Remunicipalisation, Restructuring, Privatisation, Türkiye, Portugal
Turkish and Dutch unions discuss resistance to privatisation and commercialisation of public services
The Turkish unions in DISK (like Genel-Is and Devrim Saglik-Is) and KESK (SES, Tum-bel-Sen) and the Dutch FNV met to discuss the impact of outsourcing, privatisation and commercialisation of public services.
Water workers plan action if key demands not met
Workers at the Aguas de Portugal (AdP) water company are considering strike action if a number of key demands are not met. Apart from improvements in pay and career development, the workers want to see a progressive reduction in working hours and measures to address the fact that restructuring of the company has lead to many workers being on different rates of pay despite having the same length of service and responsibilities. Unions mobilised on the 27 March to put pressure on management which has so far failed to address these issues.
Government decree ends outsourcing
The government has passed a decree that effectively ends outsourcing in central and local government. Outsourced workers in central government will be directly employed by the central government institutions while those in local authorities will be transferred to local authority-owned companies, rather than directly to the local authorities. The changes have been welcomed by trade unions although some have expressed concern about the difference in rights and pay and conditions for those in local authority companies and about the fact that the changes were implemented by decree with no