Collective Bargaining

The GPA-DJP and VIDA trade unions have expressed support for the idea of having a special round of collective bargaining to address the persistently large gender pay gap in Austria. Figures from 2009 show that female salaried workers had annual gross earnings of €17,639, 40% less than the €29,181 average for male salaried staff. The GPA-DJP says that special negotiations could take place perhaps three times over a 10-year period, where employers and trade unions discuss detailed pay figures for their sector and come up with concrete measures to reduce pay inequality between men and women.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
German: http://www.gpa-djp.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page ... http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page/Index&n=S03 ...

The Frente Comum group of public sector unions has set out its main demands for improvements in pay and conditions for 2012. It is challenging the government and the recommendations of the troika of European Commission, European Central Bank (ECB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The unions want the salary cuts of 2011 reversed and an increase in 2012 that reflects inflation with a minimum increase of €50. Among the range of other demands is a call for the government to tackle the spread of precarious work across the public sector. Meanwhile the SINTAP trade union has also attacked government plans to cut 10,000 more jobs in 2012, maintain the 5% pay cut and freeze pay until 2014. The union argues that the government has not done enough to tackle waste in public spending.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
Potuguese: http://www.sintap.pt/

The CGT-UGFF civil service federation is heavily critical of a new system of incentive payments introduced into the public sector. The union is not convinced that such payments, mirroring the profit-linked "prime d'int‚ressement" in the private sector, can really reflect performance in the public sector which depends on very different criteria. The CGT-UGFF also believes that no extra money will be available for the payments which will effectively be funded by job cuts.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
French: http://www.ugff.cgt.fr/spip.php?article1876

While visiting the strikers, ver.di union general secretary Frank Bsirske gave his support to care workers in Berlin as they showed their determination to continue their strike for a collective agreement despite intimidation from their employer. As reported earlier, the ver.di collective bargaining committee has demanded a framework agreement covering working time, shifts, shift pay and annual leave. Workers in other Alpenland homes outside Berlin are on better pay and conditions (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 July-August 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
German: http://www.verdi.de/themen/nachrichten/++co .

The regional government of Valencia has told the CCOO confederation that it will no longer honour an agreement to give trade union representatives full time off to carry out their duties. This will affect 197 trade union officials across the public services in the region - education, health, administration and justice. The regional authority claims this is a necessary cost-cutting measure while the CCOO argues that this is a direct attack on the trade union, aimed at undermining its ability to represent and negotiate for its members. A similar proposal will be put to the regional council for the Balearic Islands. The regional authority claims that its actions are within the law as the main legislation regulating relations with trade unions allows such measures in extreme economic circumstances.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
Spanish: http://www.fsc.ccoo.es/webfsc/menu.do?Actualidad:Federal ... http://www.publico.es/dinero/396171/baleares-elimina-los-liberados-institucionales .

Trade union confederations have criticized the employers' organisation, the Confederation of Finnish Industries EK, that has been calling for the next pay settlement in the export industry sector to set the framework for pay developments in other sectors. Union confederations were quick to turn down this proposal. Akava confederation President Sture Fj„der pointed out that EK is not in a position to dictate or impose public sector solutions, as it is not even one of the organizations that participate in public sector bargaining. SAK's President Lauri Lyly also rejected EK's proposal by saying: "We are offered the role of a pay police, not the one of a negotiator". And STTK's President Mikko M„enp„„ joined the chorus by criticising EK for ignoring the basic goals of the trade union movement. All this is part of a wider debate about collective bargaining in Finland where there is still support within the union movement for cross-sectoral bargaining to set a framework for sectoral negotiations that last took place in 2007 (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 4 July-August 2011).
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437; http://www.artto.kaapeli.fi/unions/T2011/o32 http://www.nordiclabourjournal.org/nyheter/news-2011-1/article.2011-09-06.0625913792

Fabrizio Fratini, General Secretary of the FP-CGIL public services federation, has criticized the Istat statistics agency for releasing data showing that on average public sector pay is 11.6% higher than private sector pay. The union makes the point that the comparison does not take into account the different occupations in the public and private sector and the different levels of qualification and education, and that therefore it is not really a fair comparison.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/19210

The CISL FP federation reports on its campaign to get involved with public authorities in measures to improve services and cut out waste. In the wake of the Parliamentary vote on the 2011-2014 budget law, that includes among other provisions the threat of another freeze of national collective agreements in the public sector until 2014, CISL FP has intensified actions in order to obtain a commitment from public authorities to involve workers and their representatives in a comprehensive process to tackle spending inefficiencies, optimize work organization to improve service management and delivery, and so retrieve money that can be redistributed to public workers through second-level bargaining.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
Italian: http://www.fp.cisl.it/

The Kommunal municipal union has declared to be disappointed by the decision of three other unions in the LO confederation not to support a larger element allocated to equal pay in forthcoming negotiations. The general aim is for a pay increase of 3.5% with a minimum increase of SEK 850 (?94) a month. Kommunal also wants an extra SEK 100 (?11) to go to workers where the average wage is less than SEK 22,400 (?2,434) a month. Kommunal argues that it is unfair for workers in social care to get on average SEK 2,600 (?282) less a month than workers in manufacturing, questioning why there is more value put on making a car than caring for old people.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
Swedish: http://www.kommunal.se/Kommunal/Nyheter/2011/September/Los ...

The VP™D/SSP public service union has said that it wants at least a 2%-3% pay increase for all public sector workers. It is also calling for an increase in public sector employment to ensure and improve the quality of service to citizens. VP™D/SSP says that public sector employers should acknowledge the substantial savings have been delivered by public sector personnel along with higher productivity and these factors certainly justify an across-the-board increase. The union also emphasizes the fact that the public sector has retained a fairer pay system than in the private sector with better pay on the lower pay scales and without excessive increases for top management, in contrast to the massive pay increases awarded to the bosses of privatized companies.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/437
German: http://www.vpod.ch/aktuell/nachrichten/ansicht/article/lohnforderungen ...