Gas, Pay settlements, Local government, Ukraine

On 29 October thousands of people took part in a protest rally outside parliament to call for urgent action in the education sector. The demonstration was supported by EPSU affiliate the Trade Union of the National Ukrainian Academy of Science. The wide range of demands included a call for an increase in education spending to 7% of GDP, implementation of approved pay scales and an increase in the sector minimum wage and action to prevent teacher dismissals, transfer to fixed-term contracts and increases in working hours.

Trade unions are highly critical of the government for planned measures that could see a 50% cut in district state administrations which could mean the dismissal of 27000 workers by January 2020. The unions say that there has been absolutely no consultation over the proposals, no review of local government services and no information provided on any possible social plan, (re)training initiatives or early retirement arrangements. The unions point out that there are few appropriate private sector job opportunities for many of the skilled workers who could be made redundant.