Netherlands, Ireland, Azerbaijan

Negotiations on a new collective labour agreement to cover the 187,000 employees in municipalities sector have been suspended with the FNV trade union planning to send the VNG employers’ organisation an ultimatum over the holiday period to put pressure on them to negotiate. The union has been pushing for a 11.25% pay increase with a minimum increase of €300 a month, a one-off payment of €1,200 euros and the inclusion of the automatic price compensation in the collective agreement in 2024. The employers’ last pay offer was for only 5% as of 1 February 2023 and 3% as of 1 April 2024. The FNV is

With a focus on pay and the need to secure an agreement that can help workers deal with the cost-of-living crisis, the FNV trade union has negotiated an overall pay increase of 8% for water board employees but with a flat-rate element that will mean pay rises by 10% for lower paid workers. There is a one-off payment of €1,000 gross in December 2022 and then increases of €125 and 2.5% on salaries in as of 1 January 2023. There will be a further increase of 2.5% on 1 July 2023. There will be other increases on allowances. The structural increases will mean a minimum hourly wage of €14 will apply

The results of a pilot project on the 4-day week involving a range of companies in Ireland show the potential for how a shorter working week can contribute to a better work-life balance and increased well-being for workers. The pilot was backed by the Fórsa public services union which welcomed the results and the fact that the employers in the project were all planning to continue the 4-day week arrangements. Alongside the benefits for workers, particularly women, there were also mainly positive results in terms of productivity, company revenues and some savings on energy costs. The 4-day week

After four rounds of negotiations, employers in the childcare sector have failed to improve the pay increase offered at the beginning of November – a 10.15% increase over two years. The FNV trade union argues that this is insufficient to protect against inflation and deliver the level of pay that would help address staff shortages. The union claim is for a 12.9% increase over 12 months. At the beginning of November, the unions launched a petition, now signed over 15,000 times, to make it clear to employers that a decent wage increase is desperately needed to keep the sector attractive to work

The FNV trade union reports that the employers have stalled the negotiations in the childcare sector after three rounds of bargaining. The union says that while the employers acknowledge the major problems of overwork and understaffing they are not willing to take the urgent action required to tackle them. The FNV wants a one-year agreement covering 2023 that will deliver a pay rise compensating for inflation plus €100 a month, a minimum hourly wage of €14.00 and an increase in the end-of-year bonus from 3% to 5% of salary. It has also proposed improvements in work-life balance in relation to

The SIPTU trade union has called for the pay rates of workers in early years education to keep pace with the Living Wage following the announcement that it is to increase by €0.95, taking it to €13.85 per hour. Childcare professionals secured an historic first pay deal this year, establishing a minimum rate of pay of €13 per hour. This was €0.10 cent over the Living Wage at the time. The union is now calling on the government and employers to deliver a pay increase to reflect the rise in the cost of living otherwise all the work done to address low pay, high staff turnover and the recruitment

The FNV and CNV trade unions have reacted angrily to government proposals to offer health workers a one-off payment of €15000 as compensation for contracting Long COVID. The unions are unhappy that it has taken so long – over two and a half years – for the government to come up with a proposal and that the offer, announced without consultation with the trade unions, now has to be confirmed by the council of state.

Members of the public services unions Fórsa, SIPTU and INMO were involved in industrial action on 21-23 September as part of the ICTU confederation’s “Valuing Care, Valuing Community” campaign. The unions are pushing for better pay and conditions and increased staffing in non-profit providers of health and social care. They argue that workers in the sector have seen their pay fall relatively to directly employed public sector workers who carry out the same or similar jobs. This is having a major impact on the non-profit sector’s ability to recruit and retain staff.

Members of the FNV trade union have voted 93% in favour of the new collective agreement covering workers in provincial councils that was negotiated in June. There will be two main pay increases of 3% from 1 July 2022 and 4% from 1 January 2023. In addition, backdated to 1 January 2022, there will a €75 increase on pay scales and as from 1 July 2022 there has been a minimum monthly salary of €2,184. There is also a one-off flexibility/homeworking allowance of up to €500 gross based on full-time employment and new arrangements for paid parental leave. The agreement covers the period from 1

The FNV trade union has called on workers to back a wave of wage demands in response to surging inflation. The union is targeting employers to get wage increases that protect against the higher cost of living, including additional increases where pay rises have already been negotiated. It is also calling for permanent contracts for workers stuck in precarious employment. The union demands include a €14-an-hour minimum wage, a 35% tax on profits in line with what workers pay on their income and other tax measures to boost public revenues. At the same time, a consortium of trade unions

Fórsa, SIPTU, INMO and other public service unions will be consulting their members over a pay offer from the government that has come following trade union insistence that the pay review clause in the existing collective agreement, Building Momentum, be invoked to address surging inflation. Building Momentum included a 1% pay increase (or €500, whichever is greater) from next month. The new proposal would see pay increases of 3% backdated to 2 February 2022, 2% from 1 March 2023 and 1.5% or €750 (whichever is greater) from 1 October 2023. Fórsa estimates that assuming the minimum payment of

The FNV trade union is warning that government funding plans for prison services will have a major negative impact on staff and inmates. A recent report by consultants PwC says that an additional €398 million is needed to adequately finance services over the next 10 years. In response the government says it does not want to invest more than €170 million and so is effectively proposing a cut of €200 million. The FNV argues that the government approach will have serious implications for work pressure and safety. The union says that there have been staff shortages and high workloads for years

Public service trade unions, including Fórsa, SIPTU and INMO, have agreed to launch a campaign on pay that could involve industrial action. The unions, coordinated by the ICTU confederation, had already called on the government to review pay in the light of the surge in inflation. However, the response was only for an additional 2.5% increase in 2021-22 when inflation has already topped 9%. The unions argue that by failing to complete the pay review in light of higher inflation, the government is failing to meet the requirements of the public service collective agreement, Building momentum

After difficult negotiations in the energy production and supply sector the FNV trade union is asking members to vote on a collective agreement that will provide a 4% pay increase from 1 May 2022. The agreement will run for 14 months to 1 July 2023 and includes proposals to discuss how to ensure the agreement will help tackle the major challenges faced by the sector. Key to the discussions will be work pressure, policies on older workers and how to deal with the shortage of technical staff. Meanwhile, there were also challenging negotiations in the maternity sector where a new 18-month