14 epsucob@NEWS July 2009

The SSP/VPÖD public service union is supporting the call for a national demonstration in Berne on 19 September. The protest has been called by the SGB union confederation in response to a range of measures adopted by the government in response to the crisis. The unions argue that higher health costs, lower pensions, less money for the unemployed and weakening of redundancy rights mean that workers are paying for the crisis. The SSP/ VPÖD acknowledges that private sector workers have so far faced the main effects of the recession but the union is well aware of what is at stake for public sector

Public service union IMPACT has warned its members that it won’t be possible to negotiate a new national agreement because of the government’s refusal to agree to three key requirements. The union has demanded guarantees that there will be no further reductions in public service pay or in the value of public service pensions, nor taxation of the pensions lump sum. It also called for an agreed protocol on public service employment issues. The union’s executive was due to meet on 24 July to plan a campaign of action to resist any further attempts by the government to attack pay and conditions.

The ver.di services union is planning for a further stage of strike action against church employers in September. Around 250 ver.di members in several different church institutions in three different regions took strike action back in May. The union says that church bodies that provide health and social care are trying to use their special constitutional status to pay employees below the sector pay norm. In a specific cases five old people’s homes in Hannover have been sold to a religious foundation that has cut pay to run the homes at a higher profit. So far the religious authorities have

Abvakabo, CNV Publieke Zaak and NU’91 have negotiated a new 24-month collective agreement in a difficult bargaining environment, with the government talking about cuts to the health budget. There will be a 1% pay increase on 1 October 2009 and another 1% on 1 August 2010. The year end bonus payment will be worth 5.25% of salary in 2009 and 5.75% of salary in 2010 while there will also be a 0.65% lump sum payment. New flexible working hours arrangements will be introduced along with improved work-life balance provisions that will allow employees to use or save an extra 35 hours of leave. The

The Kommunal union has warned that the crisis has already spread from the private sector to the public sector as care workers have been losing their jobs. A survey carried out by the union suggests 7,500 care jobs have already been cut and the SKL local and regional government employers’ organisation predicts 15,000 jobs cuts this year and next. The union points out that those losing their jobs are invariably women on part-time and precarious contracts and that employers are finding it easy to cut jobs, particularly among fixed-term and agency workers. The union wants to see increased funding

The FSP-UGT public service federation has called for an urgent meeting to be convened before the end of July with the head of the prison service to review the state of negotiations in the sector. The union is particularly concerned about provision for training in the prison service. It has called for a proper training plan and setting up a training centre but is now concerned that funds for these will not be available and that there is no proper training plan. Meanwhile the FSC-CCOO federation organised a series of demonstrations on 9 July in protest at the way the prison service is being run

Ver.di and the local employers’ association VKA will resume negotiations on 16 July to see if they can resolve the dispute involving workers involved in social and childcare. The union has been arguing for a re-grading of the 200,000 workers to acknowledge their increased workloads and responsibilities. It also wants a specific agreement to deal with health issues facing workers. Negotiations broke down last month ver.di rejected what it saw as a wholly inadequate re-grading proposal. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=cba060c0-6a05-11de-69da

The GPA-DJP trade union has called on the Red Cross to negotiate over how to pay money owed to around 200 workers. For many years the Red Cross’s blood donation service has made errors in it wage calculations, failing to pay the correct overtime payments and other allowances. It is estimated that the 200 workers are owed around €2 million. The union says that the Red Cross is trying to resolve the issue through individual discussions with workers, giving them a tight deadline to accept offers of payment below what they are really entitled to. [Read more at > GPA-DJP (DE)->http://www.gpa-djp.at