A major success of 12 years campaigning of Greek water workers and the broader water and social movement as it was announced that the government will take back control of Athens and Thessaloniki Water companies.
The Turkish unions in DISK (like Genel-Is and Devrim Saglik-Is) and KESK (SES, Tum-bel-Sen) and the Dutch FNV met to discuss the impact of outsourcing, privatisation and commercialisation of public services.
ADEDY, the public service confederation, has called a 24-hour strike on 15 October. It has a wide range of demands starting with calls for increased funding for healthcare, filling vacancies and taking appropriate anti-COVID 19 action with provision of personal protective equipment and extension and increase in allowances for dangerous and unhealthy work. ADEDY also wants to see action across the public services to tackle staff shortages and recruit more workers on permanent contracts and to stop privatisation.
On Thursday the 22nd of February a group of trade unionists including the president and vice president of EYDAP visited the European Public Service Union (EPSU) to discuss the struggles they are facing with the water privatisation in Greece.
The government has passed a decree that effectively ends outsourcing in central and local government. Outsourced workers in central government will be directly employed by the central government institutions while those in local authorities will be transferred to local authority-owned companies, rather than directly to the local authorities. The changes have been welcomed by trade unions although some have expressed concern about the difference in rights and pay and conditions for those in local authority companies and about the fact that the changes were implemented by decree with no
Around 30000 workers employed by the health institutions federation in Vienna will see their pay and conditions protected following an agreement that removes the threat of privatisation. The deal will also mean higher starting salaries for new workers and a minimum wage of EUR 1670 a month. The younion representing the health workers regards this as a positive example of social partnership and a valuable contribution to social justice.
