Social Services

The ver.di services union is calling for a 10.5% (minimum €500 a month) pay increase for the 21000 workers covered by the collective agreement at Helios, the biggest private hospital group in the country. The union argues that the hard work of health employees needs to be recognised at the same time as the need to protect workers’ purchasing power in the face of soaring inflation. Ver.di wants a 12-month agreement and rejects the idea of any compensation in the form of a one-off payment. Meanwhile, the union has criticised the impact of the commercialisation of care in light of the collapse of

The JHL trade union has expressed frustration at the decision of the state and church employers not to finalise negotiations over pay increases for 2023. They are apparently waiting to see how things develop in the key technology industry in the private sector. JHL raises the question of whether the church and state employers should be looking towards the private sector to influence their negotiations and also whether or not this is in effect a form of coordination that employer organisations have rejected in the past. In both church and state negotiations there is a commitment to negotiate a

A documentary on Norwegian TV and a survey by the FOA trade union in Denmark expose similar problems facing workers in eldercare as they have too many clients, leaving those requiring care regularly seeing lots of different carers for short periods of time. Reacting to the documentary the Fagforbundet trade union highlighted the problem of so many care staff working part-time, chasing shifts to try to make ends meet and being part of a continuing turnover of staff so that there is little continuity for those needing care. In Denmark, the FOA argues that staff spend too little time with those

The public services union ver.di has published early results of a major study of workers in social services that reveals the high risks of burnout and exhaustion faced by many workers in the sector. The survey covers more than 8,200 employees in childcare, disability assistance, youth welfare offices and other areas of social work. It found that since the pandemic many employees often skip the legally required rest breaks and 40% stated that they regularly work three or more hours overtime a week as well. Over 65% of respondents say that they are under time pressure at work, with more than 80%

The Vårdförbundet and Kommunal health and care unions have negotiated new and stricter rules on working time that will ensure workers have the right to proper rest time and in particular meet the requirement for 11 hours consecutive rest every 24 hours set by the Working Time Directive. The negotiations with the SKR and Sobona employer organisations took place following criticism from the European Commission that existing provisions did not ensure compliance with the Directive. The new rules will mean that any reduction to the 11-hour rest period will only be in exceptional circumstances and