Trade, Training/life-long learning, Spain, Greece

Unions organising in state administration in both Spain and Portugal have raised serious concerns about the approach to telework and particularly governments taking the opportunity to regularise arrangements that were only adopted on an emergency basis. While there is recognition of the potential benefits to work-life balance, unions argue that fundamental issues need to be addressed through collective bargaining in relation to working time, the right to disconnect, provision of equipment, health and safety, training, contact with the workplace and the voluntary nature of the decision to

ADEDY, the public services confederation, has called a 24-hour strike for 14 November. It is calling on the government to negotiate over a gradual process of pay restoration. ADEDY says that civil servants have already seen pay cut by 40% and now tax rises and reductions in tax allowances will further reduce take home pay. It is calling for immediate pay rises and the restoration of the 13th and 14th month salaries as initial steps in this process. The strike demands also cover the urgent need to recruit additional permanent staff, for measures on skills and training rather than a new

The FSC-CCOO and FeSP-UGT public service federations organised a rally outside the Ministry of Justice against proposals that would change the rules on worker mobility. The unions are particularly angry that the amendments have been introduced in parliament without following the correct procedure. They say that if implemented the rules would significantly reduce workers' rights and mean that they could be forced to move to jobs on much lower pay levels. The unions will also use the protest to highlight some of the many other pay and conditions problems that the Ministry has failed to negotiate