Health workers begin series of actions

University Medical Centre (UMC) workers across the country have been taking action to highlight their concerns about workloads and to put pressure on the employers to restart negotiations that have been stalled since the end of May. Members of the FNV and NU'91 trade unions have been involved in short work stoppages, demonstrations and working to rule in Groningen, Utrecht, Maastricht, Leiden and other cities. The unions are calling for a decent pay rise, urgent action to reduce excessive workloads and to recruit more young workers. The UMC collective agreement covers around 60000 workers.

Health and social care unions in the Basque region have been involved in a series of protests and strikes. Mobilisations in public health during December and January will culminate in a day of strike action on 28 January. The unions are angry about the failure of the public health system to honour basic rights to information and collective bargaining. They are concerned about the impact of the pandemic on the system and the way that management have responded by taking unilateral decisions on working conditions, health and safety and precarious employment. Two days earlier, on 26 January unions

For the first time, the vida and GPA-DJP trade unions are negotiating simultaneously 120000 health and social workers covered by three agreements - private sector, charities and churches. They are calling for a real wage increase that is a just reward for the physical and mental stress endured by many workers in the sector. The unions also want to see changes to pay that recognise workers' experience in previous jobs, that take account of parental leave and that ensure that Sunday and night payments have a bearing on the calculation of Christmas and holiday pay. [Read more at > vida (DE)->http