The proposed 2011-2012 national framework agreement for the private sector has been rejected by the socialist (FGTB/ABVV) and liberal (CGSLB/ACLVB) trade union confederations. Their concerns included the social security cuts, the limited room to negotiate (0.3%) over pay at sectoral level and the lack of a minimum wage increase. There were also concerns about negotiating against a European background, with increasing pressure to increase retirement ages and to end pay indexation. Following consultation of its membership the ACV/CSC confederation decided reluctantly to support the agreement although it was far from satisfied with the content. The FGTB/ABVV confederation has announced a national action day on 4 March in protest of the outgoing cabinet’s decision of 25 February to carry out elements of the rejected agreement (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 3 December 2010 and Year 4 January 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/404
Dutch: http://www.abvv.be/web/guest/news-nl/-/article ...
http://www.aclvb.be/publicaties/nieuws/nieuwsitem/detail/de ...
http://www.acv-online.be/Actualiteit/Nieuws/Detail/Luc_Cortebeeck_over_ipa.asp
French: http://www.fgtb.be/web/guest/news-fr/-/article/129960/&p_l_id=10624 http://www.cgslb.be/publications/actualite/nouveaux/detail/la-cgslb ...
http://www.csc-en-ligne.be/Actualite/Nouvelles/details/aip_approbation.asp
This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2011.