Health

The UK trade union movement has been angered by the government’s rushed draft legislation to impose minimum service levels on public service strikers. The government claims it is bringing the UK into line with countries like Italy and Spain but fails to acknowledge the different systems in those countries that guarantee the right to strike and impose no requirements on balloting for industrial action. The UK legislation, if passed, would not ensure that trade unions can negotiate minimum service levels and would allow employers to dismiss workers who failed to comply with the requirement to

The ver.di services union is calling for a 10.5% (minimum €500 a month) pay increase for the 21000 workers covered by the collective agreement at Helios, the biggest private hospital group in the country. The union argues that the hard work of health employees needs to be recognised at the same time as the need to protect workers’ purchasing power in the face of soaring inflation. Ver.di wants a 12-month agreement and rejects the idea of any compensation in the form of a one-off payment. Meanwhile, the union has criticised the impact of the commercialisation of care in light of the collapse of

A survey for the SAHP trade union found that 43% of its members faced violent threats at some point in 2022 and 22% were subjected to actual violence at some point during the year. The research revealed that mental illness and the influence of alcohol and/or drugs are the most common factors in violent incidents. Worryingly only half of those subjected to threats or violence say that some form of report was made. The SAHP says that employers should always show zero tolerance for threats and violence against healthcare professionals and must increase the preventive work with risk assessments

The Fp-Cgil public service federation has described the level of attacks on health workers as a national emergency. According to the INAIL institute for insurance against workplace accidents, in the last five years, there have been more than 12000 incidents at work classified as violence, aggression, threats and the like, with an average of about 2,500 per year, 75% of which affect women. The union argues that in this context, all preventive actions are indispensable and as part of its campaign “let's take care of those who care for us!”, the federation has reminded its members of the guidance

Continuing actions from last year, members of the HSCMTU health workers’ union organised a demonstration on 17 January to raise concerns about low pay and changes to working conditions. The workers then took their protest inside the emergency services head office with several remaining in the building overnight to highlight the strength of feeling about their situation. Changes to rules on shift work mean that workers can’t work the extra hours they need to make ends meet and the ending of a contract to disinfect vehicles has left staff to do this work, so extra duties without additional pay

Member of the vida private services union working at the network of religious hospitals have voted by a two-thirds majority to accept a new pay deal. Increases will range from 8.4% to 11.2% (for the lower paid) with a minimum increase on monthly salaries of €205. The union has welcomed the agreement that begins to recognise the work done by health staff during the pandemic and helps address the rising cost of living. Vida also underlined the importance of the high level of member participation in campaigning and industrial action that contributed to securing a better pay offer from the

The FNV and NU’91 health workers’ unions have worked to ensure that the 80,000 employees of the seven University Medical Centres will all receive a 10% pay rise in 2023 – 6% in January and 4% in November. There was some concern that not all employees would receive the same increase at the same time and the trade unions were considering legal action to get the employers to properly implement the collective agreement. The increase is slightly below the retail price inflation level of 11.2% but the aim will be to negotiate further compensation for inflation in the next bargaining round.

With the government refusing to negotiate on pay, health and other public service workers are set to continue their campaigns of industrial action into the new year. The RCN nursing union has announced two further strikes days (18-19 January) following its historic first national strike action in December. Unions representing ambulance workers (UNISON, Unite and GMB) will also take further action in England (11 and 23 January) and could be joined by colleagues in Wales who have just voted to take action. Meanwhile central government union PCS has a timetable for more targeted action across

The Vårdförbundet and Kommunal health and care unions have negotiated new and stricter rules on working time that will ensure workers have the right to proper rest time and in particular meet the requirement for 11 hours consecutive rest every 24 hours set by the Working Time Directive. The negotiations with the SKR and Sobona employer organisations took place following criticism from the European Commission that existing provisions did not ensure compliance with the Directive. The new rules will mean that any reduction to the 11-hour rest period will only be in exceptional circumstances and

Public services union Delta has welcomed implementation of the amended Working Environment Act that ensures that employers give priority to full-time employment. The law requires that employers document any decision to hire workers on a part-time basis and to discuss issues relating to part-time employees with trade union representatives. The Labour Inspection Authority has powers to enforce compliance with the new regulations. The legislation means that part-time employees get preferential access to any extra shifts and to extend their hours before employers hire new employees or take on