Today’s Labor Updates:
US refinery union workers seek substantial raises
Germany: Works council has no right to external internet access or to a phone separate from the company telecommunication system
Asia: do employers have a right to access and to disclose employee data without consent?
Nigeria: Oil workers unions threaten strike action over victimisation of leaders
US refinery union workers seek substantial raises
11.03.2014 |
The USW wants a “substantial” increase in wages, stronger rules to prevent fatigue and measures to keep union workers rather than contract employees on the job.
By LYNN DOAN Bloomberg
The United Steelworkers, which represents about two-thirds of workers at US refineries, said its members are ready to claim their share of the US shale bounty that has boosted refiners’ earnings.
The USW wants a “substantial” increase in wages, stronger rules to prevent fatigue and measures to keep union workers rather than contract employees on the job, said Gary Beevers, the USW international vice president who manages the union’s oil sector.
He said the union is ready for the biggest fight in his time as leader. For the first time in at least 20 years, members decided to set aside funds for workers should they have to strike.
“The last two cycles of bargaining happened when the economy was rough, and we tried to find some reasonable solutions and we did,” Beevers said. “Today, the oil industry is making good money. The price of oil is down. It’s time that we get serious about some things we’ve seen erode over the last several years.”
A nationwide strike of USW workers would threaten to halt as much as 63% of US fuel production. This round of negotiations is scheduled to start in early January, before the Jan. 31 expiration of the current contract. At the Pittsburgh conference, union delegates approved a policy that sets the priorities for next year’s talks.
Royal Dutch Shell, which represents the oil industry in bargaining with the USW, is “optimistic that a mutually satisfactory agreement can be negotiated with the USW,” Kimberly Windon, a spokeswoman for The Hague-based company, said by e-mail.
Best Performers
Refiners in the Standard & Poor’s 500 have more than doubled since the beginning of 2012, when the steelworkers last negotiated an agreement with companies including ExxonMobil, Chevron and Shell. Marathon Petroleum and Tesoro went on that year to take their place among the 10 best performers in the S&P 500 Index.
Plants are processing the most crude for this time of year since 2006, taking advantage of a domestic shale boom that has propelled the nation’s oil production to the highest level in at least three decades.
Phillips 66, the largest US refining company by market value, more than doubled profits in the third quarter as crude costs fell. Tesoro and Marathon quadrupled their net income.
Beevers said he senses that refiners are “looking for a fight” in this cycle of contract talks.
“I’m expecting the most difficult negotiations that I’ve seen in the three terms as vice president of the oil sector,” he said. “We have an industry that has very, very good profits telling us we don’t deserve a good piece of the pie, and we disagree.”
Strike Fund
Beevers said the decision to create local funds that would help compensate workers during a strike shows union members are “getting prepared for the worst.”
Todd Spitler, a spokesman for Exxon based in Arlington, Virginia, said the company has met with local union leaders in advance of the current contract’s expiration, “exchanging information, discussing opportunities and working to resolve any local issues.”
“The negotiation process has been successful in the past and resulted in agreements that were mutually beneficial for both the company and the unions,” Spitler said.
Refiners have been cashing in on the biggest-ever domestic oil boom, driven largely by volumes being pulled out of shale formations using hydraulic fracturing and horizontal drilling. The surge in production lowered US oil prices by 14% and helped bring down the international benchmark North Sea Brent crude 16 percent in the third quarter.
During the last bargaining year, United Steelworkers and Shell took about a month to reach a national agreement. That contract, which was used as the foundation for individual refinery contracts with union locals, called for pay increases of 2.5% in the first year and 3% in the second and third years, along with safety improvements.
Germany: Works council has no right to external internet access or to a phone separate from the company telecommunication system
Dr. Frank Walk
October 31 2014
The district labour court of Lower Saxony (LAG Niedersachsen 30.07.2014, 16 TaBV 92/13) has rejected a claim of a works council to be provided by the company with unrestricted internet access and a telephone line separate from the company’s systems.
The works council’s request was based on the fact that the company restricted internet access via the company’s server so no websites with illegal content and certain other sites could not be visited. Furthermore the works council was concerned about the company’s ability to review and control internet use via its server. As regards the phone system it was also possible for the company to check the data created by the works council’s phone.
According to the works constitution act the company has to provide the works council with all equipment necessary to comply with its statutory duties. This includes information and communication facilities like internet access and phone. However, this right is not unlimited. According to the court the interests of the company have also to be considered when deciding what is necessary. By doing so the court found that the works council may work on the company’s standard phone line and internet server. Separate phone line and internet access would create unnecessary additional cost. Furthermore, the works council and the management used to communicate via e-mail and intranet. To exchange such communication – including personal data of employees – via an external server would create an additional unnecessary security risk.
The works council’s concerns regarding privacy were countered by the company’s affirmation that it would agree with the works council in not using the control capacities of the systems.
In summary: Works councils can request to be provided with internet and phone without its use being under observation of the management. However, this does not give a right to separate systems or servers as long as the company agrees not to use the technical possibilities to control the communication or internet use of the works council.
Asia: do employers have a right to access and to disclose employee data without consent?
Herbert Smith Freehills LLP
Fatim Jumabhoy and Sherwin Tsang
Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan
November 3 2014
ASIA: DO EMPLOYERS HAVE A RIGHT TO ACCESS AND TO DISCLOSE EMPLOYEE DATA WITHOUT CONSENT? When can an employer access and disclose their employees’ personal data in different jurisdictions? We compare the rules in Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, New Zealand, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. ARE THERE ANY RESTRICTIONS IN RELATION TO ACCESSING AND DISCLOSING EMPLOYEE DATA WITHOUT CONSENT?
Nigeria: Oil workers unions threaten strike action over victimisation of leaders
Posted by: APA Posted date : November 1, 2014 at 10:50 am UTC Oil workers under the aegis of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) and the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) have threatened to shut down the oil and gas industry in Nigeria if the constant victimisation of its leaders is not stopped forthwith.
The unions issued a 14-day ultimatum to the Nigerian government on Friday in Abuja to address what it described as precarious working conditions in the oil sector and victimisation of its members by Total Oil Company, failure of which will lead to withdrawal of its services
Specifically, the unions lamented the sudden transfer of two of its officials, the deputy president of NUPENG, Mr. Asuquo Okon, who works with AGIP from Lagos to Port-Harcourt and Mrs. Elo Victor Ogbonda, the Port-Harcourt zonal secretary of PENGASSAN who was moved to Lagos by Total.
The National President of PENGASSAN, Comrade Francis Johnson, told journalists at the end of the joint national executive council meeting that bad roads across the country was another issue which will compel the unions to embark on the strike.
The unions urged the members of the National Assembly to pass the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) on return from its recess or the union would lead a protest to the National Assembly.
“We will not allow the leaders of our unions to suffer such victimisation,” the unions warned.