020 epsucob@NEWS November 2008

Europe - Parliament backs action to protect collective agreements

The ETUC has welcomed the European Parliament’s vote last month in support of a report drafted by Jan Andersson (European Socialist Party) on challenges to collective agreements in the European Union. There was a large majority favour, including votes from the European People’s Party. Andersson’s report outlines the deep concerns about the rulings of the European Court of Justice in the Viking, Laval, Rüffert and Commission versus Luxembourg cases and emphasises that economic freedoms, such as the freedom to provide services, are not superior to fundamental rights, such as the right of trade unions to take collective action. The Parliament has called on the Commission to prepare the necessary legislative proposals which would assist in preventing conflicting interpretation in the future including a review of the Posted Workers Directive and a re-assertion in primary law of the balance between fundamental rights and economic freedoms. Read more at > ETUC (EN) And in French at > ETUC The Unite trade union in the UK has launched a petition to protect workers’ rights and collective agreements and a website that provides information on the key ECJ cases. Read more at > Unite (EN)

Europe - ETUC wants to see support for real economy

The ETUC has called on governments to adopt policies that will provide a boost to the real economy and not just to bail out the finance sector with an injection of capital. The Confederation is looking for a range of measures to increase economic activity and avoid the risk of deflation. It wants to see a quick and significant cut in interest rates and an increase in real wages rather than the kind of downwards wage flexibility that the European Central Bank and Eurogroup of finance ministers have been arguing for. The ETUC points out that precarious work, weakening workers’ bargaining position, is another accelerator for deflation and an increase in public borrowing has to be accepted in order to offset the decline in private indebtedness. Read more at > ETUC (FR) And in English at > ETUC

Europe - Don’t miss out on this year’s collective bargaining conference

Over 130 participants from 24 countries have already registered for this year’s conference on collective bargaining and social dialogue. The meeting will take place in Brussels on 9-10 December looks as though it will be the best attended for some time. Support from the European Commission means that we can offer some financial help to participants from the New Member States and Candidate Countries. There are still a few countries where affiliates have yet to register any participants and we would encourage them to send in their forms as soon as possible. Read more in 10 languages at > EPSU

UK - National civil service strike looms

The PCS public services union has called on the government to negotiate over its 2% pay limit or face a campaign of industrial action across the civil service. Unless the union receives a positive response from the government then a one-day national strike will go ahead on 10 November. This will be immediately followed by a civil service-wide overtime ban and then a campaign of targeted industrial action across a range of different services leading into 2009. Read more at > PCS (EN)

Germany - Employers’ federation and union call for minimum wage in care sector

Service union ver.di has joined with the German catholic charity federation (Deutches Caritasverband) in calling for a minimum wage for the care sector. Ver.di executive member Ellen Paschke said that care workers should not be left without protection against market forces and Helmut Kohmann from the employer federation argued that the minimum for the sector should not be anything less than the current minimum salary set by the public sector agreement. A government working group is reviewing implementation of the Posted Workers legislation and by the end of November should recommend which sectors should be afforded minimum wage protection through the posted workers law. Read more at > ver.di (DE)

France - Unions express concern over performance-related pay

The French government has announced plans for a significant extension of performance-related pay (PRP) across the civil service. At the moment only a small group of senior civil service has a PRP element in their salary. New arrangements will cover around 21,600 civil servants next year and by 2012 nearly 200,000 will have a PRP as part of their pay. The additional payment will be made up by a job-related premium (60%) set by each ministry while the remaining 40% will be entirely related to the individual’s performance. The CFDT and FSU federations have warned of the risks of having pay determined in an arbitrary way. They also argue that the key issue at the moment is to ensure that all public service workers have their pay protected against inflation without having to rely on unpredictable PRP payments. The new system will be financed by savings from the non-replacement of retiring workers. Read more at > Les Echos (FR) And at > FSU (FR)

Switzerland - Unions mobilise over financial crisis

The SGB/USS union confederation along with its member organisations, including the VPOD/SSP public service union, has organised a national demonstration in Zurich on 15 November. The slogan for the demonstration is “stop the rip-off” and unions want to see tighter regulation of the finance sector but also increased investment in public services and increased real wages and social payments. The unions contrast the cost of pension reforms with the massive support given to Union Bank of Swizterland. Read more at > VPOD (DE)

Europe - Report highlights risks associated with spread of private pensions

A new report from the European Commission examines the growth of private pension provision and what this can mean for workers in both public and private sectors. A key trend identified by the report is the transfer of risk from governments and employers. However, the only recommendation from the Commission on this is greater financial education for workers. The report also refers to the need to ensure that pension provision is not discriminatory but recent changes can lead to lower pensions for women particularly where there are breaks in contributions. The report also warns of the costs of management fees and how these can take a large chunk out of pension benefits over a long period. Read more at > European Commission (EN)

Germany - Union says hospital finance package is inadequate

Services union ver.di is warning of a deteriorating employment situation in the hospital sector and one, which will continue to worsen despite proposals for additional funding. Ver.di argues that the new framework law on hospital finance will not provide enough money for decent increases to pay and that more workers will leave the sector. Over 130,000 joined a demonstration in Berlin in September over the hospital sector crisis and ver.di says that more action will take place this month. With employment shortages existing employees are under increasing pressure and the heavy workloads and poor pay are making it very difficult to recruit new staff. Read more at > ver.di (DE)

Spain - Federations continue to protest over pension changes

The FSP-UGT and FSAP-CCOO public service trade union federations are demanding that the government withdraws proposals to cut ill-health early retirement pensions from next year. An estimated 800,000 public sector workers are covered by the current arrangements and in 2007 alone 3,000 employees took early retirement because of disability. If the new provisions had been in place then these workers would have lost 25% of their pension if they had not made 20 years of contributions. The trade unions are particularly angry that the proposed change has been added to draft legislation without consultation or negotiation. Read more at > FSAP-CCOO (ES) And at > FSP-UGT (ES)

UK - Health service unions want to re-open negotiations

Health sector trade unions have called on the employers to re-open negotiations in the light of soaring inflation and major problems in the labour market for health workers. Workers in the National Health Service are covered by a three-year deal running from April 2008 to March 2011. Unions are not only concerned about inflation at a 16-year high but have also presented detailed evidence of a sharp increase in the numbers of student nurses quitting their courses and the upcoming surge in retirement across a range of key NHS jobs. Read more at > UNISON (EN) And at > RCN (EN)

Italy - Federations adopt different strategies over public sector pay

While the FP CGIL public service federation will continue with planned regional strike action on 3, 7 and 15 November, the FPS CISL and UIL federations have decided to sign an initial agreement with the government over pay and future discussions over reforming public sector pay and contractual arrangements. Read more at > FP-CGIL (IT) And at > FP-CGIL (IT) And at > UIL (IT)

Finland - Public sector employers exploit fixed-term workers

The YLE news website reports that public sector employers in general use large numbers of fixed-term workers. However, in some parts of the public sector, such as the universities, workers have made successful legal challenges against employers who keep workers employed on a series of temporary contracts. The Ministry of Finance has reportedly said it intends to improve the situation but has so far not taken any action. Read more at > YLE (EN)

Austria - New collective agreement for federal accountancy service

The federal accountancy service (Bundeshaltungsagentur – BHAG) is one of a number of agencies that have hived off from the central administration and now operate with more independence although still owned by the state. The GÖD public service union has negotiated a separate collective agreement covering the BHAG that includes a new pay structure as well as a wide range of other provisions on leave, sick pay, sabbaticals, travel allowances and trainees’ pay. Read more at > GÖD (AT)