Germany
Ver.di has negotiated a new agreement at the Alpenland care home company in Berlin which will mean minimum increases of 2.5% from 1 January and lump sum payments of €235. Care assistants and nurses will get higher increases of 5.9% and 8.3%. The negotiations over a new agreement have been going on for over two years and lead to a long dispute this year involving protest and strike action (see epsucob@NEWS 15).
Read more at > ver.di (DE)
A protest rally is planned for 13 March in protest at the Health Service Executive's failure to implement a pay and conditions agreement for home helps and for cutting the number of hours available to the service. Without the agreement home helps are effectively working on zero-hours contracts and so are not paid if clients are not available. Read more at >SIPTU
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
A new collective agreement has been concluded for the 130,000 workers in the home care sector. It is backdated to 1 January 2005 and runs until 1 October 2006. It includes a 0.8% increase from 1 December 2005 and a further 1% increase from 1 June 2006. Read more at > ABVAKABO
