2013 January epsucob@NEWS 02

The three main trade union organisations in the public sector have called a national demonstration of federal civil servants for Thursday 7 February. The will be protesting against plans by civil service minister Hendrik Bogaert to make major changes to the system of career progression. The unions argue that Bogaert is talking about abolishing the system of training and examinations that are the basis of the current system without being clear about what he wants in its place. The unions are distributing 50000 postcards so that members can send their protests direct to the minister. [Read more

The FP-CGIL, UIL FPL and UIL PA public sector federations have come together to produce data on public sector employment and pay. The aim is to try to counter much of the anti-public sector propaganda that has emerged in recent years. The data is included in a powerpoint presentation that looks at pay trends, overall public sector pay spending as a percentage of GDP and in relation to population. The figures show Italy as comparable with EU averages and other countries and that negotiated pay increases since 2000 have lagged behind inflation by 7.6%. [Read more at FP-CGIL (IT)->http://www

The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation (INMO) and the Psychiatric Nurses Association (PNA) are lobbying and campaigning against a recent government initiative to recruit 1000 graduate nurses. The unions argue that the jobs being offered effectively replace agency and temporary staff but on lower rates of pay. The new rate (€22000 a year) is 80% of the reduced salary scale introduced in February 2012 but 39% lower than the effective starting rate that applied in 2009 before the public sector pay cuts. [Read more at > INMO->http://www.inmo.ie/7676] [And at > INMO->http://www.inmo.ie/Home

Members of EPSU affiliate ZDS - the chimney sweeps' trade union - are facing up to a new competitive environment this year as some of their responsibilities are opened up to competition. Chimney sweeps in Germany have a wide range of roles including testing for energy efficiency and dangerous emissions. The changes are the result of the Services Directive. The profession is facing a shortage of skilled workers and the main employer and trade union organisations have just agreed to the general applicability of a collective agreement on training for the sector. [Read more at > ZDS (DE)->http:/

Hundreds of employees of water companies joined a flash action January 17 in defence of decent pay in the sector. The workers are calling for salary guarantees to continue to apply in any new collective agreement. Three quarters of employees have a certain salary guarantee, which comes from previous wage agreements with regional water companies. Around 5,000 water workers have been without a collective agreement since August and are concerned that they will lose out in a new agreement which could mean a reduction of income of on average €550. [Read more at > FNV Abvakabo (NL)->http://www

After intensive negotiations the GPA-DJP trade union has agreed a pay deal for the private sector that will provide increases on basic pay of between 2.9% and 3.2% with the higher increases for the lower paid. Inflation was 2.8% in the year to December 2012, averaging 2.4% over the whole year. It was also agreed to examine the coverage of the sector agreement in relation to companies in the sector covered by other agreements, subsidiaries of companies covered by the agreement, cooperation with employers who are not covered by the agreement and other employers who are not part of the energy

The FNME-CGT, FO-FNEM and CFTC unions in the energy sector have called for two days of strike action on 21-22 January to protest at plans by the SNET energy company, owned by the Germany energy multinational EON, to close coal-fired power stations and cut 535 jobs by 2015. The unions want commitments to prolong the life of some power stations and to investigate the conversion of others while also confirming investment in new biomass initiatives.

Negotiations over pay at the energy company EON have broken down. In the third round of talks, the company made a revised offer to increase pay by 1.7%, up from 1.1%, but this was rejected by the two trade unions, ver.di and IGBCE. The unions had submitted a claim for an increase of 6.5% along with calls to take on apprentices after qualification and for collective agreements to apply to subsidiary companies. The unions will be consulting their members with the possibility of an all-out strike unless EON comes up with an improved offer. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://www.verdi.de/presse