Union Rights, Kazakhstan, France

(January 2017) The International Trade Union Confederation is committed to support its affiliate the CNTUK confederation in the face of the courts' decision to withdraw registration of the confederation and two of its affiliates in the health and social services sector. The authorities have also taken action against the general secrerary and seized confederation documents. The ITUC had previously written to the President complaining of the government's failure to comply with ILO Convention 87 in relation to the CNTUK.

(April 2017) The European and International Trade Union Confederations wrote a joint letter to EU High Representative Federica Mogherini calling on the EU to raise the serious attacks on trade union rights in the EU-Kazakhstan Cooperation Committee. The ETUC highlighted the detention, intimidation and arbitrary interrogation by the police of trade unionists because of their union activities urged the EU to demand that the Kazakh government ensure full respect for the right to freedom of association.

(June 2017) The three main confederations have expressed their concern over some of the elements of the new government's proposals for reforming labour law. The details won't be published until the end of June but already the unions have raised issues with plans to rebalance collective bargaiing towards the company level, reform workplace representation and reduce compensation for redundancy. They argue that they see little in the proposals to benefit workers and remain unconvinced that reducing employment protection will boost job creation. A process of consultation is planned for the summer

Proposals to reform the labour code were published owin 31 August with some initial negative reactions from the trade unions. A common response was that the raft of reforms was being put forward before there had been a proper evaluation of the changes that have been implemented in the last four years. Unions expressed concern about rebalancing of the relationship between sector and company-level bargaining and changes to compensation in cases of redundancy. In small companies (less than 50 employees) it will be possible for employers to negotiate with non-trade union representatives and in

Seven trade union organisations, including the CGT, CFDT, FO and UNSA, representing 85% of all firefighters have been taking strike action to demand improvements in pay and for a significant increase in jobs. The joint actions began in June and are running until the end of August. The unions want to see the withdrawal of legislation on public service reform and a number of other measures to improve pay, health and safety, pensions and trade union rights. A key demand is an increase in recruitment on statutory conditions. There are 40000 professional firefighters. This is the same number as in

The European trade union federations, EPSU and industriAll Europe, have written to the French government to strongly condemn the prosecutions of leaders and activists in the FNME-CGT energy trade union. The federations argue that the legal actions are politically motivated, with a view to suppress trade union opposition to government policy. On 6 September, Sébastien Menesplier, the General Secretary of FNME-CGT will be summoned to the gendarmerie in Montmorency in connection with energy workers’ protests against the recent pension reforms. As EPSU and industriAll Europe argue, these were