Our human resources management news roundup from across Europe from the Federation of European Employers (FedEE).

EU: Unions may not block freedom of establishment

What rights has a trade union to impede a company from relocating its operations to another EU country and to frustrate the company's operations following relocation? This is the central question raised in an ongoing European Court of Justice case.

In 2003, Finnish ferry company Viking Line sought to re-flag its vessel as Estonian so that it could compete effectively with Estonian ferry services. The Finnish Seamen's Union (FSU) opposed this move and sought the assistance of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) to ensure that no other union would agree to negotiate with the company.

Although subsequent negotiations with the FSU led to a new manning agreement, the ITF did not withdraw its circular to affiliated unions and so Viking Line decided to seek injunctive relief in the commercial court in London. The ITF appealed against the resulting injunction and the UK Court of Appeal sought the assistance of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) by asking it to issue a preliminary ruling.

Although the ECJ has not yet provided its response to the questions posed by the UK Appeal Court, Advocate-General Poires Maduro has just published his opinion. This puts forward the view that an employer does have the right to invoke EU freedom of establishment rules upon a trade union and that the promotion of EU social policy does not lead any trade union body to be exempt from rules permitting a company to provide services between EU member states. Although a trade union may take limited collective action to restrict relocation to another EU state, it will be up to the courts to determine if a specific type of action is lawful.

In conclusion, the Advocate-General states that freedom of establishment rules in the EU treaty are opposed to 'a coordinated policy of collective action by a trade union and an association of trade unions which... has the effect of partitioning the labour market and impeding the hiring of workers from certain member states in order to protect the jobs of workers in other member states'. Thus, trade unions may not block (or threaten to block) an undertaking from carrying out its business across national borders or moving its operations to another EU country. If EU rules allowed such action, they could, in Advocate-General Maduro's view, generate 'an atmosphere of constant retaliation between social groups in different member states, which could gravely threaten the common market and the spirit of solidarity embedded in it' (ITF & FSU vs Viking Line ABP and OU Viking Line Eesti. Case C-438/05).

Czech Republic: Cabinet approves anti-discrimination bill

When the Czech Republic joined the European Union (EU) in May 2004, it was given until the end of 2006 to incorporate EU equal treatment directives into national legislation. A previous Czech government drafted an anti-discrimination bill in 2005, but this was vetoed by the Senate.

The latest draft law has been prepared following several notifications of infringement proceedings by the European Commission. It guarantees equal treatment, access to work and freedom from discrimination on grounds not fully covered by current national legislation, such as physical disability, religion, gender of partner preference, political conviction, marital status, language, property, membership of a political party and membership of a trade union.

The bill establishes the government ombudsman as the supervisory body responsible for the operation of the new legal rights, although this is against the wishes of the present ombudsman, who wants a special institution to be established. If the law is passed by the two houses of parliament and signed by the president, it could become law as early as January 1st 2008.

France: Removal of ‘ancién regime’

French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, has confirmed in an interview with French daily newspaper Le Figaro that he intends to curb the practice of giving 'golden-parachute' payments to senior executives when they leave a company, unless the payments are strictly linked to performance and approved by shareholders.

Stock options will also be restricted to schemes that grant options at their full market cost and where all employees may participate in the same, or a similar alternative savings, scheme.

In a further recent move, President Sarkozy has told teaching unions that he intends to rescind the 'Robien decrees' that increased the weekly working hours of teachers by one to three hours without additional remuneration.

Other European news in brief

Bulgaria:
The Bulgarian government has drawn up an amendment to wage regulations that will establish a clear reference point when adjusting the statutory minimum wage. Instead of the minimum wage being an arbitrary figure, it is proposed to set it at between 110% and 145% of the official poverty level.

Employers and trade unions would then have to negotiate sectoral agreements establishing entry level and low-skill wage thresholds within this range. No response has yet been given on a further amendment put forward by both sides of industry to change statutory rates from monthly to hourly minima.

Finland:
A working group established by the Finnish Ministry responsible for telecommunications has recommended that employers should have the right to access certain information relating to the emails of employees, such as named senders, recipients, routing, duration and file size, but not content.

The group recommended that employees should be informed about such interceptions and that regular reports should be given to shop stewards. The government has responded to the recommendation by confirming that it is currently drawing up draft legislation on email privacy.

Greece:
Authorisation has been given by Greece's State Audit Council for the continuation of overtime payments to junior hospital doctors for all hours worked, irrespective of EU working time limits. Under transitional provisions (Section 17(5) EU Directive 2003/88/EC), doctors in training may continue to work up to 58 hours per week until August 1st 2007 and thereafter up to 56 hours until August 1st 2009. However, labour shortages in the health sector have led the Greek authorities to risk EU infringement proceedings by requiring medical staff to work well in excess of working time limits.

Moldova:
The Moldovan labour inspectorate has reported that employers had wage arrears amounting to 87.5 million lei (5.3 million euros) on April 1st 2007, equivalent to the average monthly remuneration of 45,000 employees. In 2006, labour inspectors fined employers a total of one million lei (60,000 euros) for repeated or long-standing wage arrears.

Turkey:
The statutory gross minimum wage will rise in Turkey on July 1st 2007 from 562.50 lira (315.40 euros) to 585 lira (327.62 euros) per month. A revised rate of 491.90 lira (275.48 euros) will apply to workers under the age of 16.

FedEE news:
European HR knowledgebase

The Federation of European Employers has just launched a powerful new tool for accessing the data in our members-only website. The FedEE HR knowledgebase will make it easier for you to find the information you need within over 30 European countries. Simply browse by category, search by keyword, or narrow the search within country or category by keyword. A 'briefcase' option is available so that items may be grouped together for review at a later time.

For more information, please visit

http://www.fedee.com/kb_contents.shtml

26 June 2007

Source: The Federation of European Employers (FedEE) http://www.fedee.com

[Copyright: FedEE Services Ltd. 2007]