Transparency & Corruption, Early Childhood Education and Care, Low pay/minimum wages, Ukraine, Moldova, Croatia
EPSU Childcare Network meets to discuss monitoring and evaluation, staff ratios, and more
This week, the EPSU Childcare Network met to discuss monitoring and evaluation of early childhood education and care, the capacity of ECEC systems to welcome Ukrainian children and ECEC staff, and child : staff ratios.
EPSU, Transparency International and others demand Ukraine to protect whistle blowers
Together with a group of organisations that defend whistleblowers and the Whistleblowers International Network (WIN), EPSU has demanded the Ukrainian President to reverse amendments that would weaken a law that protects whistleblowers.
International support for campaign against labour reforms
Trade unions across Europe have been sending messages of solidarity to Ukrainian unions as they step up their campaign against planned reforms of labour law. Proposed legislation would abolish the most important legal and social guarantees for workers and trade unions covering minimum wages, pay and leave for hazardous work, weekly rest periods, overtime pay and limits, restrictions on night work for women, dismissal rights and protection of workers with disabilities. It allows for more flexible contracts, including zero-hours and weakens trade union rights. A national day of action has been
Union protest focuses on labour code and 2020 budget
Around 5000 protestors joined a demonstration on 14 November organised by the FPSU trade union confederation. The trade union demands concerned the draft Budget for 2020 and the Labour Code. Unions are concerned about changes to the law that deprive civil servants and public sector workers of rights to social protection upon dismissal and planned changes that contain discriminatory rules on the employment rights of employees and threatens their collective protection. The unions also have specific demands on minimum and living wages and pensions.
Confederation rejects World Bank demand on minimum wage
The FPU trade union confederation has rejected a call from the World Bank that there should be no further increases in the minimum wage until structural reforms have been carried out. The FPU argues strongly that a decent minimum wage is a basic right for workers and shouldn't be subordinated to the demands of international creditors. The current minimum wage is 5500 UAH a month (EUR 195) and is set to rise to 5700 UAH (EUR 200). The confederation says that the minimum should be a living wage and on this basis the target should be UAH 7700 (EUR 270).
Trade union demonstration calls for action on jobs, pay and union rights
On 17 October, around 20000 trade union members from both private and public sectors marched through Kyiv city centre and blocked the government quarter. The main demands of the demonstration were for investment in industry for decent jobs, raise the minimum wage to help stop emigration, not to increase utilities prices, for the state budget to allocate the equivalent of 7% of GDP to education and 5% to healthcare, to urgently pay outstanding wages to more than 100,000 workers and to stop state’s takeover of trade union property and respect trade union rights.
Confederation calls for urgent action on minimum wage
The FPSU trade union confederation has called on the government to raise the minimum wage to keep it in line with calculations of a living wage. It argues that in 2017 the two-stage increase of the minimum wage to UAH 3200 (EUR 104) was positive for both the standard of living and economic growth. However, this January's increase to UAH 3723 (EUR 121) was inadequate to keep pace with the living wage which had already risen to UAH 4011 (EUR 130) and was at UAH 4213 (EUR 137) by April. According to the FPSU around 20% of workers are classified as poor and the average wage at EUR 262 is only
Childcare workers mobilise over pension age increase
The SOMK education, culture and media union organised demonstrations in Zagreb and Rijeka to protest against plans to raise the retirement age for childcare workers from 65 to 67. The union argues that the change fails to recognise the nature of work in the sector and the increasing mental and physical demands made on childcare workers. EPSU sent a message of solidarity as did the BDDSz childcare workers from Hungary.
Health workers call for higher pay to stop emigration
On 12 May healthworkers in Sofia and Zagreb demonstrated over poor pay and working conditions and the crisis of understaffing. 5000 nurses, medical professionals, midwives and lab technicians joined a demonstration outside the Council of Ministers in Sofia demanding a 1500 Lev (EUR 765) minimum wage for health workers as a step towards stemming the flow of health workers out of the country. In Zagreb the call was also for improved pay and working conditions and in particular the respect for collective agreements in relation to overtime pay.
Unions organise protest over wages, prices and rights to health
The FPU trade union confederation has called a demonstration outside parliament on 6 December with a number of key demands on the government. These include: setting the minimum wage at the level not lower than the real living wage (UAH 4023); setting the basic wage of a worker in the lowest pay grade at the level above the minimum wage; settling all outstanding wage arrears by the end of the year; reducing utilities prices; ensuring the right to affordable and quality health care and preventing any curtailing of existing worker and trade union rights in adopting a new Labour Code.