2010 July epsucob@NEWS 14
Confederations organise general strike over pension changes
The GSEE and ADEDY trade union confederations maintained their campaign of opposition to government austerity measures with a general strike on 8 July. The strike this time focused on major changes to the pensions system and an increase in retirement age. Read more at > BBC (EN)
Doctors strike over budget cuts
A national strike by doctors took place on Monday 19 July in protest at government plans to cut health budgets. Doctors’ unions warned that the cuts will mean 30,000 fewer doctors in four years’ time while the number of fixed-term workers will be slashed. Unions are concerned about the implications of these cuts for the level and quality of health services provided. Read more at > news website (EN)
Government imposes compulsory arbitration to end hospital strike
After two weeks, the government has ended a strike by members of the YS trade union in the hospitals by imposing compulsory arbitration. The union is disappointed with the government’s action having taken measures to ensure patient safety during the action and arguing that it was up to the employer’s organisation, Spekter, to call for arbitration and not the government. The union congratulated its members on their willingness to take strike action in support of equal pay for work of equal value. [Read more at > YS (NO)->http://www.ys.no/kunder/ys/cms.nsf/($All)/F59E78EDE46067B9C125775F00546AD7
Union wants minister to enact care sector minimum wage
Services union ver.di has called on employment minister Ursula von der Leyen to ensure that the promised minimum wage in the care sector takes effect from 1 August. The union is concerned that further excuses for delay will emerge and in particular it wants the government to be more transparent about opposition to the minimum wage from other ministries. Read more at > ver.di (DE)
Federation welcomes equality plans but is critical of their implementation
The FSC-CCOO public services federation is positive about the drawing up of equality plans across the state administration sector, but argues that more needs to be done to ensure they are properly implemented. In particular, the federation wants to see a timetable and deadlines and believes that more resources, including staff, need to be made available to put the plans into effect. Read more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
Unions united in rejecting changes to pensions
Representatives of the public service federations all voted in the three public sector councils to reject government proposals to raise the retirement age and pension contribution requirements. There is a national council for the each of the three sections of the public sector – ministries, hospitals and local and regional government. Some elected officials in local government supported the union position as did some employee representatives in the hospitals and so there were majorities against change in these two councils whereas voting was tied 20:20 in the council for the ministries. [Read
Unions win €1.2 million for privatised care workers
The UNISON and GMB public service unions have won €1.2 million in compensation for 117 care workers who had new contracts imposed on them by the Excelcare company when it won a contract from Essex County Council in the South East of England. The workers saw their pay cut by 40% at the time of privatisation. The unions pursued the matter through the courts using the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings) Regulations based on the European Acquired Rights Directive. [Read more at > UNISON->http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1927] [And at > GMB->http://www.gmb.org.uk/newsroom
Union welcomes tougher laws on employment rights
The VIDA services union has backed a government initiative to better enforce minimum pay rates in collective agreements and other employment rights. The proposal is in preparation for the full opening up of the Austrian labour market to the rest of the EU in 2011 and concern about social dumping. The union says that migrant workers in some border areas are already being paid 40% below the rate in the relevant collective agreement and tougher measures are needed to ensure that employers pay the negotiated rates. [Read more at > VIDA (DE)->http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03
Day of action against pay freeze
Thousands of workers from unions in the CGTP confederation took part in a national day of action against government austerity measures and the freeze on public sector pay. The STAL local government union also called specifically for the right to proper collective bargaining in the sector and attacked the push to privatise services. Read more at > STAL (PT)
Report exposes low pay on big public infrastructure projects
The LO trade union confederation has investigated three major public infrastructure projects and exposed how pressure from public authorities to keep costs low has led to a sub-contractors paying foreign workers as little as 55% of the wage a worker would receive if covered by the relevant collective agreement. The report also notes how employers change their names and restrict contracts to six months to avoid Swedish tax rules. The projects investigated also show higher accident rates than the industry average. The confederation wants to see changes to public procurement practices that
Industrial action threatened over waste privatisation
The SIPTU trade union agreed to talks at the Labour Relations Commission over a dispute over privatisation but says its members working for Dun Laoghaire council, just to the South East of Dublin, may still take industrial action. The union is angry that the council decided unilaterally to outsource the waste service to a company called Panda. This is not just counter to earlier agreements on outsourcing in the public sector but also to the commitment in the recent national Croke Park agreement to maintain direct labour. [Read more at > SIPTU (EN)->http://www.siptu.ie/PressRoom/NewsReleases
Commission consults over pensions
The European Commission has issued a green paper on pensions, inviting comments on a wide range of issues from sustainability of pension systems to the gender pensions gap. The Green Paper considers some recent trends and notes the shift in responsibility for pensions from employers to individuals. For EPSU some of the key points are about how to deal with the gender pensions gap and the problem of the spread of precarious jobs that tend to provide little or no pension entitlement. Read more at > EPSU (EN)
Union defends hospitals' productivity record
The FOA public service union has responded to attacks on inefficiency and laziness in the health service by pointing to a long-run increase in productivity in the sector. There has been a increase of 12,000 staff in hospitals since 2001 but in terms of productivity, 77 workers today deliver the same services as 100 workers then. New technology, shorter waiting lists, better outpatient care are among the factors contributing to this increase in efficiency. Over the last 10 years hospitals have faced demands to improve productivity by 1.5%-2% each year. In contrast the private sector has only
Country faces challenge to close gender pay gap
Researchers, equality experts and even government officials have acknowledged the difficulties in closing the gender pay gap in Estonia. While equality legislation exists, the difficulty is in implementing it and the challenge facing women who want to pursue an equal pay case. The equality commissioner says that only five women have made an official complaint under the legislation in the last seven years despite the scale of the gender pay gap in the country. Read more at > Baltic Times news website (EN)
EPSU's collective bargaining meetings
The third of this year’s regional collective bargaining meetings will take place in Bratislava on 14-15 September. Information about the meeting and documents are available on the EPSU website in English, Czech, Romania, Bulgarian, Hungarian and Turkish. The main annual collective bargaining and social dialogue conference will take place in Brussels on 7 and 8 December and initial details are now on the EPSU website. Read more at > Regional CB meeting And on the annual conference at > EPSU CB conference
Firefighters take action over cuts and contracts
Firefighters organised by the CGIL, CSIL and UIL public service federations were involved in a national four-hour stoppage on 20 July. The unions organised the protest in response to government plans for budget cuts and demands to conclude a new collective agreement as the previous one expired two and a half years ago. Read more at > FP CGIL (IT)
Government plans cuts to civil service redundancy scheme
The PCS civil service union may return to the courts to defend the current redundancy compensation scheme. The union won two court rulings against the previous government that had tried to change the scheme without proper negotiation. Despite those rulings, the new coalition government is pushing through legislation to cut the scheme. PCS is also challenging the government’s claims about the scheme, arguing that it has exaggerated the levels of compensation by focusing on the maximum payments for those with the longest service. [Read more at > PCS->http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news
On-call time recognised in holiday entitlement
Workers covered by the two main public sector agreements are set to benefit from new rules that mean on-call time at night is counted as working time. The two agreements that cover health workers provide extra leave for those working nights. There is an extra day for each 150 hours of night work. In line with the Working Time Directive on-call time at work is considered as working time and so on-call time during night work will be counted towards the extra leave entitlement. Read more at > ver.di (DE)
Union attacks plan for increased pension age for health and social care workers
The GÖD has criticised proposals to increase the retirement age in the health and social care sector. Johann Hable, chair of the health section, pointed out that workers in the sector face shift work, night work and unsocial hours and few even reach the current retirement age. Getting health workers to work longer would increase the risk of burn-out. Instead the union wants to see employers take initiatives to support older workers such as part-time work on full pay, paid rest time and fitness programmes. Read more at > GÖD (DE)