Collective Bargaining, Gender pay gap, Serbia, Austria

The Nezavinost trade union confederation has called a national demonstration outside government offices in Belgrade on 10 December with a call for a 25% pay increase for all public sector workers. The key message of the demonstration is the need to properly value and recognise the work of public sector employees, to ensure their health and safety and guarantee compliance of employers with collective agreements.

The younion and GÖD trade unions, representing workers across local, regional and national government and other public services, have written an open letter to the government calling for annual pay negotiations to start as soon as possible to ensure that their members see a pay increase from 1 January 2022. The unions point out that public service workers have been working under great pressure to maintain the quality and quantity of services throughout the pandemic. This has been made more challenging with the increasing numbers of workers retiring. The unions want to see a real increase in

21 October is marked as equal pay day in Austria where the gender pay gap is one of the biggest in Europe at 19.7%. This is based on a full-time woman worker getting an average of EUR 41785 compared to EUR 52033 for a man. This is the equivalent of women working for free for 72 days - hence setting the date as 21 October. Unions highlight the problems of part-time work and unpaid care as contributing to the problem. While 47% of women work part time only 11% of men do.

On 22 October the GÖD and younion public service unions took part in the first round of bargaining over a pay rise for 2019. The meeting established that the basis for negotiations was the 2.02% inflation rate in the year to September and forecast growth of 3% for next year. Younion wants to ensure that any negotiated increase will apply across the whole of the public sector, rather than in previous years when some regional governments have failed to implement the nationally agreed rate. The next round of bargaining is set for 12 November.

The head of the younion public services union, Christian Meidlinger, representing workers in local and regional authorities, has written to the Vice-Chancellor and Minister for Public Services calling for the annual public sector pay negotiations to start as soon as possible. Noting the good performance of Austrian public services in international comparisons, Meidlinger argues that the work of public service workers should be recognised, particularly where they have managed to maintain services while facing pressure from staffing shortages. He has also underlined the need for a pay rise

The vida and GPA-djp services unions organised warning strikes involving over 40000 workers in more than 140 private health and social care institutions on 15 and 16 February. The strikes were called in order to put pressure on the employers to come up with an improved offer in the current negotiations over a new collective agreement that covers around 100000 workers in the sector. The unions want a recognition of the increasing workloads faced by many workers, with an appropriate pay increase and a cut in working time to 35 hours a week (see also last issue of epsucob@NEWS 03, 2018).

After a march in Vienna on 24 January and a day of action on 30 January, the vida and GPA-djp trade unions warn of further action to support their negotiations covering 100000 workers in the private health and social care sector. The employers increased their original pay offer from 2.1% to 2.25% but the unions say that this completely fails to recognise the new tasks and responsibilities faced by many in the sector. The unions are also calling for a cut in working time. The fifth round of bargaining is due on 12 February and the unions have already indicated widespread support among their

EPSU has written to the Prime Minister of Serbia and Minister of Public Administration raising concerns about a proposed new public sector pay system. The letter was sent in support of the Trade Union of Health and Social Care that has raised concerns about the system and planned classification of jobs. These have been developed without the involvement of the trade unions and involve negative changes to the current salary structure and job classification system.

Leaders of the GÖD and younion public service unions have taken part in the first two round of negotiations over the pay increase for 2018. The unions are calling for an above-inflation increase that reflects the increased workload and performance of public service workers. The level of the increase will be negotiated in the framework of positive growth in the economy (2.8%) and an inflation rate of just under 1.9%.

The GPA-djp has launched a campaign in protest against a decision by the non-profit pro mente rehabilitation company to apply a poorer collective agreement to all new employees from November this year. The union says that the move from the SWÖ (Austrian social economy) agreement to the Cure and Rehabilitation agreement will mean a massive deterioration of pay and employment conditions for the workers affected. The GPA-djp has set up an online petition to support the campaign.