Health

The government’s offer of a £1,400 (€1620) annual pay increase for health workers has not convinced trade unions. Public services union UNISON has launched a campaign over pay in the health service with a ballot planned for October, while the GMB and Unite trade unions have already begun balloting their members in the health service. The historic ballot over possible strike action by nurses’ union RCN is due to begin on 15 September. Meanwhile, university employees, including non-teaching staff such as cleaners, catering and security workers and library and administration employees

While welcoming progress on addressing health and care staffing issues, public services union ver.di is calling for major improvements to the hospital care relief bill. The union worked with the German Hospital Association and the German Nursing Council to develop the PPR 2.0 instrument for needs-based personnel assessment in nursing and argues that this should form the basis of the legislation and not be mentioned only in the explanatory memorandum. Ver.di says that the basis for staffing must be the care needs of patients and these should be clearly formulated in the law, with minimum

The TEHY and SuPer nurses’ unions are stepping up their campaign of industrial action to secure a better pay offer from the municipal employers. The two unions have maintained an ban on overtime and shift changes since before the summer but have now tightened up those restrictions and also announced a series of strike actions beginning with a one-day stoppage in Kanta-Häme in the South West on 2 September. So far three further strikes – each of four days – have been declared in Turku, Helsinki and Oulu with two running from 6-9 September and the Oulu action running from 13 to 16 September. The

The SOZZASS health workers’ union has expressed concern over the way that the health ministry is addressing health workers’ pay and its failure so far to undertake proper negotiations with the unions. In its latest announcement the ministry has indicated its willingness to increase pay for nurses and refers to bringing average nurses’ pay up from 89% to 100% of average earnings. While SOZZASS welcomes a commitment to increase pay for nurses it says that this should be as the result of collective bargaining and that all health workers deserve a pay rise.

The LVSADA health workers’ union, supported by associations representing doctors and nurses, organised a warning strike and protest on 27 July, arguing that the government had failed to meet commitments to increase pay. The union says that a 10% increase should have been paid on 1 July on the current salaries of €1963 for doctors, €1183 for nurses, midwives and other professionals and €745 for support staff. LVSADA further argues that the government has also failed to meet a commitment from 2017 that would have seen these salaries reach €2327, €1396 and €931 respectively. Depending on the

Members of the RCN nursing union in Scotland have voted overwhelmingly to reject a 5% pay offer and a majority has given support to strike action. The union in England and Wales will launch a ballot next month with a similar recommendation from the leadership to reject the pay offer and support industrial action. This opens up the prospect of the first ever UK industrial action by the union. In England and Wales the union’s main pay demand was for a rise of 5% above inflation (currently 11.8%), to combat years of wage stagnation and the cost-of-living crisis. The government has announced an

Trade unions representing health staff are planning protest action in September to highlight the major problems faced by the sector. They highlight the closures of beds and facilities that are reducing services to the public and are calling urgently for action on recruitment and training of staff and to deliver improvements to pay and conditions to make the sector more attractive to work in. The CFDT, UNSA and FO federations will meet in early September to confirm their plans while the CGT has already set 22 September as a date for national action.

The ver.di health union has reacted angrily to proposals by the Sana private healthcare group to offer pay increases for 2023 only to nursing staff. The company is also offering only one-off payments for 2022 for all staff and a 5% increase for in 2023 only for nursing staff (along with a €100 increase in the allowance for operating room and intensive care staff). The 3% pay rise planned for 2024 would go to all staff. Ver.di points that workers are already facing the prospect of inflation reaching 11.6% during 2022 and 2023. The lump sum offer for 2022 totals €3000 (€1000 for trainees) paid

The vpod/ssp public services union is continuing to sound the alarm over urgent staff shortages in healthcare. It says that action is needed to retain staff as well as recruit new workers and that initiatives to shorten the working week can help. Reductions to weekly working hours have been introduced or are being planned in the Wetzikon and Felix Platter hospitals along with the Siloah and Lindenhof health groups. Meanwhile, vpod/ssp reports that Aargau hospitals have significantly increased their allowances for weekend and holiday shifts. The union is also continuing to press employers to

The Fp-Cgil public service federation has welcomed a recent court ruling that has blocked an employer from applying an inferior collective agreement. The action was taken against La Nostra Famiglia, a non-profit health and social care provider, that wanted to avoid the private health sector agreement and sign up to an agreement with lower pay rates and longer working hours. The court ruling means that the employer now has to compensate workers for any lost pay and to apply the full terms of the private health agreement that was negotiated by Fp-Cgil along with the Cisl-Fp and Uil-Pa

After difficult negotiations in the energy production and supply sector the FNV trade union is asking members to vote on a collective agreement that will provide a 4% pay increase from 1 May 2022. The agreement will run for 14 months to 1 July 2023 and includes proposals to discuss how to ensure the agreement will help tackle the major challenges faced by the sector. Key to the discussions will be work pressure, policies on older workers and how to deal with the shortage of technical staff. Meanwhile, there were also challenging negotiations in the maternity sector where a new 18-month

Over the first six months of the years many of EPSU’s affiliates in health and social care have been active in negotiating, mobilising and taking action to secure improvements in pay and conditions for their members. With understaffing a major challenge across Europe, trade unions are fighting for the better, hours and other conditions that will help to retain staff and recruit more workers to these essential services. So far affiliates in 15 countries have been involved in protests, strikes and negotiations, with at least 16 new sector agreements delivering new pay and benefits for workers.

After 11 weeks of strike action and more than 25 days of negotiations, health union ver.di and the six university hospitals in North Rhine Westphalia have agreed on the key points for a collective agreement that addresses excessive workloads and understaffing. The agreement will run from the beginning of 2023 and sets out the ratio of employees to patients required on each shift. If this ratio isn’t met or if other stressful situations occur, those affected receive stress points and then an additional day off for every seven points accumulated. In the first full year of implementation up to 11

Trade unions have agreed a new two-year collective agreement in private health care that runs from 1 May 2022 to 30 April 2024. There will be a general 2% increase on 1 October 2022 and a 1.9% pay rise on 1 June 2023. However, if pay developments in industry are higher than 1.9% then the additional amount will be added. The agreement also includes improvements to family leave, sick leave and requires employers to justify the use of fixed-term contracts even for short periods. Two working groups are being set up – one to develop the culture of negotiation and collective bargaining and the other