Canada offers seniors $500 each for pandemic expenses

Yahoo – AFP, May 12, 2020

A man gestures to healthcare workers as he visits his mother-in-law at a Toronoto
assisted living center on Mother's Day: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced
a onetime payment to seniors to help them through the coronavirus pandemic (AFP
Photo/Cole Burston)

Ottawa (AFP) - Canada announced Tuesday a onetime payment of up to Can$500 (US$360) for seniors -- who as a group have suffered the most COVID-19 sickness and fatalities -- to help defray added pandemic costs of living.

An estimated seven million elderly Canadians qualify for the aid.

"The last few weeks have been particularly tough for our seniors and their families," Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told a daily briefing.

"Our parents and our grandparents are most at risk of catching the COVID-19 virus and of suffering the most serious consequences right across the country," he said.

The pandemic, he said, exposed shortfalls in care at nursing homes, where roughly 80 percent of COVID-19 deaths in Canada occurred. The crisis led to the military being sent in to help feed and care for residents.

A lockdown has also left many elderly Canadians isolated, and facing additional costs for prescription drugs or grocery deliveries, for example, "which means they can't take advantage of sales in stores," Trudeau said.

"It's hard on their morale, as well as on their finances," he said.

FNV members to vote on pension deal, finally agreed after nine years

DutchNews, June 5, 2019

Ministers, unions and employers have reached a deal on reforming the Dutch pension system, nine years after talks first started. 

The agreement, which still has to be voted on by members of the FNV trade union federation, involves a slowdown in the planned increase in the state pension age and gives workers the option to retire early – both of which were key union demands. 

The new deal involves freezing the state retirement age at 66 years and four months for the next two years. After that it will increase in increments until it hits 67 in 2024. 

Then onwards, the state pension age will continue to rise in line with increases in life expectancy – based on an eight month increase for every year we live longer. 

The talks had broken down last November when the unions walked out but resumed earlier this week after ministers indicated some compromises were on the table. 

For example, ministers have agreed to bring in some form of early retirement scheme which is aimed at people doing heavy physical work but which is open to everyone. 

The scheme is most attractive to people on low incomes. Employers will have to pay a fine if workers earning more than €19,000 a year quit early. The money, ministers say, will compensate for the loss of premium and tax income. 

It will also be easier for the self-employed to join a pension fund, but it will not be compulsory. 

Insurance 

However, freelancers will be required by law to take out insurance against becoming unable to work through illness. This, commentators say, was one the demands made by GroenLinks and the social democratic party PvdA in return for their support in steering the deal through the senate. 

There may be an opt-out for people who show they have sufficient reserves to support themselves. Currently just 20% of freelancers have such a policy, and the cost runs into hundreds of euros a month. 

More details about this part of the agreement are due in the coming days. 

Fund changes 

Pension funds will also have the option of offering employees two sorts of pensions – one in which the premium varies in line with interest rates and one in which funds can take more risk – and spread that risk over all participants, broadcaster NOS said. 

Although employers organisations and smaller unions have backed the new plan outright, the FNV has said it is up to the members to decide whether or not to support the new deal.

Chairman Han Busker said he expects a ‘tough discussion’ with members but said the agreement as it now stands is ‘justifiable’.

Councils want changes to welfare rules, plan experiments with ‘more friendly’ approach

DutchNews, December 7, 2015

Junior social affairs minister Jetta Klijnsma is in talks with four Dutch cities about experiments they want to run to relax the rules governing welfare benefits. 

Utrecht, Groningen, Wageningen and Tilburg want to overhaul the current welfare rules so that claimants would not have to continually apply for jobs and go on ‘reintegration’ courses, the Volkskrant says on Monday. 

The councils think a more friendly approach will work better and cost less than the current regulations. The four cities will meet Klijnsma again next week with more concrete plans. All experiments with alternative ways of dealing with welfare benefits (bijstand) have to be approved by her. 

The Volkskrant says a number of other cities, including Eindhoven, Nijmegen and Amsterdam, are also working on new ways of dealing with welfare claimants. 

‘Many people on benefits become paralysed by all the rules and checks,’ Eindhoven councillor Saskia Lammers told the paper. In particular, the government’s tone in dealing with claimants and its lack of trust in them have an impact, she said. ‘We have to stimulate rather than sanction,’ she said. 

Soft

In June, Utrecht city council said it planned to begin experimenting with a ‘basic income’ to replace the current complicated system of taxes, social security benefits and top-up benefits, if the government gave approval. 

Other cities, including Groningen, Maastricht, Gouda, Enschede, Nijmegen and Wageningen, are said to be looking along the same lines. 

VVD councillors in many councils oppose the ‘softer’ approach, the Volkskrant says. ‘You get the most out of people by challenging them, not allowing them to sit around doing nothing,’ said Amsterdam VVD councillor Marianne Poot. 

Rules

At the moment, someone claiming bijstand is required to apply for a number of jobs a month, take part in reintegration sessions, follow courses and do voluntary work. Council have to check they are meeting the conditions and to reduce benefits if they are not. Claimants who find a part-time job are allowed to keep up to €196 a month on top of their benefits.

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More Dutch cities may join in ‘basic income’ experiment

DutchNews, August 5, 2015

Other Dutch cities may join Utrecht in experimenting with a ‘basic income’ to replace the current complicated system of taxes, social security benefits and top-up benefits, the Financieele Dagblad says on Wednesday.

In June, Utrecht city council announced plans to launch trials of the new system after the summer holidays together with researchers from Utrecht University. Now Tilburg has similar plans and aims to run a four-year trial, the FD says. 

Groningen, Maastricht, Gouda, Enschede, Nijmegen and Wageningen are also looking at the concept and dozens of other councils have expressed an interest in the idea, the paper says. 

If junior social affairs minister Jetta Klijnsma approves the Utrecht plan, all welfare benefit claimants will be asked if they would like to join in. 

One group will continue under the present system of welfare plus supplementary benefits for housing and health insurance. A second group will get benefits based on a system of incentives and rewards and a third group will have a basic income with no extras. 

In theory, a basic income consists of a flat income to cover living costs which, supporters say, will free up people to work more flexible hours, do volunteer work and study. Additional income is subject to income tax.

The FD says the social affairs ministry states that the new laws covering welfare benefits allow ‘some room’ for experimentation. However, neither Utrecht or Tilburg have yet made a formal request to do so, a spokesman told the paper.

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UN aims to 'end poverty' with 2030 agenda for sustainable development

Cheers as UN irons out roadmap to end poverty

Yahoo – AFP, 3 Aug 2015

Jubilant UN member states put the finishing touches to a hugely ambitious
roadmap aimed at wiping out poverty worldwide by 2030 and taking on climate
change (AFP Photo/Haidar Hamdani)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - Jubilant UN member states put the finishing touches to a hugely ambitious roadmap aimed at wiping out poverty worldwide by 2030 and taking on climate change.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon lauded the hard-fought agreement, saying it "encompasses a universal, transformative and integrated agenda that heralds an historic turning point for our world."

After a week of heated negotiations at UN headquarters in New York, experts and diplomats from the 193 member states adopted a draft about 30 pages long entitled "Transforming Our World: The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development."

To cheers, Kenyan Ambassador Macharia Kamau called it "really a historic moment." Kenya chaired the negotiations along with Ireland.

World leaders will attend a Sustainable Development Summit at the UN September 25-27 to adopt a sustainable agenda document, firing the starting gun on efforts to improve the lives of one billion people living on less than $1.25 a day, mainly in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Negotiators set out 17 new sustainable development goals seeking to end poverty, promote wellbeing and safeguard the environment -- all by 2030.

"This is the People’s Agenda, a plan of action for ending poverty in all its dimensions, irreversibly, everywhere, and leaving no one behind," proclaimed Ban of the multitrillion-dollar initiative.

The UN chief vowed that the September summit, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, "will chart a new era of sustainable development in which poverty will be eradicated, prosperity shared and the core drivers of climate change tackled."

The new 2015-2030 Sustainable Development Goals builds on the success of the Millennium Development Goals, which helped drag millions out of poverty.

But the new drive will go significantly further, targeting the causes of poverty and the need for development that works for all people.

Funding the massive effort will be key to its success and last month donor nations confirmed they aim to set aside 0.7 percent of gross national income for development aid, after several days of at-times fractious talks between rich nations and developing countries.

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Business lobbying against German minimum wage revealed

Lobbyists from the farming and newspaper sectors worked hard to win exceptions to Germany's minimum wage, it has been revealed. But the employers' representatives don't think it did them much good.

Deutsche Welle, 30 July 2015

Workers in a field (Photo: imago/Ralph Lueger)

Germany is seven months into its new minimum wage, but not everyone is happy. The government has now admitted that lobbyists from a number of different sectors had urged it add exceptions to the new rule that no one in the country should earn less than 8.50 euros ($9.40) an hour.

The information, shown to DW on Thursday, emerged thanks to an official parliamentary request by the German Left party. Particularly persistent were representatives of the farmers' and newspaper publishers' associations, who met government representatives a total of 15 times in the months leading up to the law being passed in parliament.

The pressure seems to have been effective - both the agriculture sectors and the newspaper sectors won delays in implementing the minimum wage. Temporary farm-workers can be paid below minimum wage unto the end of 2016, while newspaper deliverers can be paid less until the end of 2017.

Nahles (right) had to defend the
 minimum wage against serious lobbying

Success or failure?

"The economic lobbyists have made sure that entire sectors have been left behind by the minimum wage," Left party parliamentarian Michael Schlecht said in an emailed statement. "Particularly the lobbyists of the publishers' and the farmers' associations clearly felt a lot more need to speak to the government during the lawmaking process."

"The result is well known," he added. "Hundreds of thousands of people did not benefit from the introduction of the minimum wage at the start of the year."

But the German Farmers' Association (BDV) don't think they gained much advantage. "We were invited to hearings, like every interest group, and we think it's legitimate to describe what happens in practice, in business," BDV spokesman Michael Lohse told DW.

The farmers also argued that the minimum wage will have a real impact on their business when it comes into full effect for temporary workers during the 2017 harvest.

"We analyzed that and communicated it - we will have to lose some production abroad," Lohse said. "In Romania and Bulgaria they have a minimum wage of one or two euros. Go shopping with your eyes open one day - there's half a kilogram of cherries for 7.50 euros from Brandenburg, and you have two kids who like to eat cherries, and you decide if you want cherries for 7.50 euros, or you buy the ones from Bulgaria for 3.50 euros. Then of course the retailer turns round and tells the farmer I can't buy your cherries anymore. Then production goes abroad and it will cost jobs - that's all we said. And that's legitimate."

More bureaucracy

Another complaint against the minimum wage was the amount of bureaucracy involved. At the end of June, Labor Minister Andrea Nahles, who drove the new minimum wage legislation, bowed to pressure and eased the regulations forcing employers in certain sectors to record how many hours their lowest paid workers were working.

Cherries are cheaper in Bulgaria

Up until then, the new minimum wage law stipulated that employers in the construction and gastronomy sectors, and others considered to be particularly susceptible to off-the-books work, had to document the number of hours logged by anyone earning less that 2,958 euros a month. That cap has now been lowered to 2,000 euros a month.

But Lohse was not happy with the whole new system. "If you have 100 or 200 people on a field and one of them has to leave, you have to write that down," he complained. "If they go home to have lunch, you have to document that - if it rains, or there's a storm. There are special conditions during the harvest time and these documentation obligations all take a heavy toll."

The conservative sections of the government coalition - both Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union - have been pressing for corrections to the law.

But Nahles' Social Democratic Party can also point to considerable successes - in May it could announce that 3.7 million people in Germany had received a pay raise as a result of the minimum wage, and that dependence on social benefits had declined. Also, fears that the new law would lead to a sharp rise in unemployment figures have so far proved untrue.

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New York plans $15 minimum wage at fast-food chains

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New York plans $15 minimum wage at fast-food chains

Yahoo – AFP, 23 July 2015

Low wage workers, many in the fast-food industry, join with supporters in front 

of a McDonald's to demand a minimum wage of $15 an hour, on April 15, 

2015 in New York (AFP Photo/Spencer Platt)

New York (AFP) - New York state was poised Wednesday to raise the minimum wage to $15 in the fast-food sector, a key victory in a long-running workers campaign for liveable wages.

A three-person panel appointed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said the state's current minimum wage of $8.75 an hour should be increased to $15, a raise of more than 71 percent.

Cuomo had indicated he would follow the panel's recommendation.

"What a great, great day!" Cuomo, a Democrat, said at a news conference with the leaders of the $15 campaign.

Governor Andrew Cuomo speaks to labor 

leaders, workers and activists at a rally for

 a $15 minimum hourly wage on July 22, 

2015 in New York (AFP Photo/Spencer

Platt)

The wage increase will be phased in, starting with fast-food chain restaurants operating in New York City. They are due to meet the new minimum wage by 2018, while elsewhere in the state fast-food restaurants will have until 2021 to comply.

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, but states and municipalities can set their own. Some 29 states and Washington, DC, have minimum wages above the federal minimum.

"We're getting $15 before every other state," said Eric Schneiderman, New York attorney general.

"It's a victory you have all built," he said, thanking the labor leaders and Cuomo. "This is a victory for all men and women who work hard."

Activists have been pushing for several years to get the $15 minimum wage in the fast-food sector, notorious for low pay that workers say does not keep them out of poverty.

Under pressure from unions, McDonald's announced in April a pay hike for 90,000 employees in company-owned restaurants, though that does not affect the majority of its restaurants, which are owned by franchisees.

From July 1 the starting wages for full and part-time workers in its own restaurants were raised by one dollar above the local minimum wage.

The move followed similar wage increases announced by Wal-Mart Stores, Gap and others, all under pressure from labor and social groups over low pay.

Cuomo said that New York state's $15 minimum wage decision would "radiate" across the country.

"If it's right in New York, it's right in California," he said.

In May, Los Angeles, the second biggest US city, passed an increase in its minimum wage from $9 to $15 an hour by 2020. That followed a similar move by Seattle one year ago.

Other states and communities have also passed, or are weighing increases to, statutory minimum pay, after years in which inflation eroded the spending power of US workers.

But only a few have moved toward the $15 target that worker groups are calling for.

According to US labor data, workers in the food preparation and serving-related occupations comprise 22 percent of US employees who make at or below the minimum wage. Workers such as waiters can earn less than the minimum wage if they make up the gap in tips.

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Utrecht city council to begin experiments with a basic income

DutchNews.nl, June 28, 2015

Utrecht city council is to begin experimenting with the idea of a basic income, replacing the current complicated system of taxes, social security benefits and top-up benefits. 

City alderman Victor Everhardt says the aim is to see if the concept of a basic income works in practice. ‘Things can be simpler if we base the system on trust,’ he told website DeStadUtrecht.nl. 

The experiment will start after the summer holidays and is being carried out together with researchers from Utrecht University.

In theory, a basic income consists of a flat income to cover living costs which, supporters say, will free up people to work more flexible hours, do volunteer work and study. Additional income is subject to income tax. 

The Utrecht project will focus on people claiming welfare benefits. One group will continue under the present system of welfare plus supplementary benefits for housing and health insurance. A second group will get benefits based on a system on incentives and rewards and a third group will have a basic income with no extras. 

‘We have asked civil service experts if an experiment using basic incomes is an option and have not had a definitive ‘no,’ Everhardt said. In addition, the trials fit in well with home affairs minister Ronald Plasterk’s decision to allow local authorities to experiment more with welfare benefits, he said.

Crowdfunding

‘What happens if someone gets a monthly amount without rules and controls?,’ Everhardt is quoted as saying in the Independent.’ Will someone sitting passively at home or do people develop themselves and provide a meaningful contribution to our society?’ 

Other cities, such as Nijmegen, Tilburg, Wageningen and Groningen are interested in a similar scheme. 

Earlier this year, a crowdfunding experiment using the concept of a basic income raised enough to allow Groningen campaigner Frans Kerver to live for a year on €1,000 a month. 

The crowdfunding effort is continuing and the second recipient, if enough money is raised, will be decided via a raffle.

A man cycles past a cafe displaying Tour de France items for sale, ahead of 

the upcoming Tour de France cycling race, in downtown Utrecht on June 23, 

2015. (Robin van Lonkhuijsen-AFP/Getty Images

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