No progress in private and non-profit health and care negotiations

The second round of negotiations covering the 130,000 employees in the private health and social care sector ended after 10 hours without result. The employers didn’t improve their offer of 8.8%, well below the demands of the GPA and vida trade unions for 15% with a minimum increase of €400. They argue that 8.8% is just too low to make the industry more attractive and to address the fact that average pay in the sector is 22% below the national average across the whole economy. A national works council conference was set for 20 November where the unions would discuss further measures, including

The three public service federations - FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL – are continuing their intensive negotiations over a new collective agreement covering private healthcare. They managed to make progress on temporary changes in duties and working hours, confirming the 11 hours of daily rest and 14 minutes of dressing time for all those who are required to wear a uniform and maximum period of shift of 12 continuous hours. Further issues under discussion relate to illness and injury and to the central issue of pay with the aim of the unions to achieve comparability with public health.

AIOP, one of the private employer organisations in private health care, angered unions by posing a major threat to continuing negotiations in the sector. The three union federations - FP-CGIL, CISL-FP and UIL-FPL - have been involved in intensive bargaining to try to reach the first new agreement in the sector for 13 years. However, they had to call an emergency meeting with regional health authorities and the ministry of health in order to get the negotiations back on track following an attempt by AIOP to insert a clause that would have enabled it to avoid certain aspects of the agreement on