Europe
EPSU affiliates around Europe have been developing collective bargaining policies, using legal action and pushing for legislative change to help them address the persistent problem of low pay in sectors dominated by women. In a report commissioned by EPSU, She works hard for the money, and in a presentation to EPSU's Quality Employment conference,Torsten Müller, senior researcher at the European Trade Union Institute, provides a number of examples from Finland, Sweden, Germany, the UK and other countries where public service trade unions have used collective bargaining to improve pay in health and social services. The report uses European data to indicate how skilled and unskilled nurses' pay compares to pay across the economy as a whole and how the percentage of women workers in the sector does appear to have an impact on pay levels. The report also outlines a range of other strategies and tactics used by unions to deal with the fact that pay in sectors dominated by women is seriously undervalued.
