Temp workers fired and pay cuts all over Europe - 14 Sept. 2009

 

Protest March - Organised By The UnionsImage by infomatique via Flickr
 
The Swedish Kommunal union has warned that the crisis has already spread from the private sector to the public sector as care workers have been losing their jobs: 15,000 job cuts this year and next are predicted. Employers cut jobs particularly among fixed-term and agency workers.
German IG Metall calls for secure, regular employment and that use of agency labour is limited and based on equal pay for equal work. An independent study finds that enterprises are increasingly using agency labour in order to pass on business risks to workers. Official statistics show a drop of German workers in regular, secure jobs from 73 percent in 1998 to 66 percent in 2008.
Another way in which employers react to the financial and economic crisis is to cut or freeze pay. In Ireland 7 percent of companies said they intend to cut pay and a large majority (71 percent) revealed that they would freeze pay rates. Recruitment freezes and retraining of existing staff were other likely actions.
 
A very radical government response is seen in Latvia. Monthly salaries below LVL 300 (Euro 430) have been reduced by 15 percent - affecting one in five of employees in the ministries and subsidiary institutions - while wages above that amount have been cut by 20 percent, impacting all others. Teachers' gross are cut by almost one third, old-age pensions and long-service pensions by 10 percent.
 
Source: Collective Bargaining, issue 7, 2009 

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