The ver.di services union says that it will aim to protect workers' jobs and pay and conditions if affected by the plans of the Fresenius Helios group to buy 43 hospitals and 15 outpatient facilities from the Rhön-Klinikum group. The merger would make the group the biggest in Germany with 117 hospitals. Without existing agreements on employment protection ver.di is concerned that the Fresenius will try to recoup some of the €3 billion cost of the merger by reducing employment costs. The union is also concerned that the monopoly position of the enlarged company will have an impact on patient care and a dominant position in relation to public or voluntary sector institutions.
Read more at > ver.di (DE)
Union says it will protect employees affected by health merger
More like this
Union calls for employee protection in major health reforms
Around 200000 health and social care workers will have a new employer by 2019 when 18 regional bodies will take over services from 190 municipal and joint municipal authorities. Public services JHL warns that employees shouldn't be seen as the cost-saving factor in this restructuring and that they should all remain covered by the local authority sector agreement with the same pension provision. The reforms will also see increased opportunities for private sector provision. Read more at > JHL (EN)
Union campaigns to protect new employees
The GPA-djp has launched a campaign in protest against a decision by the non-profit pro mente rehabilitation company to apply a poorer collective agreement to all new employees from November this year. The union says that the move from the SWÖ (Austrian social economy) agreement to the Cure and Rehabilitation agreement will mean a massive deterioration of pay and employment conditions for the workers affected. The GPA-djp has set up an online petition to support the campaign.
5000 workers affected by health firm's insolvency
Around 5000 employees of the Paracelsus health company found out just before Christmas that the firm was insolvent. Their trade union, ver.di, said it was a bad day for both workers and patients and blamed mismanagement for the failure. The union said that workers had foregone their Christmas bonuses in 2013 and 2014 but the company had failed to deliver on the new investment promised at the time. This year the collective bargaining committee had refused to give up the bonus but the failure of the company to pay it in November was an early indication of the problems ahead. Ver.di has called on