05 epsucob@NEWS 6 March 2006

Public services union ver.di has secured an agreement with local authorities in Hamburg on working hours. The new arrangements mean that most workers will stay below 40 hours a week but there are exceptions. Weekly hours depend on age, pay level and whether workers have children. So, for example all workers without children in the top four pay bands work 40 hour a week while those with children under the age of 12 work 39.5 hours. Those aged 50 and over in the bottom nine pay bands work 38 hours a week. General secretary Frank Bsirske welcomed the compromise deal but said that strikes in Lower

The four unions in public administration have signed a four-year agreement which will see a major simplification of the pay structure. The current eight pay bands will be reduced to five and this will mean significant annual increases in pay for most categories of workers over the next four years. Those in the lowest pay bands at the moment (seven and eight) will make up the new band five and will see pay increase by 7.37% over the next four years with minimum pay reaching 13,592.88 euros in 2008. [Read more at > FSAP.CCOO->http://www.fsap.ccoo.es/conjunto.asp] [Read more at > FSP.UGT->http:/

A report was published in February looking at agreements on training which found that collective agreements in the public sector tend to have general training provisions but don't establish any specific individual right to continuing or further training. In contrast, according to the report, private sector agreements are in some respects more detailed, often setting out timeframes for the right to continuous training and that certain seniority requirements apply to this right. One of the report's recommendations is that training should be targeted more at those with basic or little education

The proposed merger between GDF the publicly-owned gas company and the Suez private utility company has been attacked by unions. They are not only concerned about the threat to jobs but what the merger implies for the future of French and European energy policy and the future status of the electricity company EDF. The FNEM-FO federation called on its members to strike on 7 March and join the demonstrations on 7 March in protest at the new employment laws and make them also a protest against the Suez-GDF merger. [Read more at > CGT->http://www.fnme-cgt.fr/cnt/fjoint//31/414-fjoint.pdf] [And at

Many workers in state services, particularly the low paid, should benefit from a new salary structure, according to the EIRO industrial relations observatory. The new system is being introduced to replace a wide range of different arrangements which had created large variations in pay rates for similar jobs across the state sector. Although trade unions were not directly involved in negotiations over the new system they welcome the impact it will have on lower pay rates. The employees affected are all those in services funded from the state budget - ministries, institutions under the control