The Fagforbundet public services union reports that its legal action against the Aleris social care multinational began on 14 January. The union brought the action on behalf of workers who argue that they are employees of the company and not "consultants" as claimed by Aleris. As self-employed consultants they have far fewer rights and Aleris was able to exploit them, for example, by giving them excessively long shifts. Fagforbundet sees the case as a key challenge to social dumping, highlighting the negative impact not just on the workers but also the quality of service to groups of very vulnerable people.
Major legal case against private care provider gets underway
More like this
Energy negotiations get underway
Unions and employers have had the first exchanges in negotiations over the energy sector collective agreement. The current agreement was signed in 2007 and runs until 1 July 2009. ABVAKABO has made clear that it will negotiate a pay increase that takes account of the recent good performance of energy companies and will not restrict itself to pay guidelines set by central talks between employers, government and the union confederations. The energy sector employers have indicated that they want to talk about overtime rules and about the introduction of a “benefit budget” where individual workers
Call for bargaining to get underway
The GÖD public sector union has written to the finance ministry asking for the annual pay negotiations to start soon to ensure that pay increases will be implemented as normal from 1 January next year. The union also underlines the need for negotiators to take account of the agreed measures of inflation and national productivity growth in the 12 months to September 2008. The union’s specific pay demand will be confirmed during the course of the negotiations. Read more at > GÖD (DE)
Healthcare negotiations get underway
The three main public service trade unions in the health sector - Fp Cgil, Cisl Fp and Uil Fpl - took part in the first round of negotiations with the ARAN employers' organisation over renewing the collective agreement covering 550000 healthworkers. As well as ensuring that the basic pay agreement provides for the average €85 a month increase foreseen across the public sector, the unions are particularly concerned to address issues around work organisation and working time. They also emphasise that after eight years without any negotiations, there have been many changes in the sector in terms