2011 August epsucob@NEWS 14
Unions angered by further cuts
The CGIL trade union confederation has called a general strike for 6 September to demonstrate its opposition to the latest government plans to cut public spending and raise taxes on income rather than wealth. The measures pose further threats to workers’ pay and conditions with later retirement, more flexibility in labour contracts and the possibility of further privatization and liberalization. Although not taking strike action, the CISL public sector and school sector federations are also concerned about the cuts and the possibility that workers will lose their 13th month salary if
Energy giant, E.ON, plans to cut 11,000 jobs
E.ON, the biggest energy company in Germany, has announced plans for makes savings of €1.5 billion by 2015 that would involve cutting around 11,000 jobs from its total global workforce of 85,000. As many as 6,000 of these job cuts will be in Germany. The company has not ruled out compulsory redundancies. Ver.di and the E.ON works council argue that workers are being forced to shoulder an unfair share of the savings. They also point out that there is an agreement that there should be no compulsory redundancies before the end of 2012. Ver.di wants to look at the company’s figures in more detail
Unions fight back against local authorities
Local government trade unions are facing employers who are taking a tough line on pay cuts. In Plymouth in the South West the council has withdrawn recognition of UNISON for collective bargaining in response to the union’s rejection of proposals to cut workers’ pay. Meanwhile, the dispute over pay cuts at Southampton City Council is continuing with members of the Unite and UNISON trade unions taking strike action. [Read more on Plymouth at > UNISON->http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2411] [And further at > UNISON->http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did
Unions criticize government's budget deficit proposals
The main trade unions have attacked the government for proposing a change in the constitution that would restrict any government’s ability to run a budget deficit of more than 4% of GDP. The UGT argues that this is a mistaken priority and that the government should focus on the need to create jobs and respond to the proposals drawn up by both the UGT and CCOO confederations. The FSC-CCOO opposes the measure highlighting in particular the risk of the government looking for more outsourcing and flexibility in order to stick within the spending limit with serious implications for public sector
PAY IN ENERGY, WASTE AND WATER – CONFERENCE
EPSU has been involved in the WISUTIL project which is investigating salaries in the energy, waste and water sectors. By the end of June just under 3,000 workers from 21 countries had taken part in the survey. The survey deadline was 31 July and so we are expecting a final total of over 3,000. The results of the survey will be discussed at a conference in Vienna on 26-27 September. All EPSU affiliates are welcome to attend, although financial sponsorship is only available to those from the EU and candidate countries. For details of the conference > EPSU
Union welcomes call for shorter hours for hospital doctors
The vida private health sector union has welcomed the initiative of social minister Rudolf Hundstorfer to introduce restrictions on working time for hospital doctors. At the moment doctors can work up to 72 hours a week and up to 32 hours in a single shift. The minister is calling for a maximum 25-hour shift. According to the chamber of doctors, one in five in the profession are suffering symptoms of burn-out while 50% are at risk. This increases the likelihood of errors and threatens the quality of service. [Read more at > vida (DE)->http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page
ETUC collective bargaining survey
As the proposed system of economic governance takes shape, the debate about pay and productivity and wage determination has moved up the political agenda. It is more important than ever that the ETUC has accurate data on pay developments across Europe. EPSU affiliates can encourage their national confederations to contribute to this year’s ETUC survey. Read more at > EPSU (EN)
Latest figures on loss of purchasing power
The UGFF-CGT state sector federation has updated its figures on the loss of purchasing power faced by public sector workers since 2000. While inflation has risen by more than 21% over this period, the index point used to calculate public sector salaries has increased by only 9%. To show the impact of this, the UGFF-CGT gives examples of different salaries and what they would have been, had they kept up with inflation. The loss of purchasing power is anything from €181 to €538 per month, depending on the level of salary. [Read more at > UGFF-CGT (FR)->http://www.ugff.cgt.fr/spip.php?article1822
Health unions challenge recruitment policy
Both the IMPACT and SIPTU trade unions have questioned the Health Service Executive’s (HSE) current recruitment policy. IMPACT argues that the HSE is not filling a range of specialist posts despite these being exempted from the recruitment freeze. It is also concerned about an increased use of agency staff. Meanwhile, SIPTU has expressed concern about the HSE delaying confirmation of new appointments in order to balance hospital budgets. The HSE claims that too many patients have been treated in the first half of the year! [Read more at > IMPACT->http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/impact-demands
Report shows importance of training and staffing levels in childcare
The FOA public services union has highlighted a recent report which shows a clear link between staff ratios in nurseries and children’s later performance at school. The union is particularly concerned about the impact of reductions in staff in recent years with more than 4,000 full-time jobs cut, much more than would be needed to keep in line with the falling birth rate. The outlook for childcare is also not good with four out of 10 municipalities planning cuts in 2012. The union is arguing for the implementation of minimum staffing levels and says that the report also justifies its demands
Nurse wins equal pay case
Public services union UNISON has supported one of its members in a successful equal pay case. Under the national health service’s Agenda for Change job evaluation system introduced in 2005, the job of a nurse is rated as equivalent to a maintenance supervisor. While acknowledging this, the local health service employer tried to argue that the local labour market and different bargaining arrangements justified higher pay for maintenance workers. The tribunal rejected the employer’s case. Read more at > UNISON
Equal pay – survey and seminar
Last year EPSU carried out a major survey on equal pay and the initiatives taken by affiliates to close the gender pay gap. This is an important issue for EPSU with two resolutions on the subject passed at the 2009 Congress. Affiliates are now being urged to update information for 2011 or provide information for the survey if they didn’t do so last year. EPSU is also working with the ETUI education and training organisation on a seminar on equal pay. This will take place in Brussels on 16-18 November. [Read more on the equal pay survey at > EPSU (EN)->http://www.epsu.org/r/580] [And on the
Government and ILO support action to protect decent work
Scandals over working and employment conditions in private contractors have been hitting the headlines in recent months (see, for example, articles about the Adecco agency work company [epsucob@NEWS, March 2011->www.epsu.org/cob/409]). The Fagforbundet municipal union reports that the government is determined to maintain and improve a regulatory framework to protect contractors’ employees, based on International Labour Organisation (ILO) Convention 94 (this covers labour clauses in public contracts), that was introduced into Norwegian law in 2008. The ESA, the body that monitors legislation in
Strike for collective agreement at care home company
Members of the ver.di trade union working at three care homes in Berlin are taking all-out strike action in order to get a collective agreement. The strike began at the three Alpenland care homes on 18 August. The ver.di collective bargaining committee has demanded a framework agreement covering working time, shifts, shift pay and annual leave and has given the employers until 28 August to respond. Workers at other Alpenland homes are covered by collective bargaining and this means that are on better pay and conditions, earning around €300 a month more than those striking for a collective
Long-running dispute over health workers' pay finally resolved
Health workers in the St.Gallen region (Canton) are finally benefitting from higher pay after a long-running dispute was resolved. The VPÖD public service union supported a number of workers in an initial claim in 2003 that the workers should be on higher pay rates and grades. The administrative court for the Canton agreed that the health workers were paid less than comparable jobs (ambulance workers, police) but that this was not primarily an issue of sex discrimination. This workers’ claim was eventually recognized by the federal court in 2010, leading finally to a settlement earlier this
Unions organize extra-parliamentary hearing on care sector
The GPA-DJP and vida trade unions have been lobbying for better funding for the care sector and improvements to care workers’ employment and working conditions. They have also been calling for a parliamentary enquiry into the sector to establish what level of funding and what kind of changes are needed to ensure the sector can deal with future demand. There has been no response to the call for an enquiry and so the unions have organized their own public hearing in Vienna on 19 September. [Read more at > GPA-DJP (DE)->http://www.gpa-djp.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page/Index&n=GPA_0.a