Brazil, Russia

The HWURF health workers' union has written an open letter expressing its grave concerns about the state of the health service. The letter was sent to the President, Prime Minister and the speakers of both chambers of the National Assembly. The union argues that funding for the service is critically low, threatening the quality of care. There is no provision for pay increases for 2016 and health workers across the country are seeing average pay fall as the prices of goods and services rise. With a recruitment shortage workers in the sector are having to work 50% or 100% more to try to maintain

Earlier this month parliament approved government plans to gradually increase pension ages by five years starting from next year. The change has been widely rejected by trade unions with public service workers joining recent demonstrations to show their opposition. The issue was discussed at last month's meeting of EPSU's constituency covering Russian and Central Asia which agreed a statement expressing concern not just about the impact of the change but also about the failure of the government to carry out a proper consultation with trade unions.

At a meeting on 22 October the health workers' union confirmed its opposition to the government's pensions reforms and said it would fight to restore the right to early retirement for health workers. The reforms, including raising the pension age to 65, have met with widespread opposition across the trade union movement not just over the measures themselves but also the way the government introduced them with little or no consultation. The law takes effect from 1 January 2019 and the health workers' union is considering legal action to challenge the changes to early retirement rights.

The health workers' union reports on official data for average wages in the health sector showing an overall average of 32815 rubles (EUR 463) a month in 2017, up by 5.9% from 2016. Doctors' pay averaged 56448 rubles (EUR 796) up 11.4% on 2016 while medical personnel saw their average pay increase by 7.4% to 30246 rubles (EUR 426). Average pay for junior medical staff was 21413 rubles (EUR 302), 16.1% higher than in 2016. Inflation during 2017 fell from 5% in January to 2% by the end of the year. Overall average wages across Russia were around 40000 rubles a month (EUR 564).

The health workers' union has called for increased funding for the sector to deal with the major problem of healthworkers' pay. The union reports that an analysis of wage developments in the first half of 2017 found that average pay for doctors and other medical staff actually fell in seven Russian regions while in contrast wages in industry increased. The wide range of salaries across the country is exacerbating staff shortages and the union highlights the fact that in many institutions the pay bill is the first to be cut in order to fund other areas of health spending.

The International Trade Union Confederation, along with the KTR and FNPR national confederations, has denounced the decision of a St Petersburg court to dissolve the Interregional Trade Union Workers’ Association (ITUWA) on the grounds that it engaged in political activities.The ITUWA had supported truck drivers protesting against tax increases, and criticised the government’s socio-economic policies on its website.The ITUC said that this is a clear violation of freedom of association, guaranteed under ILO Convention 87, which Russia has ratified. The Confederation called on the Russian

The government has confirmed that around two million employees of federal government and related agencies will get a 4.3% pay rise in October. The increase corresponds to the level of inflation in December 2018, however prices have already edged up in 2019 with the inflation rate at 5.0% in January and 5.2% in February.