All-out strike by childcare and other care workers

Members of the ver.di services union at the Pflegen und Wohnen social care company in Hamburg have voted 98% in favour of all-out strike action. Over 200 employees had already been involved in five warning strikes in an attempt to get the company to negotiate a new collective agreement covering all employees.. Those employed by the company before 30 June 2011 are still covered by an old collective agreement but there has been no pay increase since 2009. Workers taken on since 30 June 2011 are not covered by any collective agreement. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://www.verdi.de/themen

Members of the Fórsa, INMO and SIPTU trade unions, employed in community and voluntary sector agencies funded by the state sector will begin indefinite strike action in a range of workplaces from Tuesday 17 October. The action, involving workers mainly in the health and social care sectors, is coordinated by the ICTU confederation and was overwhelmingly supported by members in ballots that took place following the breakdown of talks at the Workplace Relations Commission in July. The long-running dispute is over the failure by employers to address pay disparity between these workers and their

Services union ver.di is in the process of balloting its members in social services on all-out strike action. The union has been trying to negotiate pay improvements for around 240000 workers in various social services such as child care, youth services and care for people with disabilities. Ver.di is arguing that these jobs have been undervalued and the workload, commitment and professionalism of staff needs to be recognised. So far, the regional government employers have failed to come up with any concrete offer, giving only vague indications that they might provide some improvements but