Social Services, Culture, Health

Health workers around the country, many of them employed by private contractors and among the lowest paid, have had to resort to strike action to ensure they get a £1600+ (€1870) lump sum payment that was paid to most directly employed staff last year. Action has just paid off for members of UNISON and Unite in Dudley in the West Midlands where until recently their employer, Mitie, had refused the payment. UNISON members were also successful following their action in the South West against the contractor Sodexo and Wiltshire Health and Care, a company jointly owned by three NHS trusts. UNISON

Earlier this month the OSZSP health union and other trade unions met with Ministry of Labour officials to discuss proposed amendments to the labour code which have serious implications for workers in the healthcare sector. The governments wants changes in relation to shift lengths, overtime work and, of most concern, the introduction of 24-hour shifts. The OSZSP and the doctors’ union underlined the need to safeguard employee rights and criticized proposals that could undermine worker protections. They pointed out that the Czech Republic should be moving in the direction of countries like

Members of public sector unions have voted by a large majority to accept the pay agreement negotiated earlier this year. The agreement runs from 1 January 2024 to 30 June 2026 and provides for pay improvements worth 9.25% but because of flat-rate elements this rises to 17.3% for lower paid workers. This agreement also provides specific provisions for local bargaining, which will give trade unions the scope to negotiate up to an additional 3% of pay costs, inclusive of allowances, for particular grades, groups or categories of employee. The agreement also sees the full and final unwinding of

The ver.di trade union has reached a collective bargaining agreement with the EKBO evangelical church which employs approximately 8,000 employees. The wage increases that were agreed in regional government earlier this year will be taken over in full by the EKBO collective agreement, albeit with a slight time delay. There will be a tax-free one-off payment of €3000 to mitigate inflation followed by salary increases of €200 in January and a further 5.5% in March 2025 by which time full-time pay will be €340 higher per month. In addition, there are improvements to social and educational services

The FP-CGIL public service federation reports that the latest official data show that there were 16000 incidents of aggression against health and social care personnel in 2023, affecting 18000 workers. The statistics were published in the 2023 report from the National Observatory on the Safety of Health and Social Care Professionals which was established in January 2022 and is made up of the Ministries of Health, Interior, Economy and Finance and Labour, other government agencies, trade unions and regional professional associations. Nurses were the most affected by incidents of aggression

Employees of HC-One – the UK’s biggest private care provider – have accepted a pay deal negotiated by the GMB trade union that gives them the contractual right to at least statutory sick pay from day one of any absence. Previously, sick pay only kicked in after three days of sickness. The union points out that this created a perverse incentive for workers to spread germs among the elderly people they care for. The deal comes after a GMB survey of HC-One care workers revealed one in four were considering quitting over ‘poverty pay’. The GMB says that this is a landmark shift in culture for the