·         Europe: employee relations “rule-book” being torn up?

·         BUSINESSEUROPE says changes in maternity directive not necessary

·         Employee Free Choice to act as “global model”

·         Australian unions critical of new IR legislation

·         BEERG Meeting,  Brussels, February 4/5

·         BEERG/HR Policy Association Washington EWC Briefing, Thursday, February 19

·         BEERG UK/Ireland Meeting, London February 26^th

Open Programmes

·         Executive Development Programme Central London March 26^th /27^th  (£1,450 per delegate):

·         “Managing International Employee Relations in Dark Times”

§         "Managing headcount" - planning and driving restructuring programmes through European and national works councils;

§         "Managing payroll costs" - making the most of pay and conditions negotiations;

§         "Managing organisational change" - dealing with mergers, acquisitions, disposals, outsourcing and offshoring;

§         "Making the most of new and existing government supported short time working schemes"

If you are interested in attending any of these events just e-mail us at: tom.hayes@beerg.com

We will circulate our guide to the recast EWC Directive either later today or Monday.

Europe: employee relations “rule-book” being torn up?

As the global financial and business crisis gets progressively deeper we are daily seeing reports of employee relations developments which, only a few short months ago, would have been regarded as “unbelievable” and “undoable”. To give some examples from this week alone:

·         Irish public sector unions appear ready to negotiate a new pay deal which would see cutbacks in overtime and other premium rates as the government struggles to rein in a growing public sector deficit. For its part, the government has not ruled out actually cutting basic pay rates;

·         Management at the Seagate computer disc drive manufacturing plant in Northern Ireland announcement Wednesday that an immediate and indefinite 10 per cent pay cut is to impact on one-third of the Derry workforce, while managers are to take pay cuts of between 15 and 25%.

·         In Germany, Daimler, one of the country’s largest carmakers said Monday it would put a fifth of its staff on to a four-day working week in reaction to falling demand worldwide. Daimler hopes to avail of a new economic stimulus package will which see the government subsidize short-time working as an alternative to mass redundancies. (There are similar government-funded short-time working schemes in several other European countries such as France and the Netherlands).

·         General Motors is in discussions with its EWC to see if agreement can be reached on a Europe-wide formula on short-time working.

·         In Spain, unions are demanding that the government improve the tax treatment of redundancy payments.

What is happening in the economy is facing employee relations executives with some of the most awesome challenges they have ever faced. Companies are struggling to find ways of balancing the need to remain economically viable, which can mean sharp headcount reductions and pay cutbacks and maintain employee commitment at the same time. Hopefully, through our meetings and programmes we can share experiences with one another and learn how to manage in these turbulent times.

BUSINESSEUROPE says changes in maternity directive not necessary

The European Commission recent consulted the social partners on the issue of amending the directive on safety and health at work of pregnant workers and workers who have recently given birth or are breastfeeding. The Commission suggested increasing the right to maternity leave from 14 to 18 weeks. BUSINESS EUROPE has now said that European companies do not believe it is necessary to amend this directive; improvements in work-life balance including maternity protection will not be best achieved with further legislation. One of BUSINESSEUROPE’s chief concerns is that extending maternity leave rights at EU level in a way that is overly restrictive for companies would actually be of detriment to women’s employment opportunities.

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Employee Free Choice to act as “global model”

We have made the point in this newsletter on more than one occasion that what happens in one country as regards labor relations can influence developments elsewhere, as a result of the speed with which news is disseminated by e-mail and over the web. Changes in labor law in one country can act as a model for other countries. Unions are nowadays just as like to learn from what they see as “best practice” as are corporate managers.

As if to underline this point, Wednesday saw a meeting at the AFL-CIO in Washington, D.C., at which union leaders from 45 different countries met with AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and representatives of U.S. union organizations to discuss the union movement in the United States and the need to work together to pass the Employee Free Choice Act.

Guy Ryder, general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), which brings together more than 300 unions from 155 countries, said the freedom to form a union and bargain for better wages and benefits is a basic human right, one that needs to be protected in every country. Philip Jennings, general secretary of UNI, global union federation, said that union members from around the world are ready to help America’s workers realize the freedom to form unions and bargain collectively through the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act. “We’re serious about this. We want to be active and we want to get this thing done, to do something real—something concrete and visible that will help you win,” Jennings added. “Having a law that protects workers’ right to unionise in the United States is vital to winning union recognition and bargaining rights world-wide,” Jennings said. “American companies have been exporting their abusive labour practices to every country they do business in and foreign companies have eagerly embraced those practices when they cross the US border. It is clear that without legislation protecting workers, multinational companies will treat workers as poorly as they can.”

Global union leaders will meet again in Brussels, Belgium, in February and the campaign to support the Employee Free Choice Act will be on the agenda. The unions have agreed to form a task force to “support joint global action to ensure the Free Choice Act becomes law.” They plan to use the EFCA model in other countries to support union organising and recognition. The unions also plan to tell their government leaders to urge the Obama administration to make the passage of the Employee Free Choice Act a top priority.

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Australian unions critical of new IR legislation

In a submission to the Senate Inquiry into the Labor government’s proposed industrial relations legislation, the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) say that it “fails to fully deliver” on the Rudd Government’s pre-election promise to scrap WorkChoices and restore workers’ rights. ACTU Secretary Jeff Lawrence said the Fair Work legislation was a major step forward “after a decade of attacks on workers’ rights”, but needed amendments to several key deficiencies.

 “There are several important flaws in the Government’s proposed legislation where the Bill falls short of what Australians expected when they voted to reject WorkChoices. Working Australians who voted for change at the last election will be very disappointed if these flaws are not corrected by the Senate.” The most glaring “broken election promise” according to the ACTU concerns the limit on what workers and employers can bargain about and include in a workplace agreement. The Bill prevents workers from bargaining for better unfair dismissal protections and for improved access to advice and assistance from unions in their workplace.

“It is vital to prevent workers being exploited or discriminated against that unions can enter workplaces and are able to inspect pay and personnel records,” Mr Lawrence said. “Equally, workers must have access to timely advice and support from unions. “Unless changed, the legislation will make it unlawful for an employer and a union to agree to reduce the qualifying period before employees are entitled to be protected from unfair dismissal.”

The ACTU’s submission also calls for the scope for multi-employer bargaining to be broadened to be consistent with international labour standards. Workers, represented by unions, should be able to bargain with a group of employers without restriction, Mr Lawrence said.

In last week’s newsletter we reported that several left-wing unions were planning to complain to the ILO that the government’s proposed industrial relations reforms fell short of ILO Conventions on the right to organise and the right to bargain collectively.

Download File:
Fair Work Bill submission