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

Belgium: Allowance for child sickness leave
The Belgian National Council for Work (CNT) has just published its response to a proposal put forward by the president of the Senate on the granting of paid leave when the child of a worker requires hospitalisation for a serious health problem.

Currently, employees have the right to take up to 10 days' unpaid leave each year to deal with pressing personal matters.

This proposal seeks to provide a special allowance (equal to 75 percent of lost remuneration) from the mandatory sickness and disablement insurance scheme for workers when they take leave to deal with sick children requiring urgent hospital treatment.

In the view of the CNT, this right should be limited to one week's leave in the first instance, but extendible for one further week (and a further two weeks without payment). The report recommends that the definition of a serious medical condition should be left to the attending physician, but that leave should be available for any cohabiting person with primary care responsibility for the child. Employees should be required to give employers seven days' notice of the work suspension, but a note from an attending physician stating that the situation was unforeseeable would permit the employee to take immediate leave, provided they informed their employer 'as soon as possible' thereafter.

France: Employers must draw up plan for older workers
From 1 January 2010, companies in France with 50 or more employees will have to pay a 1 percent payroll levy if they have not concluded an agreement or established an action plan concerning the employment of older workers.

The agreement/plan must operate for a maximum of three years and must set out targets for retaining employees aged 55+ and recruiting people aged 50+. Employers are obliged to draw upon at least three measures from a list contained in the enacting decree and also to set out follow-up methods for achieving the objectives. In companies with less than 300 employees, it will be possible to meet these requirements by compliance with an industry-wide collective agreement.

Netherlands: Retirement age exemption for tough jobs
Although the Dutch Cabinet has agreed to raise the normal state (IOW) retirement age to 67, an exception will be made for workers employed in physically-demanding jobs.

If the pensions’ reform moves ahead this autumn, the retirement age will be gradually raised over the next 15 or 20 years. A list of physically-demanding jobs will, however, be drawn up by both sides of industry and incumbents will retain the right to retire at age 65. An action plan to reduce the physical demands of the jobs that have been designated will accompany the list of exempted jobs, so that such exceptions will no longer be necessary in the future.

Other European news in brief

Austria
Negotiations over a new collective agreement in the Austrian electrical and electronics sector have ended with an across-the board-increase of 2.2 percent on basic rates, backdated to May 1st 2009. However, employers and trade unions have agreed that companies with sales that fell by 15 percent or more over the year to Q1 2009 may limit pay rises to 1.4 percent. During 2010, the increase will amount to 1.1 percent plus the average consumer price inflation rate during the year to February 28th 2010.

Croatia
National employers and trade union organisations in Croatia have reached broad agreement on a framework of measures that will bring employment legislation into line with EU directives. The maximum normal working week has been set at 40 hours, but with scope to increase it to 48 through collective bargaining. However, differences remain concerning the duration of fixed-term contracts, with trade unions wishing to limit them to two one-year terms with a maximum break between contracts of three months.

Estonia
On 1 June 2009, mandatory unemployment insurance fund contributions rose in Estonia from 0.3 percent to 1 percent of payroll for employers and from 0.6 percent to 2 percent of gross pay for employees.

France
A new collective agreement has been reached between Electricité de France (EDF Group) and five trade unions representing French employees. This gives pay increases of EUR 50 a month to 45 percent of manual workers, lower white collar workers and supervisors, a similar sum to 70 percent of young workers and
EUR 100 a month for 64 percent of executives. Earlier last month, EDF also signed a global framework agreement with the International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM). This commits the company to uphold ILO core labour conventions for all its 167,000 employees worldwide.

Germany
The long-standing German ATG scheme to promote part- time working for older workers is set to end this year. The scheme allows workers aged 55+ to reduce their working time by 50 percent with the Federal Employment Office guaranteeing up to 70 percent of their former net pay (via supplements paid to their employer) and employers filling the vacancies with unemployed persons.

The federal government is currently exploring ways to extend the scheme and is concerned that any failure to do so could have a significant impact on unemployment rates during the present economic downturn.

Hungary
Sick pay in Hungary is set to fall later this summer.

The payment by employers for the first fifteen days of absence will fall from 80 percent to 70 percent of average daily salary. Employees who have paid into the social security system for two years or more will have their ongoing sick pay (after the initial 15-day period) reduced from 70 percent to 60 percent of daily salary, up to a fixed ceiling amount equal to four times the statutory minimum wage.
The sick pay entitlement for those with less than two years social security contributions will fall from 60 percent to 50 percent, also up to a fixed payment ceiling.

Poland
The lower house of the Polish parliament has passed at first reading a draft law on collective proceedings. This allows ten or more employees to issue a collective statement of claim for unpaid remuneration or allowances. The existence of such a statement would not prevent employees from pursuing their individual claims.

Russian Federation
The annual rate of consumer price inflation in the Russian Federation fell from 13.2 percent in April to 12.3 percent in May. Overall, prices rose by 0.6 percent in May, but the increase in Moscow was 0.7 percent and in St Petersburg it was 0.3 percent. The Russian Central Bank's inflation forecast for 2009 of 13 percent now appears to be too high and a more realistic figure would be between 9 percent and 10 percent.

Sweden
Two Swedish unions have now merged to form GS - the union of forestry, wood and graphical industries. It is affiliated to the Swedish Trade Union Confederation (LO) and claims to have 65,000 members.

Switzerland
The Swiss Senate has rejected a proposed general limitation on salaries and special payments to senior managers.

Instead, it voted in favour of shareholders having a right to recommend remuneration policy constraints for board-level positions. The proposal will now be discussed by the federal house of representatives and, if a consensus is achieved, the matter will eventually be subject to a national referendum.

United Kingdom
The UK Law Lords have held that an employer cannot be liable for injury arising from the failure of equipment not supplied by them, not under their control, nor 'incorporated into and adopted as part of the employer's undertaking'. This is particularly the case if the equipment is located away from the employer's premises (Smith v Northamptonshire County Council).


Copyright: FedEE Services Ltd 2009