epsucob@NEWS 8 December 2005

Ireland - Unions united in anti-wage dumping demo

Public sector unions are supporting the lunchtime demonstrations around the country on Friday 9 December in protest at the actions of Irish Ferries. Unions are calling on the government to take action to prevent a race to the bottom as the company has taken on migrant workers paying them at 3.60 euros an hour - less than the minimum wage - and cutting back on safety and other conditions. Read more at > IMPACT And at > ICTU

Austria - 2.7% for public sector workers

The annual pay negotiations for federal, regional and local government workers were concluded earlier this month with a 2.7% pay increase due from 1 January 2006. Last year’s pay award was 2.3%. Inflation over the year has averaged 2.4% but it is forecast to fall to 2.0% in 2006. Read more at > GDG

France - Unions call for minister to respond

Increasingly frustrated by the failure of the government to negotiate over pay, six union federations in the public sector have sent a joint letter to the public service minister demanding he puts forward a proposal on pay and that negotiations should start in earnest by 15 December. Read more at > FO And at > CGT

France - EDF announces up to 7,000 job cuts

The energy company EDF has announced that it is implementing a policy of not filling all new vacancies when workers retire or leave the company. Only one job in three (or four depending on the job) will be filled over the next two years. The unions believe this is an early reflection of the company’s new, more profit-oriented approach following its switch from being a nationalised company to a share-based, although still majority state-owned organisation. Read more at > FNME-CGT And at > FNEM-FO

Portugal - 100% strike in the refuse collection to keep the "night allowance"

For three consecutive days a strike of refuse collectors caused chaos in the city of Oporto. The strike was caused by the decision of the Oporto Mayor to suspend the "night allowance" for more than 600 workers. This means a reduction of €115 in a €500 average salary and will be deducted this month. The first day of the strike had 100% support as it was organised by SINTAP (UGT) and STAL (CGTP) Unions. The workers don’t accept the suspension of this allowance, which has been paid since the seventies. SINTAP has applied to the Oporto Administrative Court of Justice to prevent the allowance being cut. Read more at > SINTAP And at > STAL This story was supplied by our epsucob@ contact at SINTAP. If you have any information for epsucob@NEWS please send it to rpond@epsu.org

Germany - Anger builds up over longer working hours

Regional government employees in Baden-Württemberg took strike action on 5 December in defence of the 38.5 hour week. The region has been getting new starters - employees taken on since 2004 - to work 41 hours a week. Their holiday pay has also been cut and Christmas bonus reduced. An estimated 20,000 workers took part in the action. Read more at > SWR Meanwhile workers at hospitals and university clinics in Hamburg and the North-Rhine Wesfalia region are gearing up for protests and possible strikes over their employers’ failure to endorse the new public sector agreement. Employers in Hamburg want a 42-hour week, again with cuts to holiday and Christmas bonuses. Read more at > ver.di NRW And at > ver.di Hamburg

Czech Republic - Unions rally behind labour law changes

Public service unions joined a national rally at the end of November in support of changes to the Czech labour code. Although unions are not happy with everything in the new code they were keen to show their opposition to employers who are calling for major changes to the legislation. Employers are looking for reforms which would make it easier to sack workers and to undermine trade unions. Read more at > CMKOS And at > Radio Prague And at > EIRO

UK - Gas workers strike over pension scheme

Engineers at British Gas, members of the GMB general union, are due to take their first day of strike action on 12 December in protest at the company’s plans to close the final-salary pension scheme. The workers are angry about the company’s decision in the light of a review of the pension scheme two years ago when many workers backed higher pension contributions in order to keep the scheme open. Read more at > GMB

UK - Unions oppose change to pension rules

Local government unions are unhappy about proposals to end early retirement provisions in the local government pension scheme. The government argues that the changes are necessary in the light of age discrimination but unions are not convinced and are considering what action to take in response to the announcement that the rule change would take effect in October 2006. The rule allows workers to retire on a full pension if their age and service add up to 85. Read more at > UNISON

Netherlands - Childcare and energy agreements

Latest collective bargaining news from the ABVAKABO website provides details on two agreements that stretch into 2007. Childcare workers will get three pay increases during their 16-month agreement which runs from 1 January 2006 to 30 April 2007. The increases are 1% in April 2006, 0.75% in October and then 0.25% in January 2007. In electricity distribution and production there is a longer deal. Although only agreed earlier this month it effectively runs from 1 January 2005 (or 1 April 2005 for the distribution sector) to 1 June 2007. The three pay increases take place in April 2005, April 2006 and January 2007 and are worth 1.25%, 1.5% and 0.25%. Read more at > ABVAKABO And > ABVAKABO

Estonia - Unions expose unfair civil service pay scheme

The state sector union ROTAL and the EAKL union federation are continuing their efforts to achieve a reform of the pay system in the civil service. They highlight the fact that the government has not kept to previous agreements, that it unilaterally increases salaries of different categories of civil servants at different times and that there is a growing gap between the highest and lowest paid civil servants. Read more at > EIRO

Europe - ETUC focuses on excessive flexibility

The ETUC Executive Committee agreed a resolution on collective bargaining at the beginning of December that warns of the dangers of “excessive flexibility”. The ETUC argues that employers appear to be putting the emphasis on getting more flexible working arrangements rather than on increasing working time. It is calling on affiliates to raise the issue of precarious employment in their negotiations in 2006, to challenge flexibility that is only in the employers’ interest and to report back to the Collective Bargaining Committee next May. The resolution also suggests that more should be done through collective bargaining to tackle the gender pay gap and warns of the need to resist employers’ pressures to decentralise bargaining. As background to the resolution the ETUC has also published its annual report on collective bargaining which points to a further decline in average pay increases over the year compared to 2004 and 2003 but that in the majority of cases the trend was still in favour of real increases in negotiated pay. Read more at > ETUC And the annual report at > ETUC

Greece - Unions resist threat to collective bargaining

The ADEDY civil servants’ union will be joining the GSEE union federation in a general strike on 14 December in protest at government legislation that will undermine collective bargaining and which is aimed specifically at public enterprises. The one-day strike will be part of a week of action by trade unions across the country. Read more at > ERT news agency