Equality, Low pay/minimum wages, Corporate Social Responsibility
ETUC highlights soaring dividend payouts as workers face higher school costs
Research by the European Trade Union Confederation has found that payouts to shareholders are rising up to 13 times faster than pay for working people. Taking two examples, dividend payments increased by 75% in Portugal and 66% in Denmark between April and June this year, while nominal compensation in those countries rose by only 6% and 5%. Across Europe, dividends increased by 10% – double the rate at which wages are rising. Meanwhile, the ETUC has also focused on the increase in educational costs for families as children return to school. The price of essential items like pens, pencils
Conflict looms with catering company
Negotiations over pay and other conditions between the Kommunal trade union and the Visita company that provides catering services for several hospitals have broken down. The union has announced that action by workers at many facilities will go ahead from 14:00 on 15 September unless the company returns to the negotiating table with a commitment to negotiate and particularly to address Kommunal’s proposals to support the lower paid. The union will also block any new hiring as well as implement an overtime ban. Kommunal argues that higher inflation means that it is crucial to deliver pay rises
Union welcomes increases in minimum wages for care workers
The ver.di trade union has welcomed the recommendation of the Care Commission to increase minimum wages for long-term care workers but the union also calls for more measures to ensure decent pay in the sector, particularly the negotiation of comprehensive collective agreements, as essential for trying to address the major staff shortages. The three hourly wage rates (skilled, one-year trained and semi/unskilled) will increase by between 6.8% and 9.5% in May 2024 and then by 3.9% to 5.1% in May 2025. So from May 2025 skilled workers will earn at least €20.50 per hour, one-year trained employees
Prices rises make holidays unaffordable for many
A new analysis by the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and European Trade Union Institute reveals that families face the highest increase in the cost of holidays on record. The price of package holidays at home or abroad has increased by 12.4% across the EU and that follows an 11.5% increase last year. That is the highest increase in the cost of package holidays since records began. The research found that people in Estonia, France, Bulgaria, Sweden, and Czechia have been hit by the highest increases in the cost of a package holiday, with rises between 18% and 31%. According to the
Trade unions react to detailed public sector pay analysis
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
Employees of church-based organisation flex their bargaining muscles
For the first time, employees working at care facilities run by the Protestant church in Hesse in central-west Germany are mobilising to support their union ver.di in collective bargaining. The workers have only been covered by a collective agreement since April 2022 and so building support for their key demand – an increase of €450 a month – is a new experience. They managed to get over 550 signatures on a petition handed to management. In the past, pay and working conditions were simply laid down in church employment contract guidelines. The collective agreement negotiated by ver.di and the
Kick-off meeting in Veolia for a new transnational agreement on diversity and inclusion
On 29 June 2023, the special negotiating body led by EPSU met for a first kick-off meeting in the Veolia campus outside Paris to launch the discussions on a transnational agreement on diversity and inclusion.
Multi-sectoral project on “the role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work"
HOSPEEM, EPSU, CEMR, CESI as co-applicants and ETF, ETNO, ETUCE, EUPAE, UITP as associated organisations have been provided with financial support from the European Commission for a joint project in the field of social dialogue: “The role of social partners in preventing third-party violence and harassment at work” in the years 2021 and 2023 (VS/2021/0046).
New two-year agreements in private health and eldercare
Kommunal and the Almega Vårdföretagarna employers’ organisation have negotiated two new collective agreements for employees working in private health and social care and eldercare both of which run from 1 June 2023 to 31 May 2025. In the private health and social care agreement, the minimum wage will be increased by SEK 1350 (€115) in 2023 and by 3.5% in 2024. The general wage rises will be SEK 1156 (€100) in 2023 and SEK 995 (€85) in 2024. The new minimum salary as of 1 December 2023 will be SEK 21297 (€1830) with a rate of SEK 24013 (€2060) for professionals. These rates will rise to SEK
Unions build for 14 June – feminist strike
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
ETUC calls for action on low pay to tackle labour shortages
The European Confederation of Trade Unions (ETUC) is calling on employers to offer better-paid jobs to end damaging labour shortages across Europe. An analysis of job vacancy rates and wages in 22 EU countries by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) reveals that industries with the worst labour shortages pay 9% less on average than sectors where it’s easier to recruit. The ETUC argues that lack of skills is often seen as the main problem, but the new analysis suggests that low pay is one of the main drivers of labour shortages. The ETUI research found that across the EU, the industries