Europe, EPSU Collective Bargaining News

The final conference of the WICARE project on pay and conditions in social services took place in Amsterdam on 18 November, organised by the AIAS research institute that coordinated the project. The overall findings were discussed and several country reports considered in detail. There was a general view that the reports provided affiliates with some useful and interesting information, providing a perspective on what individual workers actually thought of their pay and conditions. One of the key findings was the widespread and high levels of dissatisfaction with pay. Draft reports are

A new report analyses the impact of economic governance on collective bargaining in six countries - Bulgaria, France, Greece, Portugal and Spain. It looks at the effect on both outcomes - wage freezes and cuts - as well as processes such as decentralisation of collective bargaining and undermining of multi-employer bargaining. The report is based on a research project coordinated by the Spanish trade union research institute Fundación 1er Mayo and Fernando Rocha Sanchez from the Fundación will be at the EPSU collective bargaining conference in January to provide an overview of the research

The tripartite research body, Eurofound, has published a new study examining the process of restructuring from a regional perspective. Along with background research, a number of case studies look at the extent to which various stakeholders are involved in the process. This can include national governments aong with regional and local actors government, public employment service, social partners, the restructuring company and service providers. The commitment and active engagement of all relevant regional and local stakeholders was seen as one of the keys to a successful outcome. [Read more at

The International Labour Organisation's (ILO) annual report on wages provide important data on the recent trade of very low wage growth. The ILO is concerned not only about the impact of these trends on workers' living standards and income inequality but also on the global economy and the threat of deflation taking hold in some parts of the world. It also warns against policies that aim to reduce wages to make exports more competitive as they threaten a downward wage spiral and so would be self-defeating. Sandra Polaski, the ILO’s Deputy Director-General for Policy, argues for a comprehensive

Over 110 trade unionists from 28 countries across the EU and the rest of Europe took part in collective bargaining and social dialogue conference organised by EPSU in Brussels on 16-17 December. The conference was partly financed by the European Commission and provided EPSU affiliates with a chance to discuss the impact of economic governance on collective bargaining. Other key issues tackled during the two days included pay in the public sector and comparisons with the private sector, working conditions in central government, the gender pay gap in the pubic services, youth employment and

The ITUC global union confederation has called a day of action on 18 February to reassert the right to strike. The initiative has been taken as employers' group at the International Labour Conference in June 2014 denied that that the right to strike forms part of ILO Convention 87, thus undermining decades of jurisprudence and the application of international law. The Workers’ Group unanimously rejected the demands of the Employers’ group. The conflict over the right to strike has been referred to ILO’s Governing Body, which should make a decision in May this year and could could call on the

The ETUC has welcomed a European Court judgement that says that workers should be paid according to the relevant arrangements in the host country. In this case it means that 186 electrical workers posted from Poland to Finland were entitled to be paid the appropriate rate set by the sector collective agreement. [Read more at > ETUC (EN+FR)->http://www.etuc.org/presse/arr%C3%AAt-de-la-cour-de-justice-europ%C3%A9enne-en-faveur-de-l%E2%80%99%C3%A9galit%C3%A9-salariale-pour-les-travailleurs#.VO7S0zGA3cu] [And at > EU legal website (EU languages)->http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/;ELX

Minimum wages in Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan play a very important role in wage setting and EPSU affiliates in these countries are active in their union movements in campaigning for higher rates. They have also been involved in debates around the basked of goods and services on which living wage calculations are based. One of the main successes for unions has been to ensure that minimum wages are increased on a regular basis. In some countries workers had to wait as long as five or even nine years to see an increase in the rate. Information on recent developments is provided

The European Commission's statistics agency Eurostat has just released the latest figures for minimum wage rates for the 22 countries in the EU, now including Germany, that have national minimum wages. The report includes a comparison with figures from 2008, and reveals that Greece was the only country to see a fall (-14%) while in Ireland the rate remained unchanged. The highest increases between 2008 and 2015 were registered in Romania (+95%), Bulgaria (+64%), Slovakia (+58%) and Latvia (+57%). The report also includes figures for minimum wages related to median wages although the data on

A meeting of trade unions, employers and governments at the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 25 February agreed a statement re-affirming the right to strike. This ends two years of controversy after employer organisations had brought the ILO’s supervisory mechanism to a standstill by challenging the existence of an international right to strike and the authority of the ILO. PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, said that while the recognition of an international right to strike is essential, attacks on the right to strike at national level are widespread. Therefore PSI will continue

A new analysis of the European sector social dialogue by the ETUI trade union research institute finds that some sectors are very active while others are not developing so well. The report also finds that the sectoral social partners have in recent years produced more ‘joint lobbying texts’ addressed to the European institutions than ‘joint agreements’ concluded, for example, in order to improve working conditions, training facilities, or workplace health and safety provision. Two sectors in which EPSU is involved - electricity and local and regional government - are mentioned in particular in

The 2014 annual report of the European Restructuring Monitor produced by the Eurofound research body focuses in particular on public services noting that net job cuts since the beginning of the crisis now top 800000. The ERM describes this as the "most severe restructuring in Europe for many decades." The report also warns of the particular decline in the number of young workers in the sector raising concerns about the transmission of knowledge, attractiveness of the sector and efficient delivery of public services. The analysis found that in some countries the restructuring process was "often