Building on the successful experience of the 1st European works council of Korian, the Korian Group has decided, with the support of the EPSU, to launch with the works council a negotiation on social dialogue within the Group.
Trade unions have welcomed the legislation that will see a doubling of the entitlement to paternity leave from 14 to 28 days, including three compulsory days around the time of birth. The measure will be implemented from July 2021. Although unions have been calling for even longer leave, they see this as an important step in the right direction and an important initiative to increase the share of parenting between men and women. Employers cover three days of leave while the rest will be funded by social security and employers will face fines if they deny workers their rights.
Public service unions report a massive response to their call for a day of protest and strike action on 22 March against government plans for the public sector. While the unions are calling for a wide range of measures to support statutory employment rights, increase pay, reduce precarious employment, improve career development, the government response has been to talk about reforming existing social dialogue structures, weaking the statutory system and extending individualisation of pay. Following the abortive meeting with the government on 3 April, unions will meet on 10 April to discuss how
Proposals to reform the labour code were published owin 31 August with some initial negative reactions from the trade unions. A common response was that the raft of reforms was being put forward before there had been a proper evaluation of the changes that have been implemented in the last four years. Unions expressed concern about rebalancing of the relationship between sector and company-level bargaining and changes to compensation in cases of redundancy. In small companies (less than 50 employees) it will be possible for employers to negotiate with non-trade union representatives and in
(June 2017) The three main confederations have expressed their concern over some of the elements of the new government's proposals for reforming labour law. The details won't be published until the end of June but already the unions have raised issues with plans to rebalance collective bargaiing towards the company level, reform workplace representation and reduce compensation for redundancy. They argue that they see little in the proposals to benefit workers and remain unconvinced that reducing employment protection will boost job creation. A process of consultation is planned for the summer
(May 2017) Public service trade unions have had a series of meetings with the new minister of public accounts, Gérald Darminin, with some already unhappy that his remit is not broad responsibility for the public services. The unions have a number of major concerns including the need for a pay rise, particularly for the lowest paid occupations and rejection of the plans to cut 120000 civil service posts. Pensions and other working conditions were also raised in the meetings with the minister indicating that joint meetings with the unions would take place later in the year.
(November 2016) Four of the trade union organisations in public services (CGT, FAFP, FSU and Solidaires) are mobilising for a day of action on 29 November. They are raising a number of long-standing demands including pay increases to compensate for loss of purchasing power since 2010, action to improve pay for jobs and sectors dominated by women to close the gender pay gap and measures to reduce precarious working conditions and defend working time arrangements.
(July 2016) This month sees the first increase in public sector pay for six years, but trade unions are not so impressed by the 0.6% rise in the index point on which salaries are calculated. A further rise of 0.6% will be implemented next year. According to one estimate public sector workers have lost between 10% and 15% of their purchasing power over the past five years - anything between EUR 200 and EUR 800 a month depending on job and length of service. The 0.6% increase will mean less thatn EUR 9 a month for an average administrative worker. Read more at CGT, FO, CFDT, UNSA (FR).
