Portugal
Public sector unions are continuing their campaigns to retain the 35-hour week in the fact of the government's attempt to impose a 40-hour week and what would effectively be a 14% cut in hourly pay. Hundreds of agreements have been negotiated and signed in local and regional government to retain the 35-hour week but the government has refused to officially publish the agreements.
Read more at > STAL (PT)
And at > SINTAP (PT)
In 2013 the government imposed a 40-hour week on public sector workers. This was a five-hour increase without compensation. This prompted unions to begin a collective bargaining campaign across the public sector to negotiate agreements with local and regional employers to retain the 35-hour week. Unions like STAL and SINTAP have signed hundreds of agreements with government agencies, local authorities and other public bodies which keep the 35-hour week. Read more at > STAL (PT) And at > SINTAP (PT)
The SEP nurses' union reported 71% support for the start of its national day of strike action on 28 June. The action is the latest step in the union's campaign to ensure that all nurses benefit from the return to the 35-hour week promised to public service workers. The SEP is angry that the Ministry of Health has not only failed to recruit the required number of nurses to ensure that the 35-hour limit can be met but is proposing that new workers be employed on fixed-term contracts.
The FSP-UGT public services federation in Madrid has launched a campaign calling for a return to the 35-hour week. This is the central demand of a campaign calling for restoration of all the cuts imposed on public sector workers across areas and levels of government. The union is linking its campaign to the need to reduce unemployment. The union notes that the regional administration has begun to restore some cuts to pay and conditions and is negotiating over others and so it launched its campaign and is urging support for the initiative from other parts of the public sector. [Read more at >
