Workers, mainly nurses, at a 24-hour health helpline are taking action to protect their pay and improve their employment conditions. The workers have not had proper employment contracts, being effectively self-employed, and now face the sack for resisting a massive cut in pay. The service is being run jointly by Portuguese and French communication companies. Some of the workers are represented by the SEP nurses' union, part of the CGTP-IN trade union confederation. EPSU has sent a solidarity message to SEP.
Read more at > SEP (PT)
And at > CGTP-IN (PT)
Health workers challenge precarious employment
More like this
Unions want action on precarious employment
Public service unions have written jointly to the public services minister, Christian Jacob, to demand government action to reduce precarious employment in the public services. The unions want negotiations to start immediately to resolve the situation in the public sector where, according to a recent study the use of short-term contracts is more widespread than in the private sector. Read more at > CGT
Unions call for action on precarious employment
The public service federation, Frente Comum, has submitted a proposal to the government to reduce the level of temporary employment in the public sector. The federation argues that a proper process of recruitment should take place to enable temporary workers to apply for permanent jobs. The unions argue that in many cases employees on fixed-term contracts are doing jobs that are required on a permanent basis and so it is a matter of fairness that they have the chance to get a permanent contract. The federation also emphasises that this would be an important measure in the current climate with
Federation attacks increase in precarious employment
The CSC public service federation has criticised a decision by the Council of Ministers to allow for the recruitment of contractual and agency workers to parts of the federal civil service. The union argues that there should have been a proper process of negotiation over the proposal to appoint contractual workers migration issues. The union thinks the government is using the pretence of categorising certain issues, such as migration, as “auxiliary” matters so that it can appoint contractual staff rather than statutory civil servants. The CSC also argues that the Ministry of Justice’s plan to