Central government

The OSSOO trade union representing public service workers has reacted angrily to the announcement that 30,000 civil servants will face a pay freeze this year. The union argues that this fails to recognise the efforts of state workers during the pandemic and the threat to living standards posed by large increases in energy and other costs. OSSOO is also protesting over the failure of the government to engage in any form of negotiation. The union is coordinating open letters from different groups of workers to their relevant minister raising the issue and highlighting the impact of the pay

The Fp-Cgil public service federation, along with the Fisascat-Cisl and Uiltucs trade unions, has signed a three-year agreement covering around 50,000 health and social care workers employed by ecclesiastical organisations. The agreement is backdated to 2020 and runs to 2022 with a pay increase of on average €95 paid in two instalments – €50 in December 2021 and €45 in December 2022. The agreement also provides improvements in certain job classifications, maternity leave and leave to look after sick children. There will also be a cap on the use of fixed-term contracts. Meanwhile a new

The CCOO trade union has expressed its concern and disappointment that the agreement on telework that was negotiated last April may not take full effect until October rather than January as claimed by the public services minister. The union says that the Draft Royal Decree will require about two months for processing and publication and then three months for the administration to determine the criteria for the jobs that can be provided by telework. It estimates a further four more months for implementation in each department. The CCOO raises concerns about the implications for gender equality

The main public service federations have signed a preliminary agreement covering the 250000 staff in central government for the three-year period 2019-2021. After eight months of negotiations and 25 meetings, the agreement delivers an average pay increase of €90 a month backdated to 1 January 2021 in a deal worth around 5%. The agreement also covers a range of areas including remote work, parental leave, support for women who are victims of violence and new procedures covering progression through pay grades. Meanwhile, Fp-Cgil and Uil-Fpl have signed an agreement with the ARIS private health

The annual pay negotiations that cover the public sector have resulted in an average pay increase of 3% which will also apply to allowances and other pay additions. Lower paid workers will actually see their pay rise by 3.22% with a 2.91% applied to higher salaries. The increases come into effect on 1 January 2022. The increase is the highest for more than 10 years and ahead of the inflation rate up to September 2020 which forms one of the agreed bases for the negotiations.

Trade unions have negotiated improvements for workers in social services and public services. The new collective agreement in social services will see minimum monthly pay increased significantly from €642 to €730 while working hours will be cut by one hour a week. Trade union members covered by the agreement will get an extra day’s leave after 10 years’ service. Meanwhile, across public services there will be a 2.2% increase in the basis salary on which specific salary amounts are calculated. Trade union members covered by the collective agreements will get two additional days’ leave for

The FSC-CCOO and FeSP-UGT trade union federations, along with other unions, are taking strike action on 3 December across the ministry of justice. The unions argue that the government has reneged on two key elements of an agreement reached in September that set out to ensure that pay levels across the ministry were the same as for staff employed by the autonomous regions. The agreement also included a commitment to payments of between €80 and €190 a month (backdated to 1 January 2021) as compensation to those on the lower pay levels. A demonstration of several thousand ministry of justice

Following the large demonstration in October in support of a pay rise for public service workers, unions are angry and disappointed that the government has failed to respond. Marián Magdoška, president of the KOZ trade union confederation said that unions were presented with the budget for 2022 a day before a tripartite meeting and realised that, despite promises from last year, it didn’t include any provisions to cover even a pay rise to compensate for inflation. The health union is also angry that in negotiations at the end of October the government was effectively blackmailing unions by

The KOZ trade union confederation organised a national demonstration in Bratislava on 27 October in support of the 13% pay claim by public service trade unions. The government has not offered any pay rise at all for 2022 and the unions are looking to ensure that workers are compensated for inflation, as energy and other prices soar, and for recent years when pay in the public sector has lagged behind increases in the minimum wage. KOZ also used the demonstration to draw attention to the impact of prices rises across the economy and to call for increases in pensions and other social benefits.

The FSC-CCOO public services federation organised a protest outside the General Directorate of Public Administration on 15 October in anticipation of a series of one-day strikes by theatre and museum staff. The dispute is over two issues. The first is the demand that museum security staff should be on the E2 pay grade and not the only group of workers stuck on the E1 grade. The second issue relates to access to technical jobs at the INAEM cultural agency and the failure to recognise certain training and qualification. FSC-CCOO argues that the INAEM should be fully integrated into the IV

The ver.di services union has called for the new parliament, meeting for the first time on 26 October, and eventually the new government to set an example by supporting a collective agreement for the parliament’s drivers. The union says that the workers are paid less, work longer hours and have poorer pension entitlement than colleagues who are covered by the public sector agreement that covers federal employees. While ver.di is positive about the signs of support from social democratic MPs, it has made clear that the drivers are willing to fight for a collective agreement and further strike