Thursday, October 18, 2012

Sweden – New tariff for 60,000 agency workers raises pay

Sweden – New tariff for 60,000 agency workers raises pay / Daily News / Research & Publications / Home - Staffing Industry Analysts: "A new collective bargaining agreement will make “major improvements” for up to 60,000 agency workers in Sweden by raising their pay entitlements. This follows seven months of negotiations between employers of the staffing industry and the LO union.

Union representative and negotiator Kent Ackholt told Staffing Industry Analysts that the agreement will mainly affect blue collar workers.

It will make changes to the so-called guaranteed wage income, which pays agency staff a certain monthly or hourly wage. This applies in cases when a temporary worker has not been placed but is working or engaged in training activities.

The new tariff now includes a guaranteed hourly wage, which pays skilled workers SEK 108 (approximately €12.56 per hour) and unskilled workers SEK 100 per hour (approximately €11.63 per hour). "

'via Blog this'

Netherlands – Staffing code of conduct against labour exploitation

Netherlands – Staffing code of conduct against labour exploitation / Daily News / Research & Publications / Home - Staffing Industry Analysts: "A new report today has found that 21,000 people in the Netherlands are victims of labour exploitation in the Netherlands – and to tackle this issue in the staffing market, an industry code of conduct will be introduced.
The Dutch government is determined to abolish rogue agencies in the country. A package of measures launched by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment earlier this year aims to abolish the number of staffing firms involved in cases of exploitation and human trafficking by 2014 "

European Skills Shortages

European Skills Shortages: "Economies in Europe are struggling, yet the demand for highly qualified people is projected to rise by almost 16m throughout Europe by 2020. If Europe is to compete with emerging economies, high skills levels are essential. Europe also needs to harness the power of apprenticeships, which are proving so successful in Germany. The UK needs to embrace apprenticeships as well as continue to address the basic skills needed for employment – around a fifth of UK adults do not have basic numeracy skills.

Coupled with this is the “talent drain” where a proportion of the the very best people opt out of their home country and ply their trade or profession elsewhere leading to a downward spiral of available talent. We are seeing this in Southern Europe and Ireland at present.

Globally, skilled trades such as electricians and plumbers, along with engineers, teachers, healthcare professionals and chefs , tend to be in shortest supply."

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Most new jobs go to immigrants : Views and News from Norway

Most new jobs go to immigrants : Views and News from Norway: "Nearly 50,000 new jobs have been created in Norway during the past year and more than 35,000 of them have been filled by immigrants. The numbers, revealed when the government proposed its new state budget this week, show how much Norway now relies on what Finance Minster Sigbjørn Johnsen calls the “arbeidsinnvandrere” (literally, job immigrants) to keep the economy rolling."


“There is a very strong need for labour in the Norwegian economy,” Johnsen said when presenting the new budget on Monday. “It wouldn’t have been possible to get all the work done and have the growth we’ve seen without the labour immigration.”
‘Competence’ in demand
Newspaper Dagens Næringsliv (DN) reported how 316,000 more persons are now employed in Norway than in 2005, when the left-center government coalition of which Johnsen is a part took power. Of that, according to budget documents, 200,000 of the new jobs have gone to immigrants.
In 2011 alone, employment rose by around 47,000. Of those taking on the new jobs, around 35,000 (70 percent) were immigrants.
“Those coming to Norway (many from crisis-hit European countries) have high competence what we will need in the years head,” Johnsen said. He worries, though, that the stream of job-seekers coming to Norway, and the relatively easy access that gives employers to labour, means companies may not need to fight so hard for talent or create possibilities for those still struggling to join the workforce. “We need to mobilize our own labour force as well,” he said.
Plans to stick around
Johnsen thinks the employment growth will continue and that Norway will continue to attract highly qualified workers. Among them, for example, is Romas Stakauskas, age 28, who came to Norway in 2009 after losing his job as an engineer in a construction firm in Lithuania. His wife moved to Norway a year later and now he’s working as a production operator for a company in Hedmark. The couple have an infant, bought and fixed up a home in Skarnes and now Stakauskas’ wife Doville, age 27, is looking for work as well.
“Now we’re beginning to live our own lives,” Stakauskas told DN. “You should never say ‘never’ (regarding a move back to Lithuania), but the way things are now, I think we’ll keep living here.”
Far from all immigrants are as lucky as Stakauskas, and former Labour Minister Hanne Bjurstrøm actually told many of the new arrivals from Spain and other troubled countries to “go home” earlier this year if they didn’t quickly find work. Language barriers remain a problem and not all companies make concessions for employees who haven’t yet learned Norwegian. Unemployment nonetheless is expected to remain at less than 3 percent nationwide and the job market for skilled workers is expected to remain strong, especially for engineers and construction workers. Immigrants otherwise often wind up with jobs Norwegians don’t want to take, in a variety of relatively low-paying fields.

Tuesday, October 2, 2012