2024 April EPSU Collective Bargaining Newsletter No.9

The SZEF public service trade union confederation reports that 12 trade unions have taken a case to the Constitutional Court in an attempt to defend their right to the practice of check-ff where union subscriptions are deducted by the employer from members’ salaries and then paid to the union. The prohibition has caused significant challenges to the financial stability and functioning of the unions. The unions argue that the ban violates the Fundamental Law, particularly regarding the constitutional protection of unions as institutions and represents a regression from the established level of

The ver.di trade union is in the middle of tough negotiations to reduce maximum working hours for municipal ambulance staff. There was no breakthrough at the third round of bargaining on 4-5 April. The union has put forward a proposal on how on-call time can be regulated and a maximum of 42 hours per week achieved but this was rejected by the VKA employers’ organisation which only proposed a reduction to 47 hours from 1 January 2026 and a further cut to 46 hours from 1 January 2028. Ver.di saw that as a provocation and it was only at the very end of the second day that the VKA put forward what

European services federation UNI Europa has published a report that aims to support trade unions in making the most of the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive, with a range of ideas on how to boost collective bargaining coverage. The report identifies five main areas of intervention. The first is to provide protection against anti-union practices, encourage union membership through tax exemptions, give unions access to workers, facilities and resources for union representation, or provide direct capacity-building support to (sectoral) unions. The second is about getting employers willing and able

The Coordination of Unions and Associations of Professional Firefighters in Croatia has announced union actions and a firefighter protest scheduled for 4 May, Firefighters' Day. The dissatisfaction stems from the inequality in salaries among firefighters across various levels – local, regional, and national. They are unhappy about the failure to implement changes to rules and regulations regarding allowances, leading to a reduction in firefighters' rights. At a meeting of representatives in public fire brigades held at the headquarters of the SDLSN trade union, details of protests were agreed

The latest in EPSU’s series of articles looking at working time reduction across Europe examines the experience of public service trade unions in Spain and Portugal. In both countries the imposition of austerity after the financial crisis in 2009 included increases in working hours. The article follows the progress made by Spanish unions in gradually returning to a 35-hour week from the imposed 37-hour week and their intention to continue to push for further progress towards a shorter working week. In Portugal, public service unions were confronted by a unilateral decision of the government to

Healthcare trade unions are facing a longstanding deadlock with employers over the sector collective agreement. This has led to stagnant wages for healthcare workers, worsening an existing staffing crisis. The two main trade union confederations, CITUB and Podkrepa have voiced concerns over employers' chronic refusal to engage in negotiation processes for a new agreement, despite legal obligations outlined in national labour legislation and the Adequate Minimum Wage Directive that advocates for collective bargaining. The economic situation, with rising minimum wage, living costs, salaries, and

The Kommunal trade union called off strike action planned for 18 April when it accepted the mediators' offer to end the dispute with the SALAR and Sobona employers’ organisations. The new agreement includes higher salaries (SEK 985 (€98) in line with labour market trends) with an individual guarantee and sets out steps towards long-term solutions for salary processes and sustainable working hours. The employers also confirmed their intention to work out a new wage agreement, taking a holistic approach to sustainable working hours and taking measures to improve the work environment. The

The FSC-CCOO , UGT-SP and other public service trade unions are planning a rally on 8 May in Madrid in front of the General Directorate of the AEAT tax agency. They are calling on the management to negotiate labour and salary improvements and will extend mobilisations nationwide if the agency continues to block negotiations on career development and a new collective agreement. The last collective agreement ran from 2006 and expired 18 months ago. The AEAT management has frozen collective bargaining for six years but used its discretion to raise salaries but only for the highest paid. The

The FP-CGIL public services federation organised a day of action to raise serious concerns about the state of early years education. As reported by EPSU, the federation has called for an extraordinary recruitment campaign, for investment in skills and training of staff and to raise awareness among families of the difficulties that educators encounter in carrying out their work, above all because of staff shortages. The union says that huge investments are due to be made in the next few years to provide new places in educational services, but these are not being matched by a an appropriate

Seven trade unions have come together to write a joint letter to the public service and other ministers calling for urgent negotiations over the pay and conditions of workers in early years education. The unions are critical of the €100 pay increase in the public sector which fails to match the €150 in the private sector, whether non-profit or for-profit. They are also unhappy that the increase will not be taken into account in the calculation of future salaries nor for pensions. The unions maintain that pay increases are inconsistent among occupations and leave major issues of inequality

A new policy brief from the ETUI reveals that the Adequate Minimum Wages Directive is already having an impact on minimum wage-setting even though it doesn’t have to be transposed into national law until November this year. The latest data show a substantial nominal increase in statutory minimum wages in 15 out of the 22 EU countries which statutory minimum wages. The ETUI says that two factors are important here – first, high levels of inflation have continued to prevail across the EU, making the safeguarding of the purchasing power of minimum-wage earners a political priority. Second, some

Members of the Fagforbundet trade union working for the Stendi care provider are set to share NOK 60 million (€5.1 million) to cover unpaid holiday pay. The 184 workers are part of the latest legal case against Stendi which has repeatedly tried to circumvent legislation to deny their workers full employment rights. In its judgement the court was highly critical of how the company has continued to circumvent the Occupational Health and Safety Act through the use of staffing agencies to avoid paying full employment costs. The holiday pay covers the period between 2008 and 2018 and the company