Netherlands
The Abvakabo public services union is confident that a new collective agreement for the childcare sector will be signed soon. The agreement will last from 1 May 2010 to 31 December 2011. The basic pay increases will be 1.25% from 1 May 2010 and 1.0% from 1 May 2011. It is possible that the agreement will also include a new personal budget system that will allow individual employees to select the types of benefits they want.
Read more at > FNV Abvakabo (NL)
Researchers at the AIAS labour studies institute at Amsterdam University have secured funding from the European Commission to co-ordinate a 12-month project (WISUTIL) examining occupational pay rates in the energy, waste and water utilities. EPSU is supporting the project and its affiliates in the utilities will be asked to encourage their members to supply information on pay. The project will use the international network of Wage Indicator websites to get individual workers to input details on salaries, hours, training and other factors that can be used in comparing and analyzing pay. A
SIPTU, the union that represents around 6000 workers in early years education, has welcomed the government’s decision to increase funding for the sector with an additional €69 million in the 2022 budget. With average pay at €11.91 an hour, the union is calling for urgent action on pay in order to tackle recruitment and retention in the sector where around four in 10 workers are looking for alternative employment. SIPTU is calling for pay talks to begin as soon as possible in the newly established Early Years Joint Labour Committee where a negotiated pay increase will be legally enforced.
After a year of campaigning and in following the threat of industrial action and a boycott, the FOA public services union has signed a collective agreement with the Tinytots private childcare company. The union was very concerned about low pay rates at the company which operates four sites in Copenhagen. There was also evidence of lack of pensions, poor sick leave provision and working time rules. The FOA is now very pleased to be able to negotiate with the company and deal with what would have been a worrying case of social dumping. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse
