Press Communication, 14 May 2009

European energy trade unions meeting in Luxembourg today highlight stark contrast between increased share returns and falling wages

(14 May 2009, Luxembourg) On the eve of a weekend of mass union demonstrations throughout Europe, a report by public service trade union federation EPSU has revealed a stark trend among the sector’s main employers, showing the wages bill falling as a share of profits and dividends. The EPSU energy unions have released the report, entitled ‘Fair shares?” to highlight that the culture of greed has gotten hold of this essential service as well.

Using data from the 10 leading energy companies (such as EDF and RWE), the report clearly shows that while profits have remained largely consistent, the share of wages is falling:

“The recession is being used as a reason to restrain wage increases even in sectors such as energy, where the impact of a downturn has yet to have a significant impact on profits” EPSU briefing – ‘Fair shares?’ May 2008.

One energy workers story - Laurence VASSEUR

“I am a client advisor for (energy company) ERDF-GRDF in Rouen, France. The salary for a young energy worker in my company is 1040 euros per month. This amount barely covers basic living for the month. The CEO of my company, Jean Francois Cirelli, received a 183% increase in salary. He has offered the workers a wage increase of 0.3%.

EPSU Dutch affiliate Abavakabo - negotiating the energy sector agreement in the Netherlands - has already made it clear that companies’ recent profits record will be a factor in their pay demands.

Commenting on the ‘Fair shares?’ report, EPSU deputy general secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan said: "Our analysis of the energy sector confirms the general picture in Europe, with falling wage shares and rising profits and payouts to shareholders. He added that: “This weekend, the European Trade Union Movement will be demonstrating all over Europe in their hundreds of thousands against this culture of greed”.

EPSU will be supporting its affiliates in negotiating a fair share for workers in their current negotiations and will also be mobilising to support the ETUC demonstrations across Europe on 14-16 May that are calling for decent pay increases for workers across all sectors rather than the pay cuts and pay freezes that will only contribute to deepening the crisis.

To read the full report please go here: http://www.epsu.org/a/4996

For further information, please contact:

Brian Synnott +32 474 98 96 75, bsynnott@epsu.org, Jan Willem Goudriaan +32 2 250 10 90, jwgoudriaan@epsu.org, Richard Pond rpond@epsu.org

EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC. 8 million public service workers from over 200 trade unions are members. They organise workers in the energy, water and waste sectors, health and social services and local and national administration.