Waste, Electricity, Early Childhood Education and Care
Labour shortages: Social Partners jointly respond to the European Commission Consultation on Labour and Skills Shortages in the EU: An Action Plan
In a coordinated action, EPSU joined with Social Partners in Health and Social Services to responded to the European Commission consultation on Labour and Skills Shortages in the EU Action Plan.
EPSU Social Services Working Group discuss labour shortages, legislative developments and European Work Councils
On 27 February 48 participants gathered in Brussels for the Social Services Working Group to discuss, among other things, European Works Councils in the care sector, staffing levels and digital care platforms.
International support to Italian ENEL workers
Filctem-CGIL, Flaei-CISL, and Uiltec-UIL are currently mobilising in protest of Enel Group’s decision to make unilateral changes in working hours arrangements, outsourcing operations on the electricity grid, and refusing to renew the remote work agreement.
Warning strikes help deliver good pay deal in waste sector
The ver.di trade union reports a very positive result for employees of the Alba waste and cleaning company based in Cottbus and Lausitz in Eastern Germany. Workers will see a pay increase of at least €335 a month as of 1 January 2025 but with an initial increase of €205 backdated to 1 January 2024. The union says this corresponds to a 14.47% pay increase overall with employees with more than six years of service in pay group 4 getting €432 more, ending up with a gross salary of €2959.53 – an effective increase of 17.09%. Additional payments for unplanned work and work on Saturdays from noon
Union pushes for transitional agreement in childcare
The FNV trade union was due to begin talks with childcare employers to negotiate a transitional collective agreement to cover the approximately 114,000 employees in the sector, particularly with a view to address the challenges of retaining and attracting staff. The union notes that staff shortages and heavy workloads are leading to high levels of sickness absence and that the numbers leaving the profession increased significantly in 2023. The aim is to secure a temporary agreement for the second six months of 2024 in the lead up to negotiations over a long-term agreement. A recent FNV survey
Childcare workers strike over pay and precarious conditions
Members of the CCOO trade union in early years education have taken three days of strike action with a fourth planned for 15 November. They also came from all regions of Spain to join a national demonstration in Madrid on 2 November as part of their campaign to secure improvements to pay and secure real progress after over two years of negotiations with private sector employers. The union wants action to address precarious employment conditions and has had to resort to industrial action to put pressure on the employers to negotiate on the issue. The union argues that pay and working conditions
Study highlights poor job quality for essential workers
The Eurofound research agency has published a policy brief which underlines the need to tackle poor job quality among a range of essential occupations, including in the health and care, food systems, cleaning and refuse, transport and protective services sectors, along with manual workers in general. The report argues that these workers’ health and well-being were at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to be post-pandemic contributing to the labour shortages that persist in these sectors. The policy brief says that critical occupations facing staff shortages, such as jobs in health