Collective Bargaining, Procurement, Norway, Netherlands

Trade unions across the three confederations – LO, YS and Unio – have negotiated changes to the main state agreement that regulates the relations between unions and the government. With many government agencies facing restructuring, the unions are pleased that the new agreement, that runs until 2025, will strengthen co-determination and ensure trade unions are involved in tackling change and the introduction of, for example, new digital tools and processes. The agreement also reinforces the commitment of both sides to address sustainability and climate change and has clearer wording around

The FNV trade union has called on workers to back a wave of wage demands in response to surging inflation. The union is targeting employers to get wage increases that protect against the higher cost of living, including additional increases where pay rises have already been negotiated. It is also calling for permanent contracts for workers stuck in precarious employment. The union demands include a €14-an-hour minimum wage, a 35% tax on profits in line with what workers pay on their income and other tax measures to boost public revenues. At the same time, a consortium of trade unions

Trade unions, including FNV and NU'91, have agreed a set of guidelines on the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers in nursing homes and those providing home care. This comes after union concern that existing guidance was unclear and created to confusion at the workplace. The unions and employers are also working together to ensure that there is sufficient PPE available not just to ensure that the guidance is applied in practice but also to provide for those workers who ask for PPE in other circumstances. Meanwhile in the central government sector negotiations on a new

The Fagforbundet public service union has underlined that it wants to maintain its key priorities for the pay bargaining round that has been deferred to the autumn. The union aims to address the situation of skilled workers who have fallen behind on pay in recent years. It also wants to see the work done by many public service workers during the pandemic properly recognise, stressing that it may not be appropriate to target specific occupations as many services are provided by team work and so it would not necessarily be fair to reward some and not others. Fagforbundet is aware of the

The Fagforbundet public service union reports that over a third of the country's municipalities have adopted a variety of measures to reduce the risk of social dumping. These include requirements to employ permanent employees, for pay and working conditions that correspond to the sector agreement in the industry and specific numbers of skilled workers and trainees. They also cover tax matters and the prohibition of cash payments, limits on the number of subcontractors, regular monitoring of contracts and the right of local authorities to audit the contractor and sub-contractors.

Trade unions in local government have given the VNG employers' organisation until 10am on 1 May to respond to their main demands or face action across the sector which employers 160000 workers. After six rounds of bargaining, trade unions broke off negotiations as the VNG failed to come up with any offer close to the unions' demands which include a real pay increase and measures to address workers' health and wellbeing, especially older workers.

The Fagforbundet public services union is working to ensure that its members benefit from provisions in collective agreements - in this case in the municipal sector and covering childcare - that ensure that workers are paid the appropriate wage for their experience and qualifications. Workers can get up to six years of service-related pay if they have been away from work because of caring responsibilities. Migrant workers can also get qualifications and experience from other countries taken into account. The union gives the example of a childcare worker from Lithuania who saw a NOK 104000 (EUR

The YS group of unions is looking for substantial real wage growth in this year's negotiations on pay. Its recent conference on wages highlighted the fact that while wages increased on average by 2.8% in 2018, this marked only a small increase in real terms as prices rose by 2.7%. In fact the union points out that on average wages in real terms are no different from five years ago and so with unemployment falling and a relatively positive outlook it is time for trade unions to push for higher wage growth.

The FNV trade union is refusing to sign a new collective agreement covering the ambulance sector arguing that it fails to deliver on pay and jobs. Indeed, the union says that pay rates in the agreement are below those paid by agencies and so the agreement will do nothing to stem the flow of workers out of direct employment in the sector. The FNV organised a petition signed by over 2000 ambulance staff calling for better pay and action on jobs and hours but the head of the ambulance service didn't event meet FNV members to accept the petition. A two-hour work stoppage was organised in the

The FNV trade union has started a series of actions in support of its pay claim for 110000 civil servants. The union is demanding an increase of 3.5% with a minimum guarantee of EUR 1000. The FNV argues that prime minster Mark Rutte has already called for a wage rise across the economy but Minister of the Interior, Kasja Ollongren, denies that there is any money for a pay rise for civil servants despite the long-term pay freeze they suffered. In the first of a number of initiatives the FNV organised a demonstration of prison workers in Utrecht and handed over their collective bargaining

The care and welfare section of the FNV trade union will re-launch its protest campaign among ambulance workers following a failure to secure funding for extra pay. The protests were suspended in November (see epsucob@NEWS 21, November 2017) when a commitment was given to provide EUR 19.5m to deal with major staff shortages in the sector. The FNV says that EUR 13.5m of this should cover higher pay with a demand for EUR 1500 for each worker this year. This is needed to address the massive work overload and attract more workers to the sector where pay is lower than other parts of the health

Excessive workloads and unpredictable hours will feature prominently in the childcare sector negotiations that began on 8 November. With a slogan that "we're not jacks of all trades" the FNV trade union highlighted the problem that childcare workers were overburdened with cleaning, administrative and other tasks rather than child care itself. The union will be looking for restrictions on the extent to which employers can ask childcare workers to change their working time at short notice. The main pay claim will be for a 3.5% pay rise for the 80000 workers in the sector.