A selection of the latest European HR news from the Federation of European Employers (FedEE).

Bulgaria: Employers to face rise in sick pay costs
The Bulgarian Cabinet has agreed to a proposal put forward by the National Social Security Institute (NSSI) to extend employers' responsibility for meeting sick pay costs.

Currently employers are responsible for paying employees during the first day of sick leave, after which payments are met by the NSSI. Under the new system employers would meet sick pay costs for the first two days of absence, the third day would be unpaid and NSSI payments would only trigger on the fourth day of absence.

The proposal has met strong opposition from the Confederation of the Independent Trade Unions, even though it is likely to be introduced as a temporary measure in operation until the end of 2011.

European Union: Reduce hours, but growth in non-wage costs
Average hourly labour costs (HLC) in EU private sector companies fell in 2009 by 0.6 percent. The biggest falls were in Poland (-14.1 percent), the UK (-10.9 percent), Hungary (-8.0 percent) and Sweden (-6.6 percent). By contrast HLC grew by 13.4 percent in Bulgaria and 6.4 percent in Greece.

In Germany HLC rose by 4.1 percent in the private sector and 5.1 percent in manufacturing. However, HLC fell by 0.5 percent (on a seasonally adjusted basis) between the third and fourth quarters of the year.

The historical upward trend in HLC across the European Union was constrained last year by a sharp reduction in overtime and the growth of short-time working. Nevertheless, HLC were also influenced by changes in non-wage costs, such as social security charges, that grew faster than wage costs. Thus, over the year to Q4 2009 wage costs (unadjusted for changes in hours worked) rose by 2.2 percent, but non-wage costs rose by 3.0 percent.

France: Collective redundancy rules must be applied
The French DGT (General Directorate for Work) has warned that attempts to avoid rules on collective redundancies will not be tolerated.

Collective redundancies involve extensive workplace consultation and entitle employees to guarantees such as redeployment, training, and outplacement assistance.

Under article L.1233-3 of the labour code, a mutual agreement to terminate employment by common consent incurs no statutory obligations of this kind. Nevertheless, the DGT has instructed the Labour Administration not to approve mutual 'conventions of rupture' if an employer is suspected of trying to circumvent the law on collective redundancies.

According to the DGT, a breach of collective redundancy rules arises if 10 applications for termination by common consent are made within any 30-day period, or 10 terminations in one quarter followed by another termination in the following quarter, or 18 terminations during a calendar year followed by another termination in the following quarter.

United Kingdom: Controversial equality bill to become law
The UK Equality Bill has now completed its passage through parliament and will be phased from this autumn. However, its future implementation will depend on the outcome of the forthcoming general election.

The new Act will integrate and harmonise existing anti-discrimination legislation and introduce further scope for 'positive action' during the selection process. Employers will generally be prohibited from asking health questions during employment interviews, although health screening will still be possible prior to an appointment being confirmed.

The Act will also incorporate existing case law on 'discrimination by association' and discrimination based on the erroneous perception that a job applicant has a protected characteristic. Larger employers will be expected (on a voluntary basis) to publish pay statistics, whilst Employment Tribunals will be given greater scope to make wide-ranging recommendations about ways to avoid future workplace discrimination.

OTHER EUROPEAN HR NEWS IN BRIEF

Bulgaria:
An amendment to Bulgaria's Social Assistance Act is currently being drawn up by the ministry of labour and social policy. This will require recipients of welfare payments, who have a capacity to work, to perform at least 14 days "socially useful labour". The labour projects will be drawn up by municipalities and will be in the fields of landscaping, social, educational and medical services. Unemployed people will also be required to attend literacy courses.

Germany:
The German Labour Minister has announced plans to extend until June 2012 the refunding of social security contributions in respect to employees subject to short-time working arrangements. Under current legislation these payments were due to expire at the end of 2010.

Irish Republic:
The Dublin-based Economic and Social Research Institute have predicted that employment will not grow in 2010, but that unemployment will fall by 0.75 percent. This is due to the recent trend in migration resulting in the loss of 60,000 people from the Irish Republic during the past year. A further 40,000 are expected to leave by April 2011.

The Netherlands:
Dutch Integration Minister, Eimert van Middelkoop, has established an interim fund under the Delta Project to encourage employers to provide workplace Dutch language training for immigrant employees. The courses must be established in conjunction with a junior college and grants are up to a maximum of EUR 1,000 per employee and EUR 25,000 per employer. The deadline for applications is 31 October 2010.

Poland:
Private employment agencies in Poland have shown little interest in finding work for young people and those aged over 50 years old, even though an agency could receive a substantial incentive from the government for securing a permanent appointment. According to the country's official journal only 2,700 such 'hard to place' individuals found work over the year to February 2010. The main difficulty facing agencies is that although the incentive is worth up to 30 percent of a recruit's first year's salary the payment is conditional on the worker staying in the post for at least a year.

Portugal:
A national public holiday in Portugal has been declared for Thursday, 13 May 2010 to coincide with the scheduled visit of the Pope. Local half-day holidays will also operate in Lisbon on the afternoon of 11 May and Porto on the morning of 14 May.

Slovakia:
The Slovak Labour Ministry has reported that the number of companies found by inspectors to be employing workers illegally rose by 14 percent during the second half of 2009. The most common offences were the failure to register employees with the social insurance agency, Sociálna poistovna or employment without a valid contract.

Copyright: FedEE Services Ltd 2010