Court backs unions claim over collective bargaining

The Federal court has supported case for regarding care staff and midwives taken by the VPÖD public services union and professional associations representing care workers and midwives. This overturns a decision by the cantonal (regional) court in St.Gallen that acknowledged that the workers’ pay grading was too low, but said that the employer wasn’t required to act as there were other occupations that were also undervalued. The federal court made clear that an employer could not use the existence of other discriminatory factors to avoid dealing with a case of discrimination. The case has now

The Enerji Yapi-Yol Sen public sector union in Turkey has finally secured a ruling from the European Court of Human Rights over a Turkish government circular banning public servants from taking strike action. The Court press release says that the Court acknowledged that the right to strike was not absolute and could be subject to certain conditions and restrictions. However, while certain categories of civil servants could be prohibited from taking strike action, the ban did not extend to all public servants or to employees of State-run commercial or industrial concerns. In this particular

The Council of Europe's Committee of Social Rights has supported many of the claims of violations of trade union rights brought by the CCOO and UGT union confederations against the government. The Committee says that the government has infringed the European Social Charter in relation to freedom of association; the right to strike; the level of the minimum wage; overtime pay; working time; holiday entitlement and notice periods. Overall the Committee notes seven breaches Spain's obligations under the charter. However, it also has reserved its opinion on various matters on which the government