Unions hope negotiations can deliver better rights for posted workers

Health union ver.di has suspended its strike action in university hospitals in Düsseldorf and Essen to allow mediators to help resolve the conflict over workloads and staffing (see previous three issues of epsucob@NEWS). It agreed to the initiative following the intervention of the labour minister of the North Rhine Westfalia region. Earlier in the year ver.di was successful in negotiating a key agreement on staffing and workloads covering hospitals in Freiburg, Heidelburg, Tübingen and Ulm in the Baden-Württemburg region. The agreement set out a procedure for determining staffing levels in

A new report from the Eurofound research agency has found that teleworkers are twice as likely to exceed the 48-hour working time limit as workers onsite and are significantly more likely to work in their free time. This underlines the importance of securing a right to disconnect and the report looks at the experience of the first four Member States that introduced rules and agreements on the right to disconnect prior to 2021. These have demonstrated the pivotal role of the social partners in ensuring these rules are translated into reality on the ground. The report argues that new agreements

The ETUC and European Trade Union Federations, including in particular the construction (EFBWW) and foodworkers (EFFAT) have attacked MEPs for voting to water down provisions of the Enforcement Directive. The Directive is intended to provide greater protection for posted workers but the European Parliament’s Employment and Social Affairs Committee (excluding the Socialists and Democrats and European United Left-Nordic Green Left) endorsed amendments that undermine the legislation. Posted workers could be denied the minimum wages and standards (including collective agreements) of their host