03 epsucob@NEWS 3 February 2006
Solid support for day of action
With over 100,000 demonstrators and as many as one million strikers, unions were pleased at the support given for the day of action of public service pay on 2nd February. With inflation forecast as 1.8% for 2006, public service unions are angry at the government's offer of a 0.5% pay increase and a refusal to negotiate a reform of the pay structure. Read more at >CGT Read more at >FO
Campaign builds against longer working hours
Services union ver.di is warning local authority employers that they will face strike action if they push ahead with plans to increase the working week. The union says it will defend jobs and working time in local authorities and maintain pressure on the regional government employers to sign up to the deal agreed with federal and local government at the beginning of last year. Local authorities in Baden-Württemburg, Lower Saxony and Hamburg have all announced their intention of increasing hours. The union's response is that strike action will begin in Baden-Württemburg from 6th February. s
Debate over public sector pay
The IMPACT public services union says that an official report makes a misleading comparison between public sector and private sector pay. It points out that recent high increases for many public sector workers resulted from a comprehensive comparison of public sector and private sector pay rates in a benchmarking exercise that what was part of the national pay negotiations. The union also argues that general public/private comparisons cannot be made without taking account of the differences in occupations, skill levels and age across each sector. [Read more at >IMPACT->http://www.impact.ie
Demonstration over pay and government policy
The FNSFP public services federation is continuing its campaign over government policy and in protest over a 1.5% pay increase. It has called a national demonstration in Lisbon on 3rd February. The federation argues that 1.5% will be insufficient to compensate for inflation in 2006 which is expected to reach 2.5% and fails to compensate for declining real pay in previous years. Read more at >FNFSP And at >STAL
Unions set up youth network
Unions in the FNV federation have set up a youth network for members under 35. Two of the first initiatives of the network will be to train young members in negotiating improvements in working conditions and in campaigning for the right to be paid the national minimum wage at 18 years of age rather than at the current age of 23. [Read more at >FNV->http://www.fnv.nl/nieuws/renderer.do/menuId/8944/clearState/true/sf/8944/returnPage/8944/itemId/48142/realItemId/48142/pageId/6841/instanceId/8946/] [And in Dutch at >FNV->http://www.fnv.nl/nieuws/renderer.do/menuId/8886/clearState/true/sf/8886
Collective agreement system is compatible with EU law - Commission
In the lead up to the European Court hearing of the Vaxholm case, the European Commission appears to have conceded that the Swedish system of collective agreements is compatible with European law. The case involves the attempt by a Latvian company to pay its Latvian workers in Sweden below the collective agreement for the building industry. Further details of the case are at> EPSU Read more at >euobserver And at >ETUC (FR) And at >ETUC (EN)
Minimum wage to rise by 11.5%
Following discussions between the social partners the Estonian government has confirmed that the national minimum wage will rise by 11.5% in 2006 taking it to 3,000 EEK a month from 2,690 EEK. Although a substantial rise this is only in line with the increase in average earnings. The social partners agreed to a target for the minimum wage of 41% of average earnings by 2008 but this remains a challenge as by 2004 it was only 34% of the average and increases in 2005 and 2006 will not have closed the gap. Read more at >EIRO
Strike against cuts in jobs and services
There was widespread support for a two-day strike in the Department for Work and Pensions on 26 and 27 January. The strike was in protest at 15,000 job cuts across the Department and plans for a further 15,000 to be cut by 2008. The PCS union argues that services have already been affected and will only deteriorate further. Read more at >PCS
£50 million equal pay judgement
Around 3,300 administrative and management staff in the Prison Service are set to share £50 million in compensation following a successful equal pay case. The workers had their jobs compared to prison officers and governors and some occupations will now see their starting pay increase by £3,000 a year while backdated compensation for some workers will be as high as £50,000. Read more at >PCS
Unions ballot over threat to pensions
Nine unions which organise local government staff are balloting their members over possible strike action in protest at the government's decision to press ahead with cuts in the local government pension scheme. While the government stepped back from major cuts to other public sector schemes it has not changed its mind on ending the “85-rule” in local government. This allows workers whose age and length of service add up to 85 to retire on a full pension. Read more at >UNISON
Pay deal in energy sector
Unions in the gas and electricity industries have agreed increases on pay rates for 2006 and 2007. An increase of 1.8% will be implemented in three stages in 2006 - 0.6% on 1st February, 0.8% on 1st April and 0.4% on 1st July. The 1.5% increase for 2007 will be implemented in two stages - 0.9% on 1st January and 0.6% on 1st April. There is a reopening clause in the agreement in case inflation increases above expected levels. Read more at >FNME-CGT And at >FNEM-FO
Social dialogue and collective bargaining in healthcare
Despite the problems of restructuring, large-scale job cuts and declining union membership, a report from EIRO suggests that unions in the health sector have managed to make progress in collective bargaining. A new collective bargaining round is underway over new two-year agreements. In the recent years the unions have won improvements in working hours and ensured that issues like violence and stress are covered in the collective agreements. Read more at >EIRO
Continuing delays over collective agreements
Unions are becoming increasingly frustrated by delays implementing collective agreements in the public sector that were agreed in principle last summer but were already 18 months overdue by then. The latest problems have arisen over the agreement covering regional and local government workers and unions are putting pressure on the ARAN collective bargaining agency to clarify the figures and confirm the funding for the increases. Read more at >FP-CGIL
Collective bargaining meeting dates
Collective bargaining dates Dates have been confirmed for EPSU meetings on collective bargaining this year. There will be a collective bargaining working group in Brussels on Monday 27 February. This is a follow up to the conference last December and will be assessing the conference itself and how to make progress on the issues discussed. There will also be a pensions working group in Luxembourg on 1 June and the annual collective bargaining conference will take place on Thursday 30 November and Friday 1 December in Brussels. [Read more at >EPSU pensions working group->http://www.epsu.org/a