Türkiye, Portugal

The SINTAP trade union has reached an agreement with Águas de Portugal water company that applies to the union’s members and delivers a 3% increase, with a minimum of €53, an increase in the food allowance to €7.60, as well as establishing an entry salary in the company of €905. Workers with more than 10 years’ service get further improvements. Meanwhile, the STAL trade union has been active in the waste sector where it has been involved in protest and industrial action to secure better pay and conditions for workers in the FCC and Resinorte companies. At FCC the demand is for a 15% pay

The SINTAP trade union has negotiated a new collective agreement with Private Institutions of Social Solidarity (IPSS) which provide care services to children and the elderly among others. The agreement includes a pay increase which works out around 3.75% on average. There is also a service-related increase of €21.00, for every five years of service, up to a limit of six seniority periods. SINTAP sees this as a very positive outcome but is committed to continue to work to secure IPSS workers the same salary and career development conditions as those in public administration.

The SINTAP and STAL trade unions have called for a wide range of improvements to the pay and conditions of both public sector and voluntary firefighters. SINTAP members joined a lobby of the government on 1 February and set out their demands, including updating of various allowances covering risk, hardship and permanent availability; revision of the Staff Statute of Professional Firefighters of Local Administration; updating pay scales – (not done since 2002, with exception of the annual increases resulting from the State Budget); and revision of retirement age. Meanwhile, STAL has been making

Members of the STAL local government union are mobilising for a busy end to the year with a series of actions to push for improved pay and conditions. In Coimbra there is a long-running strike related to special payments for workers in municipal swimming pools while transport workers are demanding decent facilities for drivers and are on strike on 14-15 December. Municipal workers in Almada will mobilise on 21 December over pay and the cost of living while waste workers take action on 22, 23 and 26 December in Oeiras against unilateral changes to shifts and working time. Finally, workers at

Both the SINTAP and STAL unions have expressed discontent with the pay increase on offer for public service workers in 2024. The overall wage bill will rise by over 5% with increases ranging from 3% to over 6% depending on position in the pay scale. The two unions argue that this level of increase will not compensate for the recent loss of purchasing power because of higher inflation. STAL estimates a 5.1% fall in real terms in 2022-23 alone. SINTAP has called for a re-opening of negotiations while STAL has called a national strike for 27 October. The strike, also supported by the Frente Comum

Over 500 delegates took part in a national conference organised by the STAL trade union on 20 September to reaffirm priority demands on pay, career development, working conditions and stronger public services. The activists also underlined the need to intensify mobilisations to achieve these objectives. The meeting endorsed the demands set out by the CGTP-IN confederation for 2024, including a 15% increase in wages, with a minimum of €150 for all workers; an increase in the national minimum wage in public administration to €910 in January 2024, reaching €1000 later in the year; a standard 35

The KESK public services confederation argues that this month’s negotiations on public sector pay and conditions have failed to deliver any significant improvements. On the central issue of pay there is no agreement at all and the issue is now in arbitration. Meanwhile, the confederation says that many union demands have not been addressed with no measures proposed on tackling precarious employment, on addressing harassment and discrimination, no measures on fairer tax and nothing to improve pensions. Meanwhile, the Genel-İş local government union has signed a new collective agreement with the

Negotiations covering over six million public sector employees and pensioners began on 1 August with trade unions from the KESK confederation the main, independent trade unions involved in the process. KESK has set out its key demands which include above all a change to the system to ensure that it guarantees a proper process of collective bargaining, with trade unions entitled to resort to strike action, if necessary. Other key demands include an end to precarious employment and sub-contracting, raising the minimum wage of public sector workers above the poverty line, increasing the minimum

The STAL trade union is mobilising members in three separate disputes involving workers in parks and gardens, waste and municipalities. A four-day strike began on 3 August at the publicly-owned PSML company that maintains major buildings, parks and gardens in Sintra. The dispute is over a range of issues including deregulation of work schedules, integration into the pay system and allowances for employees who work in remote areas. Employees of the EMARP public company that provides cleaning and waste services in Portimão began their four-day strike on 4 August with demands over pay, salary

Trade unions, including STAL and SINTAP, are calling on the government to make further changes to proposals on pay and career development for public sector IT workers. In response to earlier union demands the government make some improvements to elements of pay, particularly for IT workers coordinating projects. However, the unions say that these don’t go far enough nor is there adequate provision for IT workers to protect their pay when faced with career change. The unions underline that improvements are essential if the public sector is to recruit and retain IT staff and reduce the need for