Training/life-long learning, Tax justice
Fighting for tax justice
A fair, progressive, transparent and effective tax system is crucial for sound public finances, quality public services and redistribution of wealth and income. This is why EPSU has been campaigning hard to tackle tax evasion and avoidance by large companies and wealthy individuals and in support of measures to create fairer tax systems. This briefing for EPSU's last Congress sets out the work done over the previous Congress period and highlights current priorities. The impact of austerity on tax collection is the latest update on the state of tax administrations across Europe, underlining the need to invest in staff and resources to improve tax collection and fight tax fraud.
Health and care unions call for action on training
The four trade unions representing health and social care workers in the public and private sectors – younion, GÖD, vida and GPA-djp – have written an open letter to national and regional governments calling for urgent action on training. The unions say that an additional 75000 trained workers will be need in the sectors by 2030 and that measures need to be taken to increase the number of trainees to help meet the demand. Unlike other professions, health and care trainees are not paid when they are working on the job during their training. The unions argue that this is a major disincentive to
Welcoming Portugal’s strong efforts on the FTT file and urging the tabling of a new legal text
We, civil society organisations and trade unions, campaigning for the achievement of a European Financial Transactions Tax (FTT), are writing to H.E. Mr ANTÓNIO COSTA, Prime Minister of Portugal, to express our appreciation and support for Portugal’s important efforts to progress the FTT dossier under its Presidency of the EU Council.
Unions call for bonus for health and care workers
The younion and GÖD public sector unions, representing around 120000 workers in health and social care have called on the Austrian Chancellor to stand by his commitment to improve pay for those working in intensive care during the pandemic. The two unions underline that their demand covers all health and care workers, not just intensive care staff, as they are all part of an essential team and need to work together to deliver care and who have endured significant physical and mental challenges in maintaining services. Younion and GÖD are calling for a tax-free €1000 bonus for all health and
Unions plan public-sector wide strike in Basque region
Six trade unions are coming together to take strike action over jobs and precarious employment in the public sector in the Basque region. The unions are responding to the failure of the regional government to address public employment and the persistently high levels of temporary contracts across the public sector. Action is planned for 22 April across all the main public services – municipalities, health, education, general administration, justice, public transport, public media and other sectors. The unions want to see the thousands of temporary workers who have been crucial to tackling the
Union calls for paid internships in healthcare
The GÖD public service union is calling for compulsory paid internships in the health and care sector. It says that with changes to training implemented in 2016, workers on higher education courses have to undertake compulsory practical work in hospitals and care centres. This amounts to over 2000 hours of unpaid work during training, including night and weekend work. GÖD underlines the importance of increasing recruitment into the sector to tackle shortages of skilled staff, making it essential that internships are properly paid.
Good news for tax justice fighters: clear majority in EU Council to adopt public country-by-country reporting!
At a public meeting on 25 February, the EU Competitiveness Council reached a common position on a key instrument to tackle corporate tax avoidance, so-called public country-by-country reporting for multinational companies.