Germany
Services union ver.di and the dbb civil service union have agreed to start talks with the regional government employers over a new collective agreement. The new 27-month agreement with the federal and local authorities comes into effect as of 1 October but the regional employers have so far refused to sign a new agreement. The main sticking point has been their demand for longer working hours.
Read more at > verdi
After the 14-week strike earlier this year the new collective agreement covering regional government employees came into effect on 1 November. The central element of the agreement was on working time where ver.di and the other public service unions had successfully resisted attempts by the employers to introduce an increase for all workers. A formula based on the average of hours worked by full-time workers was used to work out the new weekly working hours which vary across the nine regions in western Germany: Baden-Württemberg 39 hours, 30 minutes; Bayern 40 hours, 06 minutes; Bremen 39 hours
A new law on equality between men and women came into effect at the end of March and will mean important improvements to maternity, paternity and adoption rights. The public authorities will be required to ensure they remove all obstacles to equal treatment of men and women in recruitment and promotion in the public sector. The law also has provisions covering shorter working hours and measures to allow for the reconciliation of work and family life. Read more at > CCOO-FSAP (ES)
The GPA-DJP services union has underlined the effectiveness of relying on minimum wages in collective agreements. A recent report by the Hans Böckler-Stiftung in Germany notes that Austria has one of the smallest percentage of low-paid workers in Europe. This is down to the very high level of collective bargaining coverage with most sector agreements having a monthly minimum salary of at least €1300, several with €1400 and with unions pushing for a €1500 minimum. Trade unions still need to work on some areas of the economy where workers are not covered by collective agreements as well as
