Ambulance workers demonstrate over threat to jobs

Over 60 ambulances joined a demonstration in Vienna on 21 May as workers protested over deteriorating pay and conditions in the non-profit sector. Workers from the Austrian Red Cross, Johanniter (St.Johns) ambulance service and Workers' Samaritan Federation are calling for a single collective agreement for the sector or extension of the agreement that currently covers Red Cross workers. Some workers are not covered by a collective agreement and there is evidence of long working hours - as many as 60 a week - without overtime pay. The demonstrators also raised the issue of the need for proper

Unions and employers have a signed an agreement to ensure that ambulance workers jobs are protected when the reorganisation of the service takes effect in 2011. Currently some 40 organisations run ambulance services across the country, employing around 4,800 workers. The reorganisation will mean that ambulance services will be organised across 25 regions and only one operator will get the licence to run services in each region. The next stage in negotiations will be to establish a single collective agreement covering the sector. [Read more at > Abvakabo (NL)->http://www.abvakabofnv.nl/cao