Romania
Health union steps up campaign over pay and bonuses
Following its initial protests in March, the Sanitas health union is planning further action to put pressure on the government over pay and bonuses. A national rally is planned for 26 April and a two-hour warning strike will take place on 7 May followed by a full national strike across the health and social service sectors on 11 May. The union is protesting over the new pay system that hasn't delivered pay increases for all workers. The union also wants a general pay rise, an end to the cap on bonuses, compensation for pay lost to increase social contributions and the right to negotiate
Union begins protests over pay and bonuses
The Sanitas health union began a series of demonstrations outside the ministeries of labour, public finance and health on 20 March in protest at the government's failure to deal with long-standing issues related to health and social service workers' pay and bonuses. The union wants a pay increase for all workers in the sector backdated to 1 March and an end to limits imposed on bonus payments. Sanitas also wants to ensure that workers don't lose out on their take-home pay following a government decision to increase workers' social contributions. Four days of demonstrations are planned for
Health union checks member support for strike action
The Sanitas health trade union is asking members to sign up on its website if they support strike action over bonuses, pay and other issues. The union is reacting to Ministry of Health proposals that would impose a cap on bonuses and restrict bonuses for working conditions for technical and administrative staff. The union is also very concerned about proposals to shift social contributions from employers to employees that would effectively wipe out any agreed pay increases. Sanitas also wants action to ensure fair pay levels for different occupations.
East-West pay convergence stalls
Bulgaria Croatia Czech Republic Estonia Hungary Latvia Lithuania Poland Romania Slovak Republic Slovenia
An analysis by the European Trade Union Institute shows that wage convergence between East and West in Europe was steady up until 2008. However, since then the trend has either stalled or gone into reverse. Taking national average pay as a percentage of the average across the pre-2004 EU15, Croatia and Hungary show the largest increase in the pay gap since 2008. There were also increases in Slovenia, Czech Republic, Poland and Romania.Most progress was made in Bulgaria but from a very low level (11.8%) to 17.7%, still less than a fifth of average pay in the West.
Health union continues campaign for pay equity
(May 2017) The Sanitas health union says it will continue to campaign and mobilise in order to ensure that new legislation creates pay equity for all workers in the health and social services sectors. In its latest form the legislation fails to take account of a series of amendments submitted by the union. Sanitas says the process of consultation appears to have been for show only. The union will consider what further action to take should the legislation fail to incorporate the key changes on pay.
Air traffic controllers plan warning strike
(May 2017) The ATSR air traffic controllers' union was planning a two-hour warning strike on 12 May to put pressure on the employers (Romatsa) to conclude a new collective agreement. The union has been in discussions covering pay, passenger safety, stress at work and rights of workers, highlighting the increase in workload and company income but pressure to cut costs. The Ministry of Transport has refused to talk to the union. EPSU has sent a message of solidarity and also writtent to the Ministry and the Prime Minister.
EPSU’s South East Europe constituency meeting tackles gender equality, recruitment and collective bargaining
EPSU’s south east European Constituency meeting, which met in Sofia 28-29 March 2017, held in-depth discussions on the persistence of the gender pay gap and what could be done to reduce inequality through collective bargaining.
Union continues push for bonuses for all health workers
(March 2017) Health and social care union Sanitas has again met with the Ministry of Health to make the case for bonuses to apply to all workers across the health and social care sectors and ensure that all workers in these sectors benefit from pay rises. The union is hoping for decrees to be issues to regulate this situation as soon as possible. The two sides will also shortly begin negotiations over a collective agreement for the sector.