Social Services

Social care workers in Kerry and Cork have voted for industrial action in what is set to be a national campaign of strikes across what are called Section 39 organisations. These are non-government, publicly funded bodies that provide health and social services. In 2018 there was an agreement that employees in these organisations would, in line with the public sector, get pay rises to compensate for the cuts imposed during austerity. They are still waiting for this pay restoration and as many as 250 organisations across the country could be hit by strike action over the coming weeks. SIPTU

Following a government report on nursing and care, services union ver.di has called for urgent action for a long-term solution to understaffing across health and care institutions, particularly in light of the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. In conjunction with hospital and care associations the union has already put forward a process for assessing staffing needs in hospitals and says that an academic proposal for evaluating staffing levels in eldercare has identified the need for an extra 100000 staff. Ver.di argues that measures are needed on training and pay and working conditions. It

Negotiations in the private nursing and care sector have ended without agreement and so now move into mediation. The trade union position is to try to ensure that occupations are paid at similar levels irrespective of the collective agreement in place but there is not employer commitment to do this. Public service union Fagforbundet acknowledges that there will always be some variations between agreements but is concerned that major differences are becoming systematic. It points out that a cleaner in private nursing and care has a minimum wage of NOK 258000 (EUR 24000) which is around NOK

The Cgil, Cisl and Uil Pa public service federations have declared a one-day strike on 9 December covering public health, and local, regional and central government. New collective agreements are due to be negotiated across these sectors but the unions argue that the government has failed to guarantee funding to cover any negotiated improvements. They also say that there is no commitment from the government to ensure safety at work, to increase employment or to tackle precarious work. Fp-Cgil (IT)

Public services union UNISON is part of a new group of 80+ organisations and individuals – the Future Social Care Coalition – that is calling for an emergency fund to support social care and boost carers’ pay. The coalition has estimated that GBP 3.9 billion (Euro 4.3 billion) is needed to stabilise the sector and finance a fair deal on wages. Meanwhile, the GMB trade union is celebrating a victory with the announcement by the Welsh government that it would fund full sick pay for workers who are off sick with COVID-19 or have to self-isolate. Until now many low-paid social care workers would

The Kommunal municipal services union believes that the recent deal in local and regional government – the largest collective agreement in the country – will deliver real benefits for the women-dominated sector and help address the recruitment challenge in health and social care. The 41-month agreement will run until 31 March 2024 and includes general pay rises of 2% in 2020 (worth on average SEK 520 (EUR 50), a further 2% (SEK 530 (EUR 51)) in 2021 and 1.4% (SEK 380 (EUR 37)) in 2022. There will be an additional 0.6% in each of the three years for vocationally trained occupations and a lump

Ver.di and other public service unions have negotiated what is seen as respectable deal in a challenging bargaining environment that delivers a 1.4% pay rise for all workers on 1 April 2021 with a further 1.8% increase in April 2022. The agreement runs until 21 December 2022. The pay increase in 2021 is backed with a 50 Euro a month minimum which means that the lowest paid workers will see pay increase by 2.59%. Meanwhile, nursing staff will get 70 Euros a month additional payment from March 2021, rising to 120 Euros in 2022. Other payments for health and care workers include an increase in

The OSZSP health union reports that it has secured a commitment from the government for a 10% pay increase for health and social care workers. However, in discussions with the health ministry the union had to intervene on the state budget to ensure that funding was available to hospitals to cover the pay increase. In contrast, the government is arguing that its changes to income tax rules will increase take-home pay for workers and so it is planning to freeze pay for other public service workers and is even using the change to argue for pay freezes in the private sector.

The FNV, NU'91 and other health unions have welcomed the decision by the health minister to support their demands on personal protective equipment (PPE) for health and social care staff. The unions have been calling since March for workers to be able to decide when they need to use PPE and to have the appropriate equipment available. The unions had criticised the guidance from the RIVM public health institute which left discretion to employers and which, unions believed, had been drawn up with the scarcity of equipment in mind. The unions' approach puts this discretion in the hands of care

The national agreement on increased funding for health and social care, including increases to workers' pay has failed to meet all the key trade union demands. The unions are particularly concerned that the so-called " Ségur de Santé" (named after the street in which the Ministry of Health is based) does not ensure that all health and social care workers across the public, private and non-profit sectors will benefit in the same way. There is also continuing frustration that nothing has been done to tackle understaffing, excessive workloads and low pay specifically in social services. This is