Waste, Gas, Culture, Pensions/retirement

The SINTAP trade union has reached an agreement with Águas de Portugal water company that applies to the union’s members and delivers a 3% increase, with a minimum of €53, an increase in the food allowance to €7.60, as well as establishing an entry salary in the company of €905. Workers with more than 10 years’ service get further improvements. Meanwhile, the STAL trade union has been active in the waste sector where it has been involved in protest and industrial action to secure better pay and conditions for workers in the FCC and Resinorte companies. At FCC the demand is for a 15% pay

The ver.di trade union reports a very positive result for employees of the Alba waste and cleaning company based in Cottbus and Lausitz in Eastern Germany. Workers will see a pay increase of at least €335 a month as of 1 January 2025 but with an initial increase of €205 backdated to 1 January 2024. The union says this corresponds to a 14.47% pay increase overall with employees with more than six years of service in pay group 4 getting €432 more, ending up with a gross salary of €2959.53 – an effective increase of 17.09%. Additional payments for unplanned work and work on Saturdays from noon

The Eurofound research agency has published a policy brief which underlines the need to tackle poor job quality among a range of essential occupations, including in the health and care, food systems, cleaning and refuse, transport and protective services sectors, along with manual workers in general. The report argues that these workers’ health and well-being were at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic and continue to be post-pandemic contributing to the labour shortages that persist in these sectors. The policy brief says that critical occupations facing staff shortages, such as jobs in health

Eight trade union organisations, including the five main confederations – CGT, CFDT, FO, UNSA and CFE-CGC – have come together to organise a national demonstration on 13 October over the cost-of-living and the threat of austerity. The key demands will be around increases to the national minimum wage and pay rises in collective agreements and the unions will continue their protests against the pension reforms which came into effect on 1 September. The unions are also looking at measures to reduce the gender pay gap and increased funding for public services.

The LO and other confederations have negotiated special age limits and pension additions for public sector workers in difficult and arduous jobs. When a new public service pension was negotiated in 2018, it was clear that separate pension solutions had to be agreed for over 200,000 with special age limits. After two failed negotiations, bargaining resumed on 30 May this year, and an agreement was reached on 25 August. The new model will mean that with full earnings, a special age premium of 5.8% will apply to those with a special age limit of 65 years, 6.5% for those with 63 years and 7.7% for

The STAL trade union is mobilising members in three separate disputes involving workers in parks and gardens, waste and municipalities. A four-day strike began on 3 August at the publicly-owned PSML company that maintains major buildings, parks and gardens in Sintra. The dispute is over a range of issues including deregulation of work schedules, integration into the pay system and allowances for employees who work in remote areas. Employees of the EMARP public company that provides cleaning and waste services in Portimão began their four-day strike on 4 August with demands over pay, salary

Following strike action, the Unite trade union has secured a 10.1% pay increase for waste workers employed by the Suez multinational in South Gloucestershire. Strike action against Suez also delivered in Somerset, where the union won a 9% pay increase up from the original offer of 4.85%. However, disputes continue elsewhere, including with the Urbaser company in North Yorkshire where workers have rejected an 8% pay offer and days of strike action have been planned stretching through August and into September. Meanwhile, renewed strike action is likely in Coventry. Lengthy strike action by

Unions organising in the waste sector are taking on both local councils and private contractors in campaigns to secure better pay offers from employers. Action by Unite members at Welwyn and Hatfield delivered a 13.5% pay increase when the employer, private contractor Urbaser, agreed to increase its original offer of 8%. Meanwhile, several other disputes continue with one of the longest running in the North West where Unite members have been taking action since May in their dispute with Cumberland Council. In Selby in North Yorkshire Unite members are also taking on Urbaser and have voted for