Collective Bargaining

The FNV trade union has called on workers to back a wave of wage demands in response to surging inflation. The union is targeting employers to get wage increases that protect against the higher cost of living, including additional increases where pay rises have already been negotiated. It is also calling for permanent contracts for workers stuck in precarious employment. The union demands include a €14-an-hour minimum wage, a 35% tax on profits in line with what workers pay on their income and other tax measures to boost public revenues. At the same time, a consortium of trade unions

New reports from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Eurofound research agency analyse developments in collective bargaining in the light of the pandemic and other important drivers of change. The ILO report provides an overview of developments in collective bargaining during the pandemic, focusing on seven countries – Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Germany, Italy and Belgium. The report argues that the role of strong sectoral collective bargaining institutions was particularly important, allowing sectoral actors to negotiate specific responses considering the impact and

The Publisind trade union federation organised a protest rally on 17 August outside the Ministry of Labour to highlight a range of issues relating to the pay and pensions of its members in prisons and police services. The union is angry that a key law on salaries has not been fully implemented and is calling for a 15% pay rise for prison and police staff. The union points out that its members were essential to the efforts to tackle the COVID pandemic with many staff working very long hours to try to maintain services in the face of staff shortages of around 25%.

The Fp-Cgil public service federation has welcomed a recent court ruling that has blocked an employer from applying an inferior collective agreement. The action was taken against La Nostra Famiglia, a non-profit health and social care provider, that wanted to avoid the private health sector agreement and sign up to an agreement with lower pay rates and longer working hours. The court ruling means that the employer now has to compensate workers for any lost pay and to apply the full terms of the private health agreement that was negotiated by Fp-Cgil along with the Cisl-Fp and Uil-Pa

Public service trade unions, including Fórsa, SIPTU and INMO, have agreed to launch a campaign on pay that could involve industrial action. The unions, coordinated by the ICTU confederation, had already called on the government to review pay in the light of the surge in inflation. However, the response was only for an additional 2.5% increase in 2021-22 when inflation has already topped 9%. The unions argue that by failing to complete the pay review in light of higher inflation, the government is failing to meet the requirements of the public service collective agreement, Building momentum

The FeSP-UGT federation and the public sector unions in the CCOO confederation have strongly restated their calls for urgent negotiations over the pay and conditions of public sector workers. The CCOO union organised a demonstration outside parliament on 14 July while the FeSP-UGT is planning mobilisations in September if the government doesn’t respond. The unions want to see the reversal of cuts imposed during the period of austerity in 2010-12 and a range of improvements including wage increases that ensure recovery of lost purchasing power. Other key demands include an end to the