05 epsucob@NEWS March 2009

The eight public sector trade union federations have joined together to condemn the government’s failure to respond to any of their demands. The federations met with public service minister Eric Woerth on 3 March and called for a moratorium on job cuts, negotiations on an increase in pay and a reform of the public sector pay system. Woerth simply restated government policy, failing to take account of the impact on citizens and service quality. The eight federations reaffirmed their call to workers to support the national day of action on 19 March. [Read more at > CGT (FR)->http://www

The ETUC has joined with EPSU, the Irish Confederation of Trade Unions and the Ver.di services union in Germany to reject calls for public sector wage cuts as a strategy to resolve the economic and financial crisis. The joint statement from the four organisations highlighted the important role public sector wages and spending should play in countering the recession. The statement comes in response to Irish government plans to implement a pensions levy on public sector workers, prompting a massive demonstration in Dublin at the end of last month. [Read more at > EPSU (EN)->http://www.epsu.org/a

The European Commission has published its annual report on equal pay and launched a campaign to try to reduce the gender pay which averages 17% across Europe. The Commission believes that one of the big challenges is to deal with the fact that women’s work is often undervalued with low pay common in industries that employ a large proportion of women workers. The Commission also highlights the impact of low pay on pensions and the fact women in retirement are more likely to be in poverty than men. [Read more at > DG Employment (EN)->http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=89&newsId

The Finnish government has announced plans to increase the minimum retirement age to 65 from 63. The JHL public service union has called for the proposals to be withdrawn and for the government to open proper negotiations over the retirement issue. If the change were implemented it would be the third major change for municipal and state workers since their specific retirement rules were changed in 1995. Currently workers can retire any time between 63 and 68. The union argues that keeping employees at work longer can best be achieved through policies that take account of the needs and

The SSSH trade union confederation has expressed its concerns about the new salary law covering civil servants. The law will abolish bonuses based solely on years of service and introduce new performance-related additions. The SSSH is worried that the performance-related elements of pay will be too subjective and allow heads of departments too much discretion over pay. The confederation is particularly concerned about the impact of women on maternity and/or sick leave who might miss out on being evaluated if they fail to meet the minimum requirement of six months’ work in a particular year.

The ver.di services union has rejected a pay offer of 2.9% from the Thüga energy company. The employer also wants to pay an extra 1.2% along with a €500 lump sum as compensation for a two-hour increase in the working week to 38 hours. Ver.di is arguing for a 4% increase without any increase in hours and says this would be in line with other recent pay deals in the energy sector. It says that Thüga employees need this rise in particular as the 1.8% increase last year was in the lower range of settlements. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://energie-bergbau.ver-und-entsorgung.verdi.de/?searchBr

A survey of 10 municipalities carried out by the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health indicates improvements in a number of aspects of working conditions. Employees’ influence over the length of the working day, and start and finish times, as well as shift schedules has grown steadily since 2000. At the same time pressure and demands of work have decreased, compared with the 2006 study. Support and encouragement from supervisors to those under them has seen a marked improvement as they take more notice of employees' opinions and give timely information about decisions made. The survey also

The ETUC is asking for views on the impact of the 2002 European Directive on equal treatment of men and women so that it can feed them to the European Commission. It wants information on positive and negative experiences in the implementation process and the way social partners were or were not involved. It also would like to know whether the implementation has helped to promote social dialogue between social partners with a view to fostering equal treatment; an obligation to encourage social partners to promote equality between men and women; and an obligation to encourage employers to