Portugal
The national courts have referred a case relating to public sector pay cuts to the European Court of Justice. The 10% public sector pay cuts imposed in 2010 have been challenged on a number of counts including equal treatment and potential infringement of the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Read more at > European Court case website (multilingual)
Last year the Irish public service union IMPACT won a case on behalf of 91 civil servants who had been discriminated against because they were on fixed-term contracts. The civil servants had lost out in terms of a number of benefits in comparison to their colleagues on permanent contracts and were offered £217,500 in compensation plus back pay by Ireland's Rights Commissioner. The Irish government has appealed and the Labour Court has now referred several issues to the European Court to resolve. Read more at > IMPACT
The FSC-CCOO and FSP-UGT public service federations have welcomed a ruling by the High Court that the imposition of pay cuts may have contravened constitutional rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining. The case also raises issues of equal treatment as the pay cut was imposed at the Royal Mint but not in other public companies such as the RENFE rail firm. The particular legal challenge relates to employees of the Royal Spanish Mint but if the result is confirmed then it may well be applicable much more broadly across publicly owned companies and even across the public sector
Kommunal, the municipal workers' union, has referred the Work Environment Authority to the parliamentary ombudsman over failures in the way it has dealt with COVID-19. The union considers that the Authority which is responsible for reducing workplace risks and improving the work environment, has failed to properly address issues concerning recommendations on the level provision of personal protective equipment, consulting only with the SKR municipal employers' organisation and not listening to the views of Kommunal or other trade unions. Kommunal also believes that the Authority breached its
