epsucob@NEWS 7 May 2007

Trade union news reports the latest figures for minimum wages across Finland. These are the minimum rates set in sectoral agreements. In the municipal sector the minimum is €8.19 while in health and social services it is €9.00. This compares to rates in other sectors such as €7.45 in the electronics industry. Workers not covered by collective agreements are given some protection through legislation and an effective minimum wage of €6.00. The next bargaining round will get underway with soon with the national agreement and most sectoral agreements running out on 30 September 2007. Unions are

After 10 months of negotiations the European social partners have signed an agreement on tackling violence and harassment at work. The framework agreement requires employers to have a clear statement outlining that harassment and violence at the workplace are not tolerated and that specifies the procedure to be followed in case of problems. It also recognises that the responsibility for determining, reviewing and monitoring the appropriate measures rests with the employer, in consultation with workers and/or their representatives. The agreement also allows the social partners to deal with

According to the EIRO industrial relations observatory, civil servants in Estonia are getting pay rises of between 20% and 100% with the higher increases going to the higher paid. Most low paid civil servants will get a 20% increase keeping their salaries in line with the national minimum wage. A collective agreement on civil servants' salary hasn't been reached since 2001, although lower paid civil servants have had pay increases in the intervening years. The current pay increases were negotiated but in the end the EAKL trade union confederation did not sign a collective agreement as the

Services union ver.di is calling for the pay agreement signed with regional governments in May 2006 to be extended to civil servants. Civil servants are not covered by collective bargaining but are normally covered by the collective agreements negotiated by ver.di and the other public sector unions. Although some lump payments have been paid by the regions, none of the regional governments have implemented the collective agreement that should give civil servants a 2.9% pay increase this year. [Read more at > Ver.di->http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=789e2e30-fa17-11db-7f05

The public service federations are calling for a collective agreement to cover the 6,000 or so workers who are employed by Spanish embassies, consulates and other overseas-based public bodies. The government has offered to negotiate minimum conditions but this has been rejected by the unions who accuse the government of trying to exclude these workers from the advances made in employment conditions through the new basic statute covering all public employees in Spain. [Read more at > FSAP-CCOO (ES)->http://www.fsap.ccoo.es/webfsap/menu.do?Actualidad:Sindical:Actualidad:6065] [Read more at > FSP

Public sector unions have agreed a range of measures to reorganise the way the public sector works, beginning with the national administration. At the same time as allowing for increased measurement of performance the accord places restrictions on the use of atypical employment arrangements and calls for fixed term workers to be transferred to permanent contracts. Elements of pay at local level may be linked to performance but this will be controlled through collective bargaining. [Read more at > EIRO (EN)->http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2007/02/articles/it0702039i.html] [And at > EIRO

Trade unions have resisted employer demands for longer working hours in recent negotiations over a new working time package that also allows for part time workers to get paid for extra working hours. Unions believe that this will not only improve the possibility of part-time workers, the vast majority of whom are women, to work longer hours but also will reduce the likelihood that employers will try to replace full-time workers with part timers. There are a number of other provisions in the agreement including greater flexibility over overtime and other arrangements that can be agreed at more

The INO nurses' union and Psychiatric Nurses' Association are planning to continue action in support of their claim for higher pay and shorter working hours. The unions expressed disappointment that health service employers failed to respond to the unions' willingness to negotiate over far-reaching modernisation as part of a deal over working time. Meanwhile the SIPTU general union confirms its support for the claim for shorter working hours although it is not involved in the current industrial action. [Read more at > INO->http://www.ino.ie/DesktopModules/Articles/ArticlesView.aspx?TabID=6334