Portugal
Employees of the REN and EDP energy companies are getting a 2.6% pay increase this year along with a €160 lump sum. The lump sum payment will go to those with at least six month’s service an with no unjustified periods of absence. Workers at REN will also have to have achieved at least level 3 on the company’s performance measurement scale. Inflation in Portugal fell to –0.4% in the year to March, according to the national statistics agency.
Read more at > Sindel (PT)
Following three rounds of bargaining, services union ver.di has negotiated a new 25-month agreement with the RWE energy company. The agreement covers 20000 workers and provides for a 2% pay rise from 1 March this year and a further 1.7% from 1 April next year. There will also be a EUR 1000 lump sum for full-time workers and proportionate amount for part timers. Apprentices will get EUR 600. In addition, ver.di members only will get an extra two days’ holiday a year.
The pay dispute in local and regional government continues with the VNG local government employers’ organisation advising its members to make a lump sum payment to workers in April worth 1% of pay. This has been criticised by the FNV-Abvakabo trade union that points out that this doesn’t protect pay rates against inflation. Read more at > FNV Abvakabo (NL)
Health workers around the country, many of them employed by private contractors and among the lowest paid, have had to resort to strike action to ensure they get a £1600+ (€1870) lump sum payment that was paid to most directly employed staff last year. Action has just paid off for members of UNISON and Unite in Dudley in the West Midlands where until recently their employer, Mitie, had refused the payment. UNISON members were also successful following their action in the South West against the contractor Sodexo and Wiltshire Health and Care, a company jointly owned by three NHS trusts. UNISON
