Romania, Denmark, Azerbaijan

In the face of a very challenging environment, three unions - Sanitas, Columna and Publisind - have achieved a major victory in signing collective agreements covering workers in social services. The agreements cover a wide range of employment conditions, including wages, working time and holidays, job protection, continuous professional training as employers responsibility, consultation with the union in case of changes in the organization and much more. Pay increases are negotiated separately. Confederations recently agreed an minimum salary of 975 RON (€220) that applies to all workers in

Municipal employees are set to get a 5.42% wage increase over the next three years. The FOA public services union sees this as a good deal after the previous two collective agreements that were negotiated under pressure from the economic crisis. The new deal also includes a commitment to negotiate on training, particularly for unskilled workers, and provides more paternity leave. There will also be initiatives to tackle psychosocial risks at the workplace. Meanwhile for the state sector pay will rise by around 6.5% over three years. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse

The FOA public services union reports a good turnout by its members in a ballot on the recently negotiated agreements. More than half of members voted with nine out of 10 supporting the three-year deals, a significantly higher turnout than for the previous agreements in 2013. Municipal workers will get around 5.4% along with other improvements related to pensions, additional paternity leave and new educational initiatives. The overall agreement is thus worth around 6.6%. There is a particular focus on education for our members, including, for example, training for porters, domestic workers

The FOA public services union has just signed a collective agreement with Bruger-Hjælper Formidlingen, the largest private care company in Denmark with 3200 employees. The union sees this as a milestone in the fight to avoid social dumping in welfare areas while the company believes the agreement will help it to bee seen as an attractive employer with proper wage and employment conditions and that provides high quality services. The agreement runs until 2017 and will be renegotiated in the winter of 2016-17. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse?newsid=5CECDF35-7EE7-47F3

A report published by the International Labour Organisation provides a highly critical analysis of the reforms to social dialogue and collective bargaining. In relation to the public sector it says that workers there have been especially badly affected in relation to their wages and a wide range of other entitlements. Collective bargaining across all sectors has been seriously undermined. More broadly the report concludes: "Ultimately, the reforms have had detrimental social impacts and not delivered the economic benefits promised." [Read more at > EPSU->www.epsu.org/a/9573] [And at > EIRO-

The FOA public services union reveals that cleaners who have seen their work outsourced faced the choice of working fewer hours or taking up a second job to make up their pay. This means for some starting the first job at six in the morning and not finishing the second job until seven in the evening. The union gives the specific example of nursing home cleaners now employed by the ISS multinational. The cleaning was outsourced by Velje municipality last year and the workers were on the same pay and conditions until the collective agreement expired on 1 April. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http:/

The FOA public services union is warning the government against any plans to change working time rules that regulate night work. The union is aware that many of its members are happy to work at night but that this is the result of the extra allowances they receive and time off. The government is looking to make savings of DKR 12 billion (€1.6 billion) and FOA fears that the cuts will include cutting allowances and time off for night workers as well as allowing less time in notifying rosters. The union notes that already over one in five night workers are unhappy about inadequate advance notice

The FOA public services union argues that political action is needed as part of a strategy to close the gender pay gap. The latest statistics show that the gender pay gap is still 17.4%, unchanged since 2009. In contrast, there was nearly a three percentage point narrowing of the gap between 2007 and 2009 and that is probably attributable to the action taken by several groups of workers in women dominated sectors in 2008 to secure higher pay increases. FOA would like to see government and social partners working together and setting a common target in a way that they do in Finland. [Read more

ITUC Letter to Victor PontaThe ITUC global trade union confederation has written to Romanian prime minister Victor Ponta to express its concern over his government's determination to leave the labour law, passed by the previous government – unchanged. There had been an agreement with trade unions to revise both the new Labour Code and the new Social Dialogue Law that have lead to a significant worsening of working conditions and deterioration of collective bargaining. Precarious work is now much more widespread and the percentage of the population living below the poverty line is one of the

The FOA public services union has developed a new tool to expose the monetary costs of poor working conditions. The union wants to use it to show the impact of stress, incorrect lifting and other health and safety problems can cost a workplace. FOA will use the tool to improve the working environment particularly in areas such as elder care, day care and in hospitals. The system will give an estimate of what the individual workplace can save money by dealing with safety problems like hard physical work, stress, working alone, noise, violence and so on. The information used in the tool comes

EPSU letter re HidroelectricaEPSU has written to the Prime Minister and energy minister calling for urgent action to deal with serious problems at the Hidroelectrica and Hidroserves energy companies. The problems began with the insolvency of Hidroelectrica and actions taken by the administrator. Cutbacks to maintenance services have created serious safety risks. Around 1500 jobs have already been cut, a further 1000 are under threat and collective agreements are being undermined. The letter from EPSU provides further information.