Our regular human resources management news roundup from across Europe from the Federation of European Employers (FedEE). Includes: Czech Republic: Denial or sickness benefit unlawful, EEA: Growth of labour costs, Netherlands: Cutbacks in childcare support.

Czech Republic: Denial or sickness benefit unlawful
The Czech Republic's Constitutional Court has ruled that it is unlawful to deny sick pay to employees for the first three days of sickness absence. This is because the denial of benefits adversely affects those who are genuinely ill, even though the measure was introduced to discourage abuse of the sickness insurance system. Those denied pay for the three-day waiting period are also required to continue contributing to social security funds.
 
The Czech government now has two months to draft an amendment to social security legislation. This could well revert to the previous system, which set sick pay at 25 percent of normal remuneration for the first three days of absence and 69 percent thereafter.
 
EEA: Growth of labour costs
Although industrial labour costs per unit of output fell by 0.7 percent in the eurozone over the year to Q4 2007, they grew significantly in European Economic Area (EEA) countries outside the eurozone. The year to December 2007 saw industrial unit labour costs rise by 8.9 percent in Norway, 4.4 percent in Denmark, 3.3 percent in the UK and 3.2 percent in Sweden. In private-sector services such as retailing, hotels, transport and financial intermediation, unit labour costs grew by just over 2 percent throughout the EEA over the same period, but the lowest rise was in the UK (+0.5 percent).
 
Rises in unit labour costs indicate that the growth in average employee remuneration (and associated employment costs) exceeds growth in labour productivity. Such rises will narrow profit margins, fuel price inflation and ultimately feed back into a recessionary cycle in which productivity falls and employers are forced to shed labour at an ever-increasing rate.
 
Netherlands: Cutbacks in childcare support
Details are emerging about the planned cutbacks in Dutch state childcare support.

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