Health and Safety, Working Time, Demographic change

Members of the FNV trade union are currently voting on whether to accept a new collective agreement covering central government. The deal includes a €1200 one-off payment for full-time employees to compensate for inflation paid in May this year even before the current agreement expires. On 1 July there will be an 8.5% pay increase plus €50 and an increase in the individual choice budget by 0.13% to 16.50% of the salary. A one-off payment of €800 will follow in November 2024 and a further payment of €350 on 1 July 2025. The one-off payments add up to €2350 (pro rata for part timers). The

The FSC-CCOO and UGT-SP public service federations are to declare a collective dispute with the Tax Agency which will coincide with the start of the Agency’s campaign on filing income tax returns. The dispute will raise a number of issues related to professional career development, internal promotion, strengthening the mobility agreement, telework and negotiating a new collective agreement. The unions are also concerned about plans to increase the telephone service without specifying salaries or the need to increase recruitment. They will also raise concerns around productivity and about safe

The SINTAP trade union has reached an agreement with Águas de Portugal water company that applies to the union’s members and delivers a 3% increase, with a minimum of €53, an increase in the food allowance to €7.60, as well as establishing an entry salary in the company of €905. Workers with more than 10 years’ service get further improvements. Meanwhile, the STAL trade union has been active in the waste sector where it has been involved in protest and industrial action to secure better pay and conditions for workers in the FCC and Resinorte companies. At FCC the demand is for a 15% pay

Trade unions in the municipal sector have been negotiating with the SKR and Sobona employer organisations in local and regional government with differing outcomes so far. The Vision trade union, representing mainly white-collar workers has settled on the basis of a 3.3% general pay rise and commitments to a review of working hours and joint initiatives to deliver healthier workplaces. The Vårdförbundet health professionals’ union has gone to mediation mainly because it has major concerns over the employers’ proposals on working time and the work environment which it believes will mean worse

Earlier this month the OSZSP health union and other trade unions met with Ministry of Labour officials to discuss proposed amendments to the labour code which have serious implications for workers in the healthcare sector. The governments wants changes in relation to shift lengths, overtime work and, of most concern, the introduction of 24-hour shifts. The OSZSP and the doctors’ union underlined the need to safeguard employee rights and criticized proposals that could undermine worker protections. They pointed out that the Czech Republic should be moving in the direction of countries like

The FP-CGIL public service federation reports that the latest official data show that there were 16000 incidents of aggression against health and social care personnel in 2023, affecting 18000 workers. The statistics were published in the 2023 report from the National Observatory on the Safety of Health and Social Care Professionals which was established in January 2022 and is made up of the Ministries of Health, Interior, Economy and Finance and Labour, other government agencies, trade unions and regional professional associations. Nurses were the most affected by incidents of aggression

Following the article on Iceland, the latest in the series of articles on working time commissioned by EPSU from the Labour Research Department focuses on developments in the other Nordic countries. While several unions in Sweden have put shorter working time on the bargaining agenda (see also article on Sweden in this newsletter), there are only a few cases in social care where a shorter working week has been implemented. In Norway and Denmark the priority has been more to ensure that workers in health and care and other services have the right to full-time working although there are some

A new report from the Swedish Association of Health Professionals (SAHP) shows that more than four out of 10 young people up to the age of 29 do not believe that they will stay in healthcare for the rest of their working lives. One in five young people testify that the workload is so high with inadequate rest and recovery that it cannot be managed. The union argues that if young people leave the health care system, the existing staffing shortages will worsen. The report shows that more than half of young people feel that staffing is rarely or never sufficient and 85% believe that the workload

The PCS trade union is set to launch a ballot for industrial action on 18 March as a first step in a renewed campaign around pay, jobs and working conditions. The union has around 150,000 members in over 200 bargaining units across the civil service and has been successful in recent years in securing support for targeted strike action despite the strict UK ballot rules covering public services. The ballot will close on 13 May and there will be a special meeting of the PCS national executive on 15 May to consider the results. The union’s key demands include: a cost-of-living rise, with an