Collective bargaining by trade unions has been paying off in the Netherlands, where 2020 saw an average 3% rise in wages – the biggest increase in 12 years. Employees in industry, construction and catering obtained rises of over 3.5%, according to Statistics Netherlands.

Dear readers, As the coronavirus pandemic continues to take its toll on people across Europe, trade unions in different countries are acting to preserve jobs and keep workers safe, offer support to people in difficulty, and push forwards towards a better, greener and more equal society. At the same time, they are also fulfilling their traditional task of collective bargaining to improve workers’ pay and conditions. In this issue we highlight some examples from around the EU.

In the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, many industries are likely to accelerate efforts to restructure their operations, creating uncertainty for employees. It is vital that trade unions should be involved in the recovery process at all levels. Germany’s DGB Confederation has published a new report outlining 21 projects that could map the way forward for structural change in the future.

In October, Spain’s Council of Ministers approved regulations guaranteeing equal pay between men and women and requiring companies to prepare and register equality plans. The measures were negotiated and signed by the trade unions CCOO and UGT.

The UK needs to invest in creating jobs to prevent mass unemployment and severe recession in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, says the Trades Union Congress.

The Polish government has reached a deal with trade unions to gradually close the country’s coal mines by 2049. NSZZ Solidarnosc SGIE, OPZZ ZZG w Polsce and Kadra agreed on the start of negotiations to set out the way forward.

Trade unions and employers in Austria’s metalworking industry took just one hour to negotiate a new wage agreement covering the sector’s 190,000 employees. It brings a pay increase of 1.45% from November, equivalent to the national inflation rate over the past 12 months. Companies that continue to perform well have agreed to award a voluntary tax-exempt corona bonus of €150.

French trade unions have signed an agreement with engineering and electronics company Bosch, France, setting the terms for the application of official, long-term, short-time working arrangements, valid until June 2022.

Uber is an employer and its drivers are employees, according to a legal judgement by a Swiss appeal court. Trade unions hailed the ruling as a ‘landmark decision’. 

Working from home during the pandemic has meant extra costs for many people. In the Netherlands, the FNV trade union federation has made an additional homeworking allowance one of its demands in the current pay round. In the latest collective agreement covering civil servants, trade unions have won a €363 annual payment for those who work at home. It is the first time that a specific payment for homeworking has been included in a statutory pay deal. 

Trade unions and employers in Italy’s rubber and plastics industry have agreed to renew their national collective agreement, covering multinational tyre companies such as Pirelli, Michelin and Bridgestone and affecting some 130,000 workers. The deal, signed by trade unions Filctem-Cgil, Femca-Cisl and Uiltec, also provides for a minimum salary increase of €63, awarded in two instalments of €32 in January 2021 and €31 in January  2022.

Trade union confederation CITUB has been helping disadvantaged children in Bulgaria during the pandemic.

Icelandic trade unions have resisted moves by the country’s Confederation of Enterprise to break the collective agreement signed in 2019, covering over 100,000 workers. The deal is valid until 1 November 2022 and raises minimum wages by ISK 90,000 (€550) over the contract period. But under financial pressure caused by the global pandemic, the Confederation of Enterprise (SA) considered pulling out.

Dear readers,Over recent months, trade unions across Europe have been working flat out to defend workers’ health and jobs during the coronavirus crisis. Our summer edition of National UPdates highlights just a few samples of action at national level, in different sectors and with different partners. They illustrate how unions and employers should have a shared interest in safeguarding workers and maintaining jobs and wages through the pandemic.

Ver.di, the trade union representing health and care workers in Germany, has agreed with the employers’ organisation BVAP on a €1,500 bonus for nursing staff and caregivers in recognition of their work during the corona crisis. Part-time workers and trainees also get an extra payment in July.

Spanish trade unions in the chemicals industry have agreed health recommendations with the employers’ organisation Feique. Drawn up with Fica UGT and CCOO Industria, the document aims at protecting chemical sector workers and preventing the spread of COVID-19, while allowing production to resume. The proposed prevention measures bring together many of the steps implemented in different areas of the sector. “The chemical industry has been continuously and permanently monitoring the revision of new measures to guarantee the safety of personnel,” states the report.

An emergency agreement between Swedish unions and employers, dating back to the country’s devastating forest fires in 2018, has benefitted many frontline workers during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dutch building workers’ union FNV Bouwen en Wonenhas reached a deal with construction employers on how to manage COVID-19 risks. The union carried out a survey of 1,300 workers in the sector on the effects of the pandemic and found that only one-third felt safe in their jobs.

The social partners in Austria developed a model of subsidised short-time work in a bid to prevent a rising toll of unemployment due to the COVID-19 crisis. The scheme, introduced on 20 March, allowed a temporary reduction in working hours while maintaining the employment relationship and paying workers up to 90% of their previous net earnings. The measure aimed to secure a fast return to pre-crisis economic activity.

Over the last year, union membership in the UK has increased by 91,000, reaching a total of over 200,000 new members since 2017.There has been a surge in affiliations since the start of the pandemic in Britain, although in some other countries unions are suffering due to soaring unemployment. The biggest change in the UK came from a rise of 170,000 in the number of women workers joining trade unions. There are now more women carrying a union card than at any time since 1995.

Increasing union density in firms boosts both productivity and wages – it's official.   A study on the effects of union density (union employees as a percentage of the total number of employees) in Norway found that higher trade union membership led to "substantial increases" in productivity and wages. The more bargaining power a union has, the greater the increases.

Italy’s public service unions - Fp CGIL, CISL Fp and UIL Fpl - have signed a new three-year agreement with the Red Cross, running until 2022. It brings a pay increase of around 4.5%, as well as a number of other benefits.

Trade unions welcomed the Welsh government’s decision to award all care workers a £500 (€570) bonus in recognition of the work they have been doing during the COVID-19 crisis. 

In France, the CFE-CGC, CFDT and FO trade unions signed an agreement on a safe return to work after COVID-19 with automotive supplier Valeo. The management and unions agreed on enhanced security measures to allow the restart of production, suspended due to the pandemic.

The Hungarian metal workers union VASAS has struck a deal with the management of Mercedes to maintain workers’ wages and job security during the COVID-19 lockdown, despite a halt in production at the end of March. More than 4,400 workers were affected by the shutdown at the plant in Kecskemét. The company also agreed not to apply the government decree that allows employers to unilaterally allocate working hours within a 24-month time frame.