epsucob@NEWS March 2005

Public sector unions in France managed to get the government to the negotiating table after widespread support for days of action and demonstrations on 20 January, 5 February and 10 March. Their key demands remain: a pay increase in 2005 to compensate for inflation; a further rise to take account of the loss of purchasing power between 2000 and 2004; action to tackle low pay and reform of pay structures. However, the initial government response has disappointed unions. Last December public service minister Renaud Dutreuil had already proposed pay increases of 0.5% from 1 February 2005 and 0.5% from 1 November. The most recent offer is a further 0.5% in July and 0.3% in November making it three increases in the year of 0.5%, 0.5% and 0.8%. Although the increase may be enough to compensate for inflation in 2005, the government says that the agreement will depend on unions also agreeing to negotiate a deal covering the two years 2005 and 2006 and to link increases in future to growth in the economy. So far most public service unions have not agreed to either of these conditions.

Public sector unions have congratulated their members on high levels of support for the strike in the Ministry of Justice on 16 March. The action was taken to put pressure on the Ministry to implement collective agreements. The unions estimate support for the strike at over 75% and 90% in some areas and reject government claims that support was as low as 20%-30%. The unions have warned that more action will follow if the Ministry fails to respond to union demands.

New three-year collective agreements have been agreed in the state and local government sectors in Denmark.

The state sector deal was signed at the end of February and covers around 160,000 workers. The agreement runs from 1 April 2005 to 31 March 2009. The general wage increase is 5.76% over the three years. The first year increase was agreed at 2.3% but a regulatory mechanism linking public sector to private sector increases means the actual increase will be 1.76%. The agreement includes changes to several other conditions including pensions and working time. And an important element is help for the low paid with the abolition of the three lowest pay scale. This means that employees on one of the three lowest scales of pay (in the old scale pay system) are raised to what used to be the fourth lowest scale. Likewise, all basic wages (in the so-called new pay system) are raised to a level equivalent to that scale. Further details from our StK correspondent were circulated to the epsucob@ network earlier this month and will appear on the EPSU website.

In local government 560,000 workers are covered by a three-year agreement which provides for an overall increase in employment costs of 9.7% over three years. This is broken down into general wage increases, local bargaining and improvements in other conditions. In the current year all employees will move up the pay scale, equivalent to an increase of 1.52% and then further general wage increases will add 4.8% to salaries during 2006 and 2007.

A labour tribunal in Charleroi has declared that Ryanair has violated social law in Belgium. Three former employees of the low-cost airline had complained that their contracts were in English and had referred to Irish law. This concerned: the length of the trial period, non-regulated holiday pay, non payment of overtime and transport costs. Belgian laws and regulations apply according to the judge even if workers are subject to Irish law as they work in Belgium.

Members of the FGTB/ABVV union federation have voted to reject the national pay framework agreement which sets out key changes to pay and conditions for 2005 and 2006. As a result of the decision the CSC/ACV federation has also decided not to sign the deal. FGTB/ABVV members were unhappy about the pay norm which was set at 4.5% over the two years and also the proposed doubling of the annual overtime limit of 65 hours.

The long-running dispute in the Belgian health and social services sector (non-profit) looks to be nearly over. A deal was agreed at the beginning of March although unions from the Flemish community were demonstrating in Brussels on 24 March to put pressure on the Flemish government to confirm its acceptance of the agreement. Unions have won increases to pay to protect purchasing power and increases to night and weekend premia. There will also be increased end-of-career leave and employers are committed to increase in employment in the sector by around 10,000 jobs. This will allow for a cut in working time across the sector.

The UK government has extended regulations across the public sector which will prevent contractors from applying inferior pay and conditions to new employees on public sector contracts. The regulations are already in force in local government. Unions have been campaigning for this for several years having highlighted the injustice where employees affected by privatisation and transferred out of the public sector have their pay and conditions protected, at least temporarily, by the TUPE transfer regulations (implementing the Acquired Rights Directive) whereas new employees taken on to work on the same contracts may well be offered poorer terms and conditions. The regulations will mean that contractors will now have less scope to do this.

A report from the European Working Conditions Observatory (part of the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions) shows that health and social services, along with education, are the sectors where workers are more likely to suffer stress. The report, based on research from Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain and Sweden, points out that these are very large employers with predominantly female workforces.

A new report from the ETUC takes a close look at some of the recent examples of increases in working time and argues that the extent of changes is very limited and also that the arguments behind increasing working hours are contradictory.

The Finnish government is proposing to toughen up the laws on gender equality. Official figures indicate that between 1987 and 2003 there was no change in the gender pay gap in Finland with women’s earnings 20% lower than men’s. Although current legislation says that all employers with 30 or more workers should produce a gender equality plan and update it each year there are no real sanctions to ensure this takes place.

Public services union VPOD/SSP has attacked the federal government for planned budget cuts which will lead to a 10% reduction (4,200) in jobs. The union is also opposing reforms to the pension system which will raise the retirement age for federal employees from 62 to 65.

Public services union ver.di has agreed a three-year pay deal covering power supply companies that will see three lump sum payments in July 2005, 2006 and 2007 along with percentage increases on pay of 1% in April 2006 and 1.5% in April 2007. The lump sum payments in 2006 and 2007 will both be 250 euros while the 2005 lump sum will be worth 1.5% of salary up to a maximum of 550 euros. These increases will apply to western region while in the east pay rates will be increase each year to 95% then 95.5% then 97% of those in the west.

The GSEE union confederation and ADEDY civil servants’ union have organised protests and strike action in opposition to pay increases proposed by the government, according to the March issue of the magazine, European Industrial Relations Review. The government announced a 3.6% increase both for civil servants and for workers in the utilities. The unions planned three days of action 15-18 March with a one-day strike on 17 March.

The industrial relations observatory, EIRO, reports that unions, employers and government took part in a workshop to discuss how to deal with workplace violence in the healthcare sector with a recent survey showing that over a third of people think that violence between patients and workers has increased in the last three years. The reasons for the increase are traced to the rising levels of stress created by the failures of current healthcare reforms.