02-2007 epsucob@NEWS 23 January 2007

Europe - Report notes significant increases in minimum wages

A new round-up of developments in legal minimum wages by the trade union-backed Hans Boeckler research institute notes some significant increases in Latvia (47.8%), Estonia (34.3%) and Slovakia (32%). The study also points out that in west European countries the minimum wage average around €8 an hour, with Ireland, the Netherlands, France and Luxembourg all registering rates of more than €8 an hour. The target of the DGB union federation is for a minimum wage of €7.50 an hour which would put it just below the levels in Belgium (€7.93) and the UK (€7.96). Read more at > Hans Boeckler (DE)

UK - Majority back national civil service strike

Members of the PCS civil service union are backing a national strike over pay and job cuts. The first day of strike action will be 31 January and this will be followed by a two-week ban on overtime working. The strike will affect over 200 government departments but in particular will affect the Revenue and Customs section on the deadline day for tax returns. The main cause of the dispute has been government determination to push through thousands of job cuts across the civil service as it implements the “Gershon” efficiency plan. Read more at > PCS (EN)

France - Unions plan day of action over pay and public services

Five of the public service federations have come together to call a day of action with strikes and demonstrations on 8 February. The day of action will the latest stage in a long-running campaign by the unions to try to establish proper negotiations covering the French public sector. Unions were angered by the implications of a statement by the public service minister that linked cuts in public service jobs to higher salaries. The unions want to see a minimum 1.7% increase in 2007 (forecast inflation) and further increases to compensate for the failure to match the rise in prices since 2000. Read more at > CGT

Belgium - National demonstration over jobs, recruitment and organisation

Unions in the Belgian federal finance ministry have come together to co-ordinate a national demonstration in Brussels on 23 January. They are protesting about a range of issues related to jobs, recruitment and organisation in the department. The unions point out that current policies mean that only three workers are recruited for every five that leave the service. This means that staff are already under pressure and that this situation will deteriorate from January 2009 when recruitment will be cut to only one new worker for every two that leave. The unions have compiled a detailed dossier of issues that they want addressed including demands for proper procedures for promotion and training and establishing a proper process of social dialogue. Read more at > CGSP (FR) And at > ACOD (NL)

Switzerland - Pressure mounts for action on equal pay

The SGB/USS trade union federation is putting pressure on the Swiss parliament to push through new measures to tackle the gender pay gap. The parliament will be debating a range of equality-related proposals on 8 March and unions have been pointing out the problems and loopholes with existing legislation. The unions have been compiling new data about the persistence and extent of the gender pay gap across different sectors. Even in the federal and cantonal health services, where women make up over 80% of workers, women earn less than men even taking account of age, length of service and qualifications. Read more at > SGB (DE) And at USS (FR)

Portugal - Five-year agreement on minimum wage

The industrial relations observatory EIRO reports that the social partners in Portugal have agreed on significant increases to the national minimum wage over the next five years. This is the first time tripartite talks have produced this kind of agreement and the 4.4% increase to the minimum wage for 2007 will be the highest in real terms since 1992. Inflation for 2007 is forecast at 2.1%. Over the five-year period 2007-2011 the agreement provides for increases averaging 5.3% a year. Read more at > EIRO (EN)

Estonia - Estonian health care workers strike postponed

A strike planned for 22 January has been postponed while further conciliation talks take place. One of our epsucob@ contacts in Estonia, Iia Täks, provided this report on the dispute over pay.

The main purpose of the strike is to achieve fulfillment of the effective pay agreement and pay demands of health workers’ unions and conclude a new pay agreement for 2007 and 2008. The previous agreement, signed in 2004, expired on 31 December 2006. In early January, in a bid to avert a looming strike, the employers from Estonian Hospitals’ Association offered to raise minimum hourly salaries to 90 kroons (5.7 EUR) for doctors, 46.80 kroons (3.0 EUR) for middle-level staff and 27.60 kroons (1.7 EUR) for care personnel in 2007. These sums would be increased by a further 20% in 2008.

However it falls short of the unions’ demands. The strike committee is demanding minimum hourly salaries of 100 kroons (6.4 EUR) for doctors, 60 kroons (3.5 EUR) for middle-level staff and 32 kroons (2.0 EUR) for care personnel in 2007. In 2008 health care workers want double national average pay based on 2007 data for doctors, 60% of doctors’ minimum pay for middle-level staff, and 58% of middle-level staff minimum pay for care personnel. In addition, health care professionals are requesting that the national budget for health care should be increased from 5,3 % of GDP to 6,3%, and demanding a special subsidy for young doctors and nurses to prevent them leaving the country for better-paid jobs abroad.

The strike committee says in explanation of the decision to take action that despite recent robust economic growth the state has failed to come up with enough resources to provide Estonians with healthcare to European standards. “Estonia has the shortest average lifespan and lowest ratio of health spending to gross domestic product of EU member states,” the committee says in a statement. “A large part of our young doctors and nurses leaves to work abroad.” Also the committee points out that health workers have repeatedly turned to the government with demands to increase investment in health and health care, set cost-based prices for medical services and use health insurance tax receipts for the purpose they are meant for and not amass undistributed profit in the Health Insurance Fund. “The government has so far done nothing to satisfy these demands” the strike committee says.

Sweden - Report stresses need to maintain high minimum wages

A new report from the LO trade union confederation underlines the importance of maintaining high levels of minimum wages across the economy and preventing the gap between the high and lower paid from increasing. The report rejects the argument that low pay is primarily a temporary phenomenon affecting young people and argues that low pay of any kind has an impact on other wage earners. It also points out that many older workers still experience low pay and that it tends to affect families with poverty and low pay likely to be passed on across the generations. LO argues that measures are needed to boost demand and employment and improve the competences on those on the lowest pay rates. Read more at > LO (EN)

Spain - Unions prevent major increase in temporary agency work

The three trade union federations - CCOO, UGT and CSIF - representing 90% of workers in the state statistics office have blocked an attempt by the agency to take on 450 temporary agency workers to carry out survey work. The unions argued that not only was this in contravention of last year’s agreement covering the general state administration but also ran counter to the government’s intention to reduce the level of temporary working in the public sector. Read more at > FSP-UGT (ES)

Portugal - Forum and national demonstration are next stage in campaign

The federation of public service unions is determined to continue its campaign to defend workers’ pay and rights in public administration and to resist further moves towards privatisation. The federation has organised a forum on 22 February to debate how to take the campaign forward and is supporting a national demonstration with private sector trade unions on 2 March called by the CGTP trade union federation. Read more at > FNSFP (PT)

Italy - Government confirms finance for pay increases and future deadline for implementing increases

Public sector unions have welcomed decisions by the Italian government that will ensure that money is available for pay rises in 2007 and that in future there will be a clear time limit for the government to pay salary increases once new rates are agreed. Pay rises are negotiated every two years and the last agreement expired on 31 December 2005. Unions have since been trying to negotiate increases for the 2006-2007 period and threatened strike action towards the end of last year when the government initially failed to commit adequate funds to the 2007 budget to cover pay increases. As in the past unions have also been frustrated by the failure of the government to implement pay increases once they are agreed with as much as a 30-month delay before public service workers see the increases in their pay packets. The government has now agreed that higher salaries should be paid within 55 days of the conclusion of the collective bargaining process. Read more at > EIRO (EN)
European Federation of Public Service Unions
Representing 217 unions - 8 million public service workers