The five main health trade unions – CGT, CFDT, FO, SUD and UNSA – have written a joint open letter to the health minister calling on him to set out clear proposals for a process of negotiation over the content of the plan for health that he intends to publish on 25 May. The plan should include initiatives on pay and working time but the unions not that they were not consulted at all in advance of the minister’s statement on 17 May and want clear reassurances that proper negotiations will take place with them as the representative unions in the sector. They have also called for a timetable for the negotiations and have underlined that they want to raise all the key issues on pay, jobs and services that they have been campaigning for in recent years.
Unions demand negotiations with ministry over health plan
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Union cautious about negotiations with health ministry
The FSP-UGT public service federation has welcomed the announcement of a meeting of unions and the health ministry on 29 April. However, the union remains to be convinced about whether the health minister is prepared to open proper negotiations and believes that the meeting may simply be a way of meeting its formal commitment to negotiate. The FSP-UGT along with the FSC-CCOO and other unions announced they were taking legal action against the minister over the denial of the right to collective bargaining citing examples of changes being imposed without negotiation. [Read more at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Justice ministry unions plan national protest
The FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-PA trade union federations are coordinating a national protest of workers in the Ministry of Justice on 10 March in order to put pressure on the ministry to negotiate with the unions over a range of measures essential to improve services. The unions highlight the need to increase staffing through an emergency recruitment plan along with action on pay and conditions, career development and initiatives to reduce precarious work. The unions have been raising all these issues for months but have received no response or indication of a willingness to negotiate.
Health union expresses concern over health ministry approach to pay
The SOZZASS health workers’ union has expressed concern over the way that the health ministry is addressing health workers’ pay and its failure so far to undertake proper negotiations with the unions. In its latest announcement the ministry has indicated its willingness to increase pay for nurses and refers to bringing average nurses’ pay up from 89% to 100% of average earnings. While SOZZASS welcomes a commitment to increase pay for nurses it says that this should be as the result of collective bargaining and that all health workers deserve a pay rise.