Collective Bargaining, Pensions/retirement, Hungary
Waste company sacks union officials
(January 2017) EPSU has sent a message of support to four members of the HVDSZ 2000 municipal and waste union who were sacked by their employer, FKFzrt. The four are part of a collective bargaining negotiating team and were paid by company as part of a normal arrangement but which the company now claims contravenes the law on independent unions. The union, supported by its confederation MASZSZ, has set up an online campaign backed by the Labourstart website.
ETUC pay campaign highlights fall in wages
Croatia Cyprus Greece Hungary Italy Portugal U.K.
(March 2017) The ETUC is calling for a pay rise for workers across Europe and in the latest initiative in its campaign reveals that wages are lower now than they were eight years ago in seven EU member states while in 18 EU countries wages have grown much slower over the seven years after the crisis than in the eight years before that.In the 7 years 2009-2016 real wages (adjusted for inflation) have fallen every year by an average of 3.1 % in Greece; 1 % in Croatia; 0.9 % in Hungary; 0.7 % in Portugal; 0.6 % in Cyprus; 0.4 % in UK, and 0.3 % in Italy.
Hungarian public sector workers need a pay rise
EPSU has joined with its Hungarian affiliates in calling for a long overdue pay rise across the public sector. While different groups of workers have seen some increases in pay in recent years, there has been no across-the-board pay rise for all workers for nine years.
Unions launch public service pay campaign
The KKDSz culture workers' union and BDDSz childcare workers' union have been instrumental in getting the SZEF public sector confederation to launch a campaign on public service pay. The confederation is highlighting low pay and understaffing across the public services and the need for negotiations on long-term pay development in the public sector. It calls for action on corruption and the need for a redistribution of government spending to workers to ensure a fully staffed and professional public service delivering quality services.
Unions continue campaign against "slave law"
Sixteen trade unions are working together in a campaign against the "slave law" that will see major changes to rules on working time, with overtime limits increased from 250 hours to 400 hours a year. A national demonstration was organised on 8 December and EPSU sent a message of support. A further national protest is planned for 5 January, with support also coming from civil society organisations. The unions have a range of demands including withdrawal of the overtime proposals, a pay rise for public sector workers, changes to the strike law and improvements to pensions.
Capacity building project for the hospital sector in Central, East and Southern Europe started
On 28 March 2019 EPSU participated, together with its representatives of the two national affiliates from Romania, Sanitas, and Croatia, HSSMS-MT, in the kick-off meeting of the joint HOSPEEM-EPSU project focusing on strengthening social dialogue in the hospital sector that will run in 2019 and 2020.