Switzerland

The VPOD/SSP public service trade union, with support from the SGB/USS trade union confederation, has attacked demands from the health insurance industry to cut hospital costs and by implication wage bills. The industry wants hospital costs across the country reduced to the lowest that currently apply in any hospital. The unions point out that with employment costs making up 70% of total costs this means an attack on pay and conditions. The unions have warned that such reductions, apart from being unfair to workers, would undermine service quality and lead to hospitals taking on less qualified staff to keep their wage bills down. Read more at > VPOD (DE)

Federal government workers in Switzerland will get a 1% real increase in pay this year, their first real pay increase since 1991. Since 2004 prices have risen by 3.1% and workers have been compensated by one-off payments. These will now be integrated into pay rates. According to a review of the latest pay round by the SGB confederation, pay increases in regional government, the Cantons, range between 2.2% and 3.2% with the increases mostly made up of general rises and other bonuses or performance-related and individual increases. Read more at > VPOD-SSP (DE) And at > SGB (DE)

The SGB/USS trade union confederation is co-ordinating a pay campaign among its affiliates with the key demands being real pay increases of 3%-4% and action to tackle pay inequality. The VPOD/SSP public services union is part of the campaign and notes that the healthier financial situation of public sector organisations means they should end pay restraint. The union warns that cutbacks in recent years are threatening the quality of public services and that there is a risk that the public sector will fail to recruit if pay increase lag behind the public sector. Read more at > SGB (DE) Read more at > USS (FR)

The VPOD/SSP public services union is working with other health unions and the SGB/USS trade union confederation to campaign for a major reform of the Swiss healthcare system. The SBK/ASI nurses’ association and SVBG/FSAS federation of professional health associations are also supporting the campaign. The unions believe it is possible to move to a more affordable and efficient system with more planning to reduce the costs of what they see as an inequitable and costly system. They are also calling for action on working time and the training and employment of more health specialists. The unions note that in some cases health workers work up to 100 hours a week, go for 31 days without a day off or work night shifts of 18 hours. The unions argue that it is unfair that the only option for some health workers is to suffer a cut in pay by reducing hours in order to ensure their own health. Read more at > SGB (DE) And at > USS (FR)

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)

Unions across Switzerland mobilised over 25,000 members for a national demonstration in Bern over pay increases and pay equality. Public sector workers joined the demonstration to make their case for a 4% pay increase to compensate for inflation and begin to recoup the loss in real pay over the last 12 years. Unions also demanded higher increases for women workers to start to reduce the 10%-20% gender pay gap. Public sector unions are particularly angry at their employers plans for further cuts in public spending while implementing take cuts for the higher paid. Read more at > SGB (FR+DE)

Unions in Switzerland came together on 27 June in a joint press conference to outline their pay campaigns for the year as they build up to the national pay demonstration on 23 September. The VPOD/SSP public service union said that public service pay increases had fallen behind those in the private service sector for the last 12 years. For the public services and energy sector the union was calling for compensation for rising prices, a real pay increase of 3%, closing the gender pay gap, no increase in the gap between the high and low paid, no job cuts and not to rely just on pension scheme members to increase pension funding. Read more at > VPOD/SSP (DE) Read more at > VPOD/SSP (FR)

The lower house of the Swiss parliament has rejected plans by the Publica public service pension scheme to change its pension arrangements from defined benefit to defined contribution. The scheme has 40,000 federal state employees as active members. The proposal will now go to the upper house which could reject the plan or send it back to the lower house to be voted on again. Read more at > IPE news service

The VPOD/SSP public service federation is supporting the campaign for gender pay equality organised by the SGB/USS union confederation. In the latest issue of its magazine VPOD highlights the gender pay gap across the public services. A relatively small gap of 9.6% at federal level rises to 12.3% in health and social services at the cantonal level and to 18.8% among administrative workers in the cantons. The union argues that the reasons behind the pay gap include the undervaluing of typically female occupations and the fact that men are often more likely to benefit from bonuses and other additional payments. Read more at > VPOD (DE)

The SGB Swiss union federation is running an intersectoral campaign for higher wages and equal pay. It has published a briefing document covering 12 key questions which looks at recent developments in pay - increasing inequality, stagnation of pay in comparison to other countries and, for the public services, a period of lower pay increases in comparison to those in the private sector. There will be a national day of action focussing on equal pay on 14 June and a national demonstration over pay in Bern on 23 September. Read more at > SGB

The Swiss trade union confederation SGB/USS, backed by the VPOD/SSP public services union, is launching a year-long campaign for higher pay and equal pay. The campaign kicks off on 8 March with a series of events around the country including a demonstration outside parliament, leafleting at a range of different venues, public meetings and other public events highlighting the continuing pay gap between men and women. Read more at > SGB/USS

Public service unions are gearing up for the autumn round of pay negotiations and a day of action against job cuts and threats to public service provision. There will be demonstrations around the country on 15 September in protest at public spending cutbacks. EPSU affiliate, VPOD/SSP, will be joined by 16 other unions in a series of regional protests. Meanwhile, the union is putting job security and a 2% increase in real pay at the top of its bargaining agenda. Read more about the day of action at > VPOD Read more about pay (in German) at > SGB Read more about pay (in French) at > SGB

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