06 epsucob@NEWS March 2009

Eight national trade union federations came together to organize a second nationwide day of action this year on 19 March and the response was even better than on 29 January. Around three million workers are estimated to have taken part in over 200 demonstrations around the country. The action was over pay and purchasing power in both public and private sectors and is the latest stage in the public sector unions to secure a reform of the public sector pay system and to try to make up for declining real pay since 2000. The unions have called on the government and employers to open talks

The FSP-UGT public services federation has called for a new agreement in the general public administration that would require action to uncover the main reasons for continuing inequality between men and women. The union says it wants to work with the equality units that should have been set up in each Ministry according to recent legislation, although so far only two are up and running. The federation argues that if it is possible to identify the main factors that contribute to inequality then it will be possible to draw up a plan of action to deal with them. [Read more at > FSP-UGT (ES)->http

EPSU affiliates from six countries have agreed to maintain their collective bargaining network and meet two times a year to exchange information on collective bargaining policy. The group was initially brought together through a European Commission-funded project and has now met four times since January 2008, partly with assistance from the ETUI trade union education body. The unions from Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands will meet next in October when they will be focusing in particular on training as well as the use of fixed-term and agency workers in the

The ICTU confederation has postponed a planned day of action on 30 March in order to take part in talks with government and employers about how to deal with the country’s economic and financial crisis. National negotiations broke down earlier this year, following which the government went ahead with legislation to implement a “pensions levy”. This is effectively a pay cut for all public servants and represents a reduction of 7.5% from the public sector pay bill. The ICTU has drawn up a 10-point action plan as the basis of negotiations on a strategy in response to the crisis and it has made

No progress has been made after the third round of bargaining at the Thüga energy company where the employer is insisting on a two-hour increase to the working week. Ver.di wants a 5.6% pay increase just to pay for the increase in working time and has rejected the employer’s offer of 1.2% plus a EUR 500 lump sum. Meanwhile at AVEU ver.di and the employers have agreed to set up a working group to try to make progress on this year’s negotiations. The union has rejected proposals for an increase in working time and has said that any employer plans for “modernization” must not be at the expense of

Unions and employers have had the first exchanges in negotiations over the energy sector collective agreement. The current agreement was signed in 2007 and runs until 1 July 2009. ABVAKABO has made clear that it will negotiate a pay increase that takes account of the recent good performance of energy companies and will not restrict itself to pay guidelines set by central talks between employers, government and the union confederations. The energy sector employers have indicated that they want to talk about overtime rules and about the introduction of a “benefit budget” where individual workers

The European Council and European Parliament have begun a process of conciliation in order to arrive at an agreed series of amendments to the Working Time Directive. The process arises from the fact that the Parliament rejected Council proposals for changes that would have continued the individual opt-out, extended the period over which average hours are calculated and failed to acknowledge on-call time at the workplace as working time. The ETUC is now calling on both bodies to deliver a positive result and re-assert the importance of the European social model. [Read more at > ETUC (FR)-> http

A small working group of 14 representatives from 11 countries met in Brussels on 17 March to review the 2008 collective bargaining conference, discuss current priorities and plan for the 2009 conference. The group agreed that the 2009 conference should focus on the impact of the crisis collective bargaining and particular the effect on women workers. A key debate at the conference will look at decent work and particularly the potential contribution that lifelong learning can make to help workers through the restructuring arising from the recession. A more detailed report of the meeting will be