Social Services

After three days of bargaining the ver.di services union has negotiated an agreement with the VKA municipal employers that goes some way to address the undervaluation and overwork of staff in social and educational services. The union thanked its members for mobilising to achieve the result in the face of considerable resistance from the employers. Over 40,000 ver.di members took action in the week leading up to the latest negotiations. The agreement will provide employees with two additional days off as well as the option to convert part of their salary into two further days off. Educators

The Super and Tehy health unions are maintaining their ban on overtime and shift changes following their rejection of the proposed deal for health and local government. They continue to press for higher pay increases as essential to help tackle the urgent staff shortages in health and social care. Meanwhile, municipal unions JHL and Jyty are also keeping up their industrial action despite their provisional approval of the agreement. They are pushing for the agreement to be finalised and for the expected payments to be made by the summer, arguing that workers could lose out by over €300 if pay

The Super and Tehy health unions have firmly rejected the settlement proposed by the conciliation committee in the current dispute in local government and health. Meanwhile, the JHL and Jyty municipal services union have endorsed the proposal. The health unions argue that the pay increases on offer are inadequate and simply don’t address the urgent staffing problems in health and social care. The unions are now considering a mass resignation to put pressure on health employers to negotiate a better deal. For local government workers, the three-year pay deal should deliver pay increases of 1.9%

The ver.di services union has planned a series of strikes and protests in the week beginning 9 May to put pressure on the VKA local government employers’ organisation in advance of the third round of collective bargaining covering over 300,000 workers in social and educational services. Around 30000 workers in the sector were involved in action on 2, 4 and 5 May but the week 9-13 May will see many more workers in involved across the country. The union is extremely disappointed that the employers failed to come up with a concrete offer to improve pay and conditions in the first two bargaining

The SIPTU, Fórsa and INMO trade unions organised a joint national demonstration in Dublin on 3 May to highlight the need for better pay and proper respect for workers in the non-profit community and health services (Section 39) sector. More than 400 protesters attended the rally. The sector provides many services equivalent to those provided directly by the public sector and the unions want to see the implementation of a fair funding model that will address the pay and conditions of all workers in the sector and disparities with the public sector. The unions are launching a national campaign

Mediation continues to try to resolve the dispute in the municipal sector where unions JHL and Jyty have planned for more strike action from 3 May if mediation fails to deliver a positive result. As of 28 April, the chair of the conciliation committee said that the two side were still far apart on pay and pay development. Meanwhile the SuPer and Tehy health unions cancelled planned strike action that was due to take place from 20 April, although they are continuing their work-to-rule. The two unions say that they were left with no alternative when the government threatened to introduce

Services union ver.di has negotiated a collective agreement with the AWO non-profit care provider in Augsburg in Bavaria that includes a 35-hour week without loss of pay for nurses and other workers in the social and educational services provided by the organisation. The union sees this as setting an important example for the rest of the care sector. AWO said it wanted to work with the union to provide concrete solutions to address stressful work and to make care jobs more attractive by improving working conditions. The collective agreement provides for a two-hour reduction in weekly working

Members of the FNV, NU’91 and other unions have endorsed the new collective agreement covering around 190000 workers in disability care that is backdated and runs from 1 October 2021 to 31 January 2024. There is a 2.2% pay rise as from 1 May 2022 but with an €85 minimum increase and with also a commitment to a minimum hourly rate of €13.00. This means a 5% increase for the lowest paid. On 1 May 2023 there will be a further increase of 3.2%. The agreement also provides for hours reductions for older workers to encourage them to stay at work longer and measures to address the needs of women

The Kommunal public services union decided to postpone the industrial action it had planned for 22 April to allow more time for mediation in its dispute with the Church of Sweden's employers' organization (SKAO). If mediation fails, then the action – an overtime ban and block on new employment and recruitment – will now begin on 29 April, along with strike action by selected workers already planned for that date. The union wants to ensure that the transition agreement negotiated with SKAO is as good as in the rest of the labour market and doesn’t allow for any deterioration in wages and

Following a long campaign and strike action in March, the FNV trade union, along with CNV and FBZ, has negotiated a new agreement covering the 30,000 workers in youth care. This includes a wage increase of 8% percent over three years and a one-off amount of 250 euros. A 2% pay rise will be backdated to January 2021 and 3% applied this year with a further 3% in 2023. There will also be scope for employees to choose when and where they work, while the mileage allowance for travel during work goes up by around a third. There are also important provisions to tackle excessive workloads with