Russia, Latvia

Latvian trade unions have organised nationwide protests culminating in a national demonstration in Riga on 1 October. The unions are protesting that poverty levels remain high. They are urging the government to increase salaries, pension entitlements and health care coverage to reflect cost of living increases.

Many workers in state services, particularly the low paid, should benefit from a new salary structure, according to the EIRO industrial relations observatory. The new system is being introduced to replace a wide range of different arrangements which had created large variations in pay rates for similar jobs across the state sector. Although trade unions were not directly involved in negotiations over the new system they welcome the impact it will have on lower pay rates. The employees affected are all those in services funded from the state budget - ministries, institutions under the control

The Trade Union of Health and Social Care Employees of Latvia (LVSADA) organised a picket in the capital, Riga, on 8 March, calling for an increase in salaries and improvement of working conditions for social workers and women working in social care and assistance. The LVSADA has been negotiating with Riga City Council since November 2006 and has tried to reach a solution on decent salaries in the social care sector from January 2007. Unfortunately all the union's efforts of the union have been unsuccessful. A survey by the LVSADA revealed that 98% of employees in the social care sector in

Police in Latvia estimated that 10,000 people joined the demonstration earlier this month against government economic policies making it the biggest since the country’s independence in 1991. Public sector trade unions supported the march and the ETUC called for a new social deal across Europe that would provide an alternative to the neo-liberal policies being proposed by governments in Latvia and Lithuania. The ETUC wants to see more of a focus on decent work rather than policies that resort to cuts in pay and reliance on precarious employment. [Read more at > Associated Press (EN)->http://www

The latest official statistics show the impact of the recession in the Baltic states. In Latvia average wages fell by 1.8% but the fall was much sharper in the public sector (-9.5%) where a cut in salary is part of a government deal with the International Monetary Fund. In Lithuania national average earnings were down by 0.9% although the fall in public sector earnings was lower (-0.1%) than in the private sector. In Estonia average earnings fell by 4.4% according to the latest figures, the first fall in 16 years. [Read more at < Latvia statistics (EN)->http://www.csb.gov.lv/csp/content/?cat

A new report from the ETUI reveals the holes in the arguments of those who maintain that Latvia proves that austerity can get an economy out of recession. This policy brief argues the opposite and shows that what actually happened in Latvia is that policymakers decided not to continue but to break with the policy of austerity. This made it possible for Latvia to get out of a vicious spiral of austerity causing a depression and thereby leading to even more austerity. [Read more at > ETUI (EN)->http://www.etui.org/Publications2/Policy-Briefs/European-Economic-Employment-and-Social-Policy/Does