of up to €620 could be withheld at local level by agreement. Local committees will also hold regular meetings to determine training needs half of which will be satisfied in work time if not directly related to an employee’s job.
SLOVAKIAN HEALTH WORKERS have held a campaign of industrial action over changes in the system which they think will lead to privatisation of laboratories and health centres and the transformation of the state health insurers into profit-driven organisations. Trade unions also want pay increases from 12% upwards as they say medical staff are grossly underpaid. Protest rallies gave way to a ban on non-urgent operations and consultations and, although two unions settled for a 20% increase in April, the issue is expected to play a major part in Slovakia’s general election.
IN GREECE A NATIONAL COLLECTIVE agreement has been concluded between the GSEE trade union confederation and three employers’ organisations. Having agreed pay rises totalling 10.9% over 2 years the talks turned to familiar topics such as training, parental and maternity leave, lifelong learning and severance pay. The government and main opposition party, PASOK, welcomed the accord but the Greek communist party rejected it and called for strikes. The deal also puts into effect the teleworking agreement which was agreed by the social partners at European level.




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