Low pay/minimum wages, Outsourcing
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.
Unions strike over regional government's failure to abide by agreement
The CGSP and CSC public service federations in Wallonia organised strike action on 30 November over the failure of the regional government to respect agreements that it has signed. The unions had been warning from early September that urgent action was required. The issues involve a commitment to permanent status for contract workers, shorter working time, filling of vacant posts to ensure service quality and revaluing low salaries for workers on the level B pay grade.
Union calls on municipalities to end contracts with nursing agency
The Fagforbundet public services trade union has called on municipalities to end any contracts with the Orange nursing staff agency. Local authorities in Oslo and Bergen have already terminated contracts with the company following evidence of its infringement of various regulations including health and safety law. The company also failed to maintain services to users and to comply with demands from the authorities to meet the terms of its contract. Fagforbundet says the company is also guilty of paying wages well below the sector agreement while press reports have revealed the company's tax
Historic agreement ends long-running strike in the elder care sector
Workers in the elder care sector in Bizkaia, northern Spain, backed by the Basque Workers’ Solidarity trade union ELA, have reached an historic agreement bringing an end to a 360-day long strike, the longest in the region’s history.
Court workers protest over pay
Members of the Solidarity trade union working in the courts and prosecutors' offices organised a protest on 13 November over pay. Rather than the image of high-paid judges and prosecutors, the union says that 80% of workers get less than 2000 ZLT (EUR 475) a month and their pay claim is for a modest 100 ZLT a month (EUR 25). The protestors handed in a petition to the prime minister also calling for an increase in jobs in the sector.
Health federations will mobilise to block outsourcing
The three health federations - FP CGIL, CISL FP and UIL FPL - have said they will mobilise workers and the community to prevent the threatened outsourcing of nursing and auxiliary jobs at the Umberto I university hospital in Rome. The federations have strongly condemned the proposal that could affect 700 workers, including nurses who work in intensive care and specialist departments most of whom have been at the hospital for many years. The federations also attacked the complete failure of the hospital to consult or negotiate with the trade unions and warned that workers' pay could fall by up
Public service workers call for changes to pay system
In the first of a series of three meetings over a thousand public service workers gathered in Košice to discuss pay in the public sector. The unions are calling for action on minimum salaries and a pay system that recognises workloads, levels of education and length of service of public service workers. Two further meetings are planned as part of this broad trade union consultation process - one in Banská Bystrica on 16 November and the final one in Bratislava on 23 November.
Union campaigns on pay restoration for care workers
The SIPTU general union is pushing the government to increase funding to ensure that around 10000 care workers get the pay restoration that has been negotiated for workers directly employed in the public sector. At the time of austerity measures the government cutback on the grant going to so-called Section 39 providers and this had a direct impact on the disability and other care workers they employed. A three-year, public sector-wide agreement has been signed which will provide pay restoration for the majority of workers over the next three years. SIPTU is determined that these Section 39
Minimum wages need major boost
A new report from the ETUC, as part of its Pay Rise campaign, shows that minimum wage rates across Europe need to rise significantly just to reach an official measure of low pay (60% of the national median wage as used by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development). Minimum wages in Estonia, Czech Republic and Spain need some of the largest increases to reach the low pay threshold - 46%, 51% and 62% respectively. The ETUC argues that national governments need to sit down with trade unions and employers to discuss how to reach the target.
Public service unions keep up pressure over pay
Public service unions are maintaining their pressure on the government to lift the 1% pay cap that continues to be applied to most public service workers, with the exception of police and firefighters. Civil service union PCS has organised a day of action on 31 October, while UNISON is running a Pay Up Now campaign. The GMB union organised a rally at Westminster to highlight the situation of public service workers to MPs and the RCN nurses' union handed in a petition to the Prime Minister on 20 October.
Unions back doctors' protests
The OPZZ and Solidarnosc trade union confederations have expressed their support for protests by junior doctors over pay and health funding. A hunger strike by a group of junior doctors has been joined by representatives of other medical professions and their key demands are supported by the wider union movement. The unions want to see the proposed law on health sector salaries revised through a proper process of social dialogue to deliver fair and higher salaries for all occupations in the sector.
Confederation plans actions on public service pay
The KOZ trade union confederation is planning three events in three different cities in November to address major problems related to public sector pay. The confederation is calling on all its affiliates to support the initiative and discuss the way forward. KOZ argues that an unfair pay system, including pay rates that are below the national minimum wage is failing to ensure that public service workers are properly rewarded and means that many skilled workers are leaving to find better paid work elsewhere.
Survey exposes pressure faced by care workers
A new survey published by public services union Unison exposes the pressure faced by home care workers and their precarious working conditions.Three-quarters (75%) of care workers said they had too little time to provide proper care because they are too rushed, often because employers pressure them to fit in an excessive number of visits.The report also highlights the job insecurity faced by home care workers with more than half (52%) on zero hours contracts, and more than three in five (63%) not getting paid for the time it takes to travel between care visits.