The report, Fair share for health and care: gender and the undervaluation of health and care work details gender value gaps and demonstrates how health and care work is globally undervalued, why this is a gender equality issue, and what can be done about it.
Eight trade union organisations (CFDT, CFE-CGC, CGT, CFTC, FO, FSU, Solidaires and UNSA) are coordinating their call for gender equality on 8 March – International Women’s Day – with actions planned across the country. The unions note the persistent gender pay gap in both public and private sectors and the concentration of women in low-paying sectors. They are calling for the revaluation of jobs in sectors dominated by women, transparency over pay and sanctions against employers that discriminate, massive investment in public services and action to tackle violence and harassment. An eight
Millions of workers across Europe could benefit from new rights, says the ETUC, if the latest version of the platform directive is backed by member state governments. The text is still being negotiated by the European Parliament, Council and Commission but could deliver important improvements, including a reversal of the burden of proof so that platforms would have to prove that there is no employment relationship. It also will require inspections in the workplace following any reclassification of a worker to assess the situation of their co-workers; transparency over the algorithms that set
The Fagforbundet trade union has secured another legal victory against a care company cutting employment costs by misclassifying workers as self-employed. Three of the union's members in the private care company Recoveryakademiet have been awarded NOK 7 million (€600,000) in back pay (salary, overtime and holiday pay). The three, classified as “consultants” by the company, worked for several weeks without a legal working hours scheme being established, and were therefore paid much less than they were entitled to. They were also denied their right to holiday pay and sick pay. This follows a
Alongside action by the CGIL and UIL confederations, the CISL trade union confederation is planning a national protest in Rome on 25 November over the government’s budget for 2024 and its refusal to engage with the trade unions. Together with demands for increased funding for public services, CISL wants to see action on staffing and measures to reduce precarious work. It also wants the government to commit to negotiating new collective agreements in the public sector. The mobilisations by UIL and CGIL continue with regional stoppages planned for 24 and 27 November and 1 December.
On 24 October, the BSRB public sector federation was one of more than a dozen organisations supporting a day of action calling for urgent action to address gender inequality, the gender pay gap and to tackle gender-based and sexual violence. Actions ranged from strikes and demonstrations to the withdrawal of all forms of labour, paid and unpaid. Since the first women’s day of action in 1975, unions and other organisations in the country have organised major strikes and protests and there has been some reduction in gender inequality. However, there is still a long way to go with the gender pay
Last month the Wage Structure Committee produce a detailed report on pay in the public services as a basis of a tripartite discussion that is due to begin in the autumn and that will have an impact on negotiations of the next three-year collective agreements in the public sector that will run from April 2024. The committee, with trade union participation, was set up in 2021 as a first step in trying to address the persistent problem of pay inequality across the public services and the major staff shortages across many occupations. The initial reaction of many EPSU affiliates is to welcome the
EPSU affiliate vpod/ssp is mobilising for the annual feminist strike which takes place on 14 June with actions and protests organised across the country. The strike focuses on the continuing inequalities that women face along other forms of discrimination, sexism, sexual harassment and violence. The union highlights data showing an 18% pay gap across the economy with the public sector at 15.1% below the private sector at 19.5% but the figure for the health sector specifically also at 19.5%. Meanwhile women make up two-thirds of the low paid. The figure for part-time work for women – 58% – is
Research by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) shows that delays in implementing the EU’s newly passed pay transparency directive would cost women workers an average of €17,000 in lost wages. The final text of the directive was adopted by the European Parliament on 30 March. The directive includes a ban on pay secrecy clauses and the right for women workers and their unions to request transparent information on pay. The ETUC is calling on national governments to put the directive into action straight away rather than wait to the final deadline of 2026 to to transpose the directive into
