Portugal
Trade unions in local government have resisted the government's plans to increase the public sector working week to 40 hours by signing agreements with local authorities to maintain the 35-hour week. STAL, SINTAP along with the STML trade union in Lisbon have been negotiating these agreements one-by-one and now over 100 local authorities have signed up to the 35-hour week.
Read more at > STAL (PT)
And at > SINTAP (PT)
Public sector unions are continuing their campaigns to retain the 35-hour week in the fact of the government's attempt to impose a 40-hour week and what would effectively be a 14% cut in hourly pay. Hundreds of agreements have been negotiated and signed in local and regional government to retain the 35-hour week but the government has refused to officially publish the agreements. Read more at > STAL (PT) And at > SINTAP (PT)
The FSP-UGT public services federation in Madrid has launched a campaign calling for a return to the 35-hour week. This is the central demand of a campaign calling for restoration of all the cuts imposed on public sector workers across areas and levels of government. The union is linking its campaign to the need to reduce unemployment. The union notes that the regional administration has begun to restore some cuts to pay and conditions and is negotiating over others and so it launched its campaign and is urging support for the initiative from other parts of the public sector. [Read more at >
The vida and GPA-djp private service unions have submitted their main collective bargaining claim to the employers for the health and social care sector that covers 125000 workers. The unions' key demand is for a 35-hour week with no loss of pay. They see this as essential for making the sector more attractive to boost recruitment, tackle staffing shortages and address the excessive workloads and stress that are rife in the sector. The unions also point out that part-time workers will benefit with an effective pay increase of 8.6% as their current hourly rate is based on a 38-hour week and the
