15 epsucob@NEWS July 2009

After a marathon five-day negotiating session, public services union ver.di has secured new agreements on pay rates and health covering around 220,000 social and childcare workers. The agreement on health acknowledges the increased responsibility and workload of social workers and childcare workers and introduces health committees, health working groups and risk assessments to address these problems. The revised pay structure will mean that a newly recruited childcare worker will start on €2240 a month instead of €2130 and after four years this will rise to €2400, up from €2240. The deal has

Fifteen hospitals in southern Netherlands have come to an agreement over recruitment and training. The hospitals face staff shortages in some areas and have been competing among themselves by offering higher pay and have been using freelancers to fill gaps. Public services union Abvakabo believes that freelancers are often paid 20% more than directly employed staff but have less responsibility. The agreement means that the hospitals will no longer compete with each other through offering higher pay and will put more money into training. Abvakabo is pleased that hospitals are investing more in

The CGIL FP, CSIL FP and UIL FPL public service federations have written a joint letter to Maurizio Socconi the minister for labour, health and social policy asking him to intervene in the long-running dispute over pay in the private health sector. The last negotiated agreement in the sector expired in December 2005 and it means that the employers have failed to agree a new four-year agreement on employment conditions (2006-2009) as well as the two biennial agreements on pay that should have covered 2006-2007 and 2008-2009. The unions point out that the collective agreement in public health

The VPÖD/SSP public services union has reacted angrily to proposals by the Solothurn hospitals group to cut 250 jobs. The union argues that the hospital made the decision on the basis of hospital statistics that are unreliable and like comparing apples with pears. The union has called on the hospital’s management board to make available the data on which it has based its decision, to undertake full negotiations with the unions and to renounce any job cuts. [Read more at > VPÖD/SSP (DE)->http://www.vpod.ch/aktuell/nachrichten/ansicht/article/der-vpod-protestiert-gegen-den-kahlschlag-bei-der

Local government employers have made a final offer of a 1% pay increase (1.25% for the lowest paid) for craft workers such as bricklayers, electricians and plumbers. The 40,000 workers covered by the negotiations are covered by a different agreement from the administrative and other council workers covered by the main local government services agreement. The craft trade unions (Unite, GMB and UCATT) are unhappy at the employers’ offer and also that they want to abolish the separate agreement and integrate all craft workers into the main local government agreement. [Read more at > Unite (EN)-

The FOA public services union has rejected a proposal that public sector workers should be banned from wearing headscarves. The union argues that there is no need for such a ban which would introduce a form of religious discrimination into public sector recruitment when it was important to broaden the labour market from which public sector employers recruit. The ban has been proposed by Martin Henriksen an MP from the Danish People’s Party and has been compared by FOA to the notorious Berufsverbot in West Germany in the 1970s that imposed political restrictions on civil service employment.

Discussions over the economic crisis involving the government, the CCOO and UGT trade union confederations and the CEOE employers’ organisation have broken down after the CEOE set out a series of “clarifications” regarding the current negotiations. The unions reaffirmed their commitment to the social dialogue and the need to discuss how to deal with the increase in unemployment. They said that the CEOE had undermined the negotiating process by trying to introduce a series of demands that were clearly unacceptable. These included reopening the debate on labour reform and the issue of the ease

The Impact public service union has warned that widespread industrial action will be organised if the government plans any further cuts in public sector pay, pensions or jobs. The union was responding to what it regards as a relentless campaign by politicians, business and the media targeting public sector workers. Impact stresses that public sector workers have already seen a 7.5% cut in pay as a result of the government’s pensions levy and should not be forced to pay for a crisis created by highly paid finance sector bosses. [Read more at > Impact (EN)->http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/newsdesk

The CGT is hopeful that draft legislation that would undermine employment rights in local and regional government will be defeated. The proposal was introduced by UMP deputy Jean-Pierre Gorges with a view to relaxing the rules on recruitment of workers to local and regional government. The union said that the draft legislation would effectively mean the end to the statutory regulations that cover employees in the sector. Not only the Association of Mayors but also the Minister of the Interior have rejected the proposals and indicated their support for the maintenance of the statutory

The Croatian government has increased VAT from 20% to 23% and introduced an additional 3% income tax on wages and pensions as part of its response to the current crisis. The SSSH trade union confederation attacked the proposals arguing that it would lead to a cut in consumption and so undermine economic growth. The 3% tax increase was supposed to be implemented on monthly salaries above 3000 kuna (€400) but there was further union anger when the finance minister suggested that the tax increase should be applied to all salaries. [Read more at > SSSH (EN)->http://www.sssh.hr/en/index.php?option