Union protest focuses on labour code and 2020 budget

With inflation increasing rapidly across Europe, trade union movements are mobilising to highlight the cost-of-living challenges facing workers, their families as well as pensioners and students. Latest figures show prices rising at anything from 6.5% to nearly 23% a year in Europe with further increases predicted. The CMKOS confederation in the Czech Republic is calling for a national demonstration in Prague on 5 September while the ÖGB confederation in Austria is coordinating protests around the country on 17 September. In between these two, the GSEE private sector and ADEDY public sector

The OPZZ and Solidarnosc trade union confederations have expressed their support for protests by junior doctors over pay and health funding. A hunger strike by a group of junior doctors has been joined by representatives of other medical professions and their key demands are supported by the wider union movement. The unions want to see the proposed law on health sector salaries revised through a proper process of social dialogue to deliver fair and higher salaries for all occupations in the sector.

The trade union confederations of the Czech and Slovak Republics – CMKOS and KOZ – have called national demonstrations on 8 October to call for action to tackle the cost-of-living crisis. They argue that their respective governments need to undertake urgent measures to support households in the face of soaring inflation and particularly high energy costs. They want to see increases in wages in general and particularly minimum wages and assurance that government budgets will include provisions to cover pay rises in public services.