008 epsucob@NEWS May 2008

Members of the FOA union, covering health, eldercare and childcare workers employed by the municipalities, are being balloted over a revised pay offer after three weeks on strike. While the general municipal settlement provides for a 12.8% pay increase over three years, workers represented by FOA will get 13.4%. The result of the ballot will be known on 29 May. A central element of the dispute was the issue of the undervaluing of occupations dominated by women workers. The strike by members of the DNO nurses' association continues.

Six public sector trade union federations are planning a day of demonstrations and strike action on 15 May in protest at the latest government proposals to reform the public service. A bill that will affect worker mobility and career patterns in the public service is being considered by the Senate but these are reforms that the unions reject and that have been put forward without any discussion or negotiation with the trade unions. The unions believe the government's plans for the public service involve job cuts of between 35,000 and 40,000 a year and widespread privatisation. They are calling

After a series of warning strikes the services trade union ver.di has secured a new agreement with the BDE employers' organisation covering 20,000 workers in the private waste industry. The agreement runs until 30 April 2010 and workers get a basic increase of €50 from 1 May 2008 plus 2.8% and then a further 3% increase on pay from 1 May 2009. A lump sum of €100 is to cover the period between 1 January and 30 April 2008 - the previous agreement ran to 31 December 2007. The BDE wanted a two-hour increase in the working week but in the end the union agreed to a one-hour increase implemented over

The ETUC has rejected the idea of negotiations with the European employers' organisation, businesseurope, and has launched a campaign in support of a revised directive on European works councils (EWCs). The ETUC is calling for a number of key changes such as a clearer definition of information and consultation, a reduction in the employee thresholds above which companies can be obliged to establish EWCs, a right for trade union officers to provide support to EWC representatives at EWC meetings and a number of other amendments that the ETUC says are needed to make EWCs more effective. The ETUC

The UNISON public services union has revealed that thousands of non-teaching staff in colleges of further education have missed out on higher pay increases as local colleges have failed to implement a minimum £500-a-year (€630) increase recommended last year by the national college employers' association. The employers said that all workers earning less than £16,791 (€21,200) should be entitled to the increase but according to UNISON 64% of colleges have failed to implement the increase. This leaves many college library and laboratory assistants, catering workers and cleaners on a minimum

A new study by the EIRO industrial relations observatory looks at how working conditions can be improved through social dialogue. The study looks at a number of different areas such as working time and flexibility, occupational health and safety, training and lifelong learning and responses to an ageing workforce. There is a large number of examples in the overall report as well as the separate country studies, including examples from the public services - working time flexibility in Finnish local government, dealing with the ageing workforce in the Austrian energy sector. [Read more at > EIRO

According to a new study by the trade union backed Hans Böckler Foundation, most regional governments in Western Germany have introduced procurement rules requiring contractors to pay wages in line with the relevant collective agreements. Regional governments in the East of the country have been following suit more recently. The legality of these regulations has been backed in by the German constitutional court although they have now been called into question by the European Court of Justice in the recent Rüffert judgement. The authors of the study warn that if the German regulations are

Members of the Psychiatric Nurses Association and the SIPTU general union are taking industrial action in protest at the Health Services Executive's refusal to improve compensation for psychiatric nurses injured as a result of assaults at work. The nurses' action so far has involved an overtime ban and work-to-rule from 30 April and the next stage is to refuse to co-operate any more with redeployment of nurses from community services to psychiatric and general hospitals. [Read more at > SIPTU (EN)->http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases/2008/Name,10260,en.html] [And at > PNA (EN)->http:/

Trade unions representing employees of the regional government in Berlin are backing a series of strikes by different groups of workers in support of a new pay agreement. Berlin is not part of the regional government employers' association and so the agreement covering regional government workers does not apply. The unions point out that this means that most regional government workers around the country have received a 2.9% pay increase this year while there has also been a 2.4% increase agreed by the Hessen regional government which is also not part of the national employers' association