Recruitment & organising, Energy
Building skills in the electricity sector: final steps for the joint European social partner’s project
The Skills2Power project (‘Strengthen the Role of National Social Partners and VET Providers to Build Skills Intelligence in the Electricity Sector’) concludes after four years of successful activities.
Union strike bus continues its tour
The vpod/ssp public services union has launched an organising and collective bargaining initiative to boost the level of activism in the union across the country. The aim is to talk to members and workers at local level to find out the main issues of concern and discuss what can be done in response. Pay and staffing levels have unsurprisingly emerged among the hottest issues as the bus has made its way through health and social care workplaces in Basel, Bern and the regions of Solothurn and St.Gallen. However, workers have also raised concerns about fair working hours, having proper breaks
Network energy company workers to get 2% pay increase
Negotiators at the FNV trade union secured a better pay offer from employers and workers in network energy companies will get a 2% pay increase from 1 April 2022 as part of an agreement running from 1 May 2021 to 31 December 2022. The agreement includes a commitment to maintain the current social plan and work on a number of other initiatives covering employability, workloads, wellbeing and early retirement.
Health workers’ protest while utility workers get 15% pay rise
The five national trade union confederations sent a solidarity message to the MESZK chamber of healthcare professionals in support of its protest march in Budapest on 31 July. The demonstrators called for pay increases for nurses in line with those already awarded to doctors and argued this was crucial to help stem the migration of nurses to western Europe. Earlier this year the five confederations also came together to file a complaint with the International Labour Organisation over the government’s imposition of new legislation which removes the rights to negotiate and take strike action
Union ends long-running dispute with gas company
The GMB energy and general union declared an end to the long and bitter dispute with British Gas over its aggressive policy of firing and rehiring workers. GMB members voted three to one to accept a new deal. Around 7,000 British Gas engineers staged 44 days of strike action after the company threatened to sack them if they didn’t sign up to detrimental changes to their terms and conditions. The new deal offers improvements to overtime rates and unsocial hours payments, places limits on the amount of unsocial working undertaken, reverses the decision to close the defined benefit pension scheme
Energy workers to get 3.8% pay rise
Around 30000 mainly energy workers covered by the AVEU collective agreement will get a 3.8% pay rise over the next two years. Pay will rise by 2.3% from 1 June 2021 and by 1.5% from 1 November 2022 (trainees get two increases of EU 50). The agreement runs for 27 months until 31 August 2023. There will also be a corona payment of EUR 600 paid by January 2022 at the latest with a pro-rata amount for part-time employees and EUR 300 for apprentices. All union members are to get two days off to attend specialist events and training courses. The AVEU agreement covers around 130 companies in Eastern
Adaptation to Climate Change: a European strategy still not up to scratch
In February 2021, the European Commission launched a new strategy on adaptation to climate change as part of the European Green Deal. The objective is to make the European Union a climate-resilient society, fully adapted to climate change by 2050.
European social partners’ hearing with the European Commission on the "fit-for-55" package
EPSU joined a hearing with European social partners on the "fit-for-55" package hosted by the European Commission’s Executive Vice-President Frans Timmermans and Social and Employment affairs Commissioner Nicolas Schmidt.