The SGB/USS trade union confederation has expressed its solidarity with the cleaners on strike against the ISS multinational that operates at Geneva airport. The company has ignored two collective agreements reduced pay rates for the cleaners. The SGB/USS has underlined the importance of the dispute and its implications for defending pay and conditions and preventing a spread of wage dumping. The workers have been on strike for five weeks and the latest demonstration in support has been (...)

The annual round of negotiations in the civil service that normally take place in August could be delayed until after 12 September as some union organizations want to negotiate after the referendum on constitutional change. The changes being voted on in the referendum include important rights on trade union membership, the right to strike and right to negotiate collective agreements. In the current round of negotiations the KESK federation called for a TL300 (€156) increase in civil service (...)

The latest figures for the Greek economy show that it is on course for a 4% fall in output this year while unemployment has risen sharply from 8.5% last year to 12.5% in May this year (the latest figures). However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) believes that government reforms are on track. The IMF acknowledges that: “Employees and pensioners have contributed to the program in a major way by accepting painful reductions in wages and pensions.” However, the burden is not being equally (...)

At the beginning of August the 750,000 workers in the care sector were covered by a sectoral minimum wage for the first time. In anticipation of problems with its implementation, services union ver.di set up a telephone hotline for employees to report problems. Evidence from hotline calls indicates that employers were not complying with the new regulations as they were including holiday pay, Christmas pay, shift allowances and bonuses in their calculation of pay when it should just be basic (...)

Researchers at the AIAS labour studies institute at Amsterdam University have secured funding from the European Commission to co-ordinate a 12-month project (WISUTIL) examining occupational pay rates in the energy, waste and water utilities. EPSU is supporting the project and its affiliates in the utilities will be asked to encourage their members to supply information on pay. The project will use the international network of Wage Indicator websites to get individual workers to input (...)

The CCOO trade union confederation’s public sector organizations in the Extremadura region of south west Spain have lodged over 450 appeals against the pay cuts being imposed by the public authorities. This follows similar action at national level. The appeals cover nearly 80,000 workers in the regional administration and local authorities as well as workers in universities. The actions challenge the pay cuts on the basis of the infringement of trade union rights to collective bargaining and (...)

The FNV Abvakabo public services union has set up an email address for workers to report examples of poor quality care in care homes. The union says that its members are reporting cases where employers cut costs by failing to employ adequate numbers of workers on shifts or by not employing properly trained staff. Workers are under pressure to take on extra responsibilities or work longer hours. Read more at > FNV Abvakabo (...)

Healthcare assistants, domestic supervisors and reception staff, overwhelmingly women, working at a National Health Service Trust have won an Employment Appeal Tribunal case on equal pay. The case backed by the UNISON public services union argued that the women were paid lower rates for unsocial hours working on Saturdays and Sundays when compared to men in comparable jobs. The ruling could be important for women working in other Trusts where there are differences in unsocial hours (...)

The SIPTU general union has negotiated a deal to ensure that the “Croke Park” national agreement provisions on outsourcing are applied to the waste sector in Dublin. The union had threatened strike action against Dun Laoghaire council because it had intended to outsource waste collection services to the private company Panda without any consultation. The “Croke Park” agreement makes clear that public sector employers can only outsource after full consultation with the trade unions. There will (...)

The EWCO working conditions observatory reports that women working in the public sector now have the right to work part time when going back to work after having a baby up until the child reaches three years of age. Until now part time work in Hungary has been much more limited than in other countries. Read more at > EWCO (EN)

The FOA public service union has won a key court case that says that part-time workers who suffer injuries at work can have their compensation based on a full-time worker’s salary. The union has been pursuing this and similar cases on the basis that part-time work, particularly for many women workers, is only temporary, often coinciding with periods bringing up young children. Any injury compensation based on potential loss of earnings should therefore be based on the assumption that they (...)

The Equal Treatment Commission has ruled that part-time workers should be fully paid for any work-related training they do. The case involved a part timer covered by the care sector agreement who worked 16 hours a week as a care assistant but who undertook a training course of 28.8 hours a week. The Commission agreed with the trade union that payment should be on the basis of the 28.8 hours and not on the basis of a special rate for trainees in the collective agreement. In this case it (...)

Members of the STAL union are taking strike action against the Resiestrela waste company that provides services to 13 municipalities. The union is calling for the right to negotiate a proper collective agreement and accuses the management of the company of adopting an anti-trade union stance. Read more at > STAL (PT)

The SETCA/BBTK services union reports that some employers in the non-profit health care sector are refusing to sign agreements setting out provisions for early retirement. The union believes the employers are following the example of the main FEB employers’ organization that has been calling for a hard line on early retirement. SETCA/BBTK argues that these provisions are very important for a sector that is characterized by difficult and stressful occupations and where pay levels are modest. (...)

The CCOO confederation has attacked the Socialist government for what it says is the biggest attack on workers’ rights since the transition to democracy in the 1970s. CCOO general secretary Ignacio Fernández Toxo says that the change in the law gives too much flexibility to employers in terms of setting wages and working time and will undermine sectoral collective agreements leading to damaging wage competition. Read more at > FSC-CCOO (...)

The Kommunal municipal union has signed a new two-year agreement with the health employers’ organisation that covers workers in the care sector. The pay increases are in line with increases in other sectors but the union says the negotiations were difficult and it had to resist employer attempts to undermine employment conditions. This year’s pay rise will be at least SEK 490 (€52) from 1 July and at least SEK 480 (€51) from 1 August 2011. Minimum rates for full-time workers above 19 years will (...)

The BFW employers’ organization has joined the trade unions’ call for increased funding for the care sector and improved pay and conditions for care workers. The GPA-DJP and VIDA trade unions argue that employees are underpaid and work excessive hours and that the quality of care will suffer unless something is done to increase employment in the sector and improve the attractiveness of the caring professions. Read more at > GPA-DJP (DE) And at > VIDA (...)

EPSU is carrying out a survey of all affiliates to find out how they are trying to reduce the gender pay gap. There have been some interesting responses so far from the Netherlands, Sweden, Estonia, Georgia and Norway but we need many more replies to ensure there is a good coverage of countries and sectors. Questionnaire available at > (16 languages)

EPSU affiliates from Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey and the UK are invited to a regional collective bargaining conference in Bratislava. The conference will discuss the impact of the crisis, equal pay, outsourcing, precarious employment and other key collective bargaining issues. Read more at > EPSU (6 languages)

The main EPSU collective bargaining conference will take place in Brussels on 7-8 December. One of the main presentations will be examine the implementation and impact of pay cuts in Ireland, Greece, Spain, Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Romania and Lithuania. The research and conference have been made possible through financial support from the European Commission. Read more at > EPSU (10 (...)