Call
for Solidarity with German construction workers
On 18 June 2007,
our German affiliate IG-BAU has entered into an unlimited strike for the
construction industry in the federal states of Lower-Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein.
An overwhelming 87,9 % of the union members, who had been called to the
polls, voted for a strike. This is the first strike in the construction
industry in five years.
Two regional employers' federations of Lower-Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein,
continue to veto a 3.5 % wage increase for the German construction workers.
This wage increase in favour of approx. 700 000 workers in the industry
had been the result of months of negotiations between the IG-BAU and the
Central German Employers federation on 31 March 2007.
For further information see the homepage of IG-BAU: http://www.igbau.de/db/v2/frameset.pl
Messages
of solidarity can be sent to:
IG Bauen-Agrar-Umwelt
Bundesvorstand
Olof-Palme-Strasse 19
60439 Frankfurt am Main
E-Mail: bundesvorsitzender@igbau.de
Or
sign the BWI solidarity letter on the BWI website: http://www.bwint.org/default.asp?Index=876&Language=EN
News from the
European Foundation
Italy:
New collective agreement
for the Italian building sector
In May 2004, a new sectoral
collective agreement was signed for the Italian building sector, which
employs around 1.2 million workers. As well as providing for a pay increase
of EUR 90 a month, the agreement covers matters such as training, health
and safety and joint action to combat undeclared labour. More
information (in English)
France :
Legality of agreement on
social dialogue in craft industry upheld
In March 2004, a French court ruled that a December 2001 agreement on
social dialogue in the craft industry was legal. The agreement - which
introduced a new levy on employers - was signed by the Craftwork Employers'
Association (UPA) and the five representative trade union confederations,
but other employers' organisations opposed it and have made several -
so far unsuccessful - legal challenges to the accord.
More
information (in English)
Finland :
Draft Directive on services
receives mixed response
A draft Directive seeking to remove legal and administrative barriers
to the development of a free market for services in the EU, proposed by
the European Commission in March 2004, has received a mixed response among
the Finnish social partners. PT, the service sector employers' organisation,
welcomes the proposal while SAK, the blue-collar trade union confederation,
fears that it could lead to insufficient monitoring of employment conditions.
More
information (in English)
Latvia :
Tax-free income to be increased
In June 2004, a proposal from the Ministry of Finance to increase the
amount of earnings on which no income tax is paid is due to be submitted
to the Latvian cabinet. Under the proposal, the tax-free income threshold
will rise to half the level of the minimum wage by 2010. Increasing tax-free
income is a long-standing trade union demand. More
information (in English)
Poland :
Social partners' incomes
to be taxed
New legislation means that from January 2005 the revenues of Polish trade
unions and employers' organisations are to be subject to corporate income
tax. The social partners have protested against this measure, but as of
June 2004 without any success. More
information (in English)
Paints
to become safer after European Parliament vote
Dangerous solvents
will start disappearing from paints in 2007, reducing the risks to the
health of the painters and hopefully decreasing the formation of ozone
smog in cities. The new new EU legislation will significantly reduce the
quantity of dangerous solvents in paints, varnishes and car repair products
.
Most Volatile Organic
Compounds (VOCs) are to be removed from paints used for decoration inside
our homes after Parliament voted to oust them on 30 March. VOCs are widely
believed to prompt respiratory illnesses and to cause damage to crops
as they travel in the air. Last year, the heatwave that hit Europe was
partly attributed to ozone smog exacerbated by the solvents contained
in paints.
Aside from home
decoration paints, other products concerned include varnishes and car
finishing products used for commercial or industrial purposes. Under the
new VOC directive, the emission of those dangerous solvents will be phased
out in two steps (2007 and 2010) so that industry is given time to adapt.
Limit values for vehicle refinishing products will be applied as from
January 2010.
Industry has already
made significant efforts to reduce the quantity of solvents in decorative
paints. Today, approximately 70 per cent of those are already water-based.
Click
for more information .
EU Chemicals
Policy
On 29.10.2003, the
European Commission presented a proposal for reforming the EU chemicals
policy. The proposal provides for a new system for registering
and evaluating chemicals (REACH = Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation
of Chemicals).
This proposal, which
represents a clear improvement on the existing system, has been the subject
of a very heated public debate. This debate opposes the arguments
for protecting health and the environment versus economic considerations.
Day after day, countless
thousands of workers across all sectors have to deal with chemicals in
their work without even knowing what harmful effects they may have on
their health.
In order to ensure
a high level of protection in the future as well, the EU's new chemicals
policy must be taken forward constructively, despite all its weak points.
Our affiliated organisations
IG BAU and IG METALL, together with another German trade union (Ver.di),
have drawn up a joint position on REACH. All three organisations
represent a considerable number of workers in different sectors who come
into contact with chemicals at work on a daily basis. They are
calling for the EU chemicals policy to be implemented as expeditiously
as possible and for there to be greater responsibility for chemicals manufacturers
and better information.
More information:
-
EFBWW statement
-
Joint position by the German unions IG BAU, IG Metall and Ver.di
-
the proposal of the European Commission
Working
conditions in the acceding and applicant countries.
The European foundation
for the improvement of living and working conditions recently published
a new study on the working conditions in the applicant countries. It is
a useful benchmark for the European policy makers who are interested in
the working conditions in Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Poland, Estonia,
Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Download
study
|
European
Week 2004 campaign on construction “Building
in Safety”
Each year, the European
Agency for Safety and Health at Work organises a Europe-wide campaign
on a specific occupational health topic to raise awareness and promote
activities to make Europe a safe and healthy place to work.
The Agency has
decided that the campaign will focus on construction activities in 2004.
It will be the biggest
health and safety campaign ever to take place in Europe with more than
30 countries taking part (Member States, candidate and EFTA countries).
The European Week
itself will take place on 18-22 October 2004.
It will be launched
on 30 April 2004 across Europe. Detailed information
will be available on a dedicated website at "ew2004.osha.eu.int".
The
SLIC European Construction Safety Campaign
Labour
inspectorates of the European Union have launched a European campaign
in the construction industry. The campaign, in 2003 and 2004 , features
simultaneous intensive inspection initiatives in all Member States of
the European Union supported by publicity initiatives in association with
the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work to raise awareness in
the sector. The focus of the campaign is the prevention of falls
from height . The inspection campaign will ask the following questions
Have
the dangers of falling from height been properly catalogued?
-
Have
the necessary preventive measures been taken and equipment installed
and made available?
-
Have
the correct choices been made regarding equipment and measures and
are these being properly used and maintained?
-
Are
co-ordination obligations being properly met and is health and safety
taken into consideration in the selection of contractors and subcontractors?
For more information:
http://europe.osha.eu.int/../slic/
European Council
adopts resolution on “undeclared labour”
On 20 October 2003
the Council of the European Union unanimously adopted the Council
Resolution on transforming undeclared work into regular employment.
The EFBWW welcomes
the fact that the Council of the European Union recognizes the problem
of undeclared labour and shares the opinion that preventive and repressive
measures are required to solve the problem.
With its highly
labour intensive character the Construction sector is one of the sectors
most affected by undeclared labour. We therefore appreciate that the resolution
clearly refers to the role of the (European) social partners. With the
“EFBWW position paper on undeclared labour” the EFBWW is ready to influence
the discussion from a sectoral point of view, giving a “constructive”
contribution to the debate.
Posting of workers
New Communication of the Commission
A few months
ago the Commission published a report on the implementation of the posting
Directive 96/71/EC. This report was a legal obligation as foreseen in
the posting Directive. The objective of this report was to examine in
which manner the Directive has actually been implemented by the Member
States. This report was important because article 8 of the Directive opened
the possibility to propose necessary amendments to improve the posting
Directive.
After examining
the report the EFBWW reacted promptly by indicating several shortcomings.
In a nutshell, the Commission reached its conclusions without looking
at the reality on the building sites. Therefore we believed that the report
did not reflect the daily problems in the construction industry regarding
to the problems of the posted workers.
Based on the
results of the report, the Commission has recently published a Communication
(COM2003) 458final, which has some positive and negative points. The
EFBWW regrets that the Commission confirms that as things stand at present
no amendments to improve the effectiveness of the Directive are necessary.
But at the same time the Commission also confirms our position and recognizes
that a further assessment of the “practical” implementation
is needed. As a solution the Commission proposes that a group of national
government experts must be set up to discuss the practical implementation
of the posting Directive.
The EFBWW decided to introduce an
application for an assessment project with CLR for a more in-depth assessment
of the implementation of the posting Directive. With this project we are
convinced that we will provide an added value to the activities of the
group of experts. In its conclusions the Commission indicates that it
truly whishes to examine the implementation of the posting Directive.
The EFBWW believes that a decent assessment can only be done with the
active participation of the social partners (WB). |