17 epsucob@NEWS 28 August 2006

Recent negotiations between the BDE private waste employers' association and ver.di produced an agreement to overhaul the pay structure in the industry. As an interim measure the 67,000 workers in the industry will get lump sum payments in 2006 and 2007 while a new pay structure is negotiated. The 2006 lump sum will be in line with the percentage increases being awarded across Germany in collective negotiations. The aim of the new pay structure will be to try to ensure that more employers are covered by the collective agreement and to try to put an end to widespread undercutting of pay rates.

The government has set up a commission of researchers to investigate the persistent gender pay gap, according to the EIRO industrial relations observatory. The commission will report its recommendations to the government by the end of March 2008. The social partners are not represented directly on the Commission but will be involved in the process through a consultative group. One issue the Commission will consider is whether legal changes are necessary to tackle the longstanding pay differences between occupations and industries traditionally seen as male and female. [Read more at > EIRO (EN)

The GdG trade union has called for the Working Time Directive's maximum of 48 hours a week to be applied to doctors. The union argues that more doctors should be employed in order to reduce individual working hours and warns that the definition of inactive hours that might become part of the revised directive will make matters worse for doctors. The union says that patients' interests should be central to this issue and they should have the right to be treated by doctors who work normal hours not who have been exhausted by excessively long shifts. [Read more at > GdG (DE)->http://www.gdg.at

The FSP-UGT trade union federation is organising a series of protests against the regional administration of Castilla and Leon over incentive payments to doctors and nurses. The incentive payments are being awarded as a measure to help reduce waiting lists in the area. The union says that the government has unilaterally decided to allocate around €62 million over the next four years (80% to doctors/20% to nurses) but it argues that it is unclear how this money will be distributed and doesn't take account of other health workers who jobs have an impact on the reduction of waiting lists. [Read

The public service union and the GPA private employees union, which organises workers in the private care sector, are calling for proper funding for the care sector. They say that all care workers, whether Austrian or migrant workers, need the protection of minimum standards and have the right to proper pay and conditions. The unions argue that care services often rely on illegal workers and to remove them from the system would lead to its collapse. [Read more at > GÖD (DE)->http://www.goed.at/12082.html] [And at > GPA (DE)->http://www.gpa.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page/Index&n=GPA