The FSC-CCOO and FIA-UGT trade union federations have signed a new agreement on gender equality with Aqualia, one of the biggest water companies in Spain that provides services for 850 municipalities. The agreement requires the unions and employer to work together on a range of issues, including employment, training, promotion and pay. It also covers sexual harassment, an issue on which the company already had an agreement.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/332;
Spanish: http://www.fsc.ccoo.es/webfsc/menu.do?Inicio:70173
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Six unions affiliated with the LO blue-collar confederation (Byggnads, Transport, Seko, Fastighets, Mlarna and Elektrikerna) have called on employers not to dismiss workers and take on agency staff instead. A survey commissioned by the six unions shows that over 80% of workers would expect the unions to take action to stop employers replacing permanent staff with agency workers. The issue will be an important one in this year's collective bargaining.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/332;
Swedish: http://www.transport.se/home/trp2/home.nsf/pages/0AC932 .
Municipal union Kommunal calls for a pay increase of at least SKr 620 (Euro 61, 2.6%) a month this year along with higher pay increases (SKr 745 or Euro 73) in sectors where women predominate to help close the gender pay gap. The union also wants to see a strong central agreement backed up with local collective agreements to ensure that there is a clear link between the main pay negotiations and bargaining at local level. The other main bargaining issues include the need to reduce the use of temporary workers, improvements to working conditions and greater equality in terms of gender, race, age, religion and sexual orientation.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/332;
Swedish: http://www.kommunal.se/Kommunal/Medlem/Avtal-och-lagar/Lonekamp .
On 21 December, negotiations over a new collective agreement for 80,000 health and social services workers in the private sector were broken off. Members of the GPA-DJP and vida trade unions are seriously disappointed with the employers' latest offer of a 1.17% pay increase. The increase on some pay rates and allowances would only be 0.9% and the employers also want to abolish the 50% additional payment for working the 39th and 40th hours each week. Works council members are being co-ordinated in demonstrations taking place in four cities on 14 January before negotiations reconvene on 21 January.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/332;
German: http://www.gpa-djp.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page .; http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page/ .
The PCS and other civil service unions are considering a legal challenge and possible industrial action in response to the government's unilateral decision to change the civil service compensation scheme. The unions believe the government is planning further job cuts and is looking to reduce the cost of making civil servants redundant. Said Mark Serwotka, PCS general secretary: "The government has an opportunity to avoid legal and industrial action by ensuring officials honour ministerial promises to make the changes through negotiation rather than imposition."ÿPCS is set to ballot its 270,000 members in January, threatening disruption at jobcentres, revenue and customs, immigration, the coastguard and other bodies in the compensation dispute.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/331; http://www.pcs.org.uk/en/news_and_events/news_centre/index.cfm/id/ .; http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/dec/31/strikes-unions-unrest-militancy
In 2009 Belgian employers saved more than one billion Euro as they made use of the temporary unemployment arrangements administered by the official employment agencies (RVA). According to a RVA report, in the first nine months of the year these arrangements covered a daily average of 64,700 temporarily unemployed; over the full year, a daily average of 60,700 is expected, more than doubling the 2008 average (31,200). Temporary unemployment peaked in February and March 2009, with a daily average of 100,000 workers covered (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 2 January and May 2009).
Dutch: http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/957/Belgie/article/detail/1046866/2009/12/28/ .
On 22 December, the civil servants' trade union ADEDY announced that it plans to stage a 24-hour strike in late January or early February against the labour and wage reforms planned by the government, in the face of ballooning debt and deficits. "We will not accept that the cost of the crisis will be borne on our shoulders," ADEDY president Spyros Papaspyros explained to press agencies. The private sector union, the General Confederation of Greek Workers, also said to consider a strike.
English: http://www.setimes.com/cocoon/setimes/xhtml/en_GB/newsbriefs/setimes/ . via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Greece
The local and federal government collective bargaining committee of the ver.di union met on 15 December to confirm its claim in the lead up to negotiations that begin on 13 February. Ver.di will be negotiating with the police (GdP), teachers (GEW) and civil service union (dbb tarifunion) on behalf of nearly two million workers in local and federal government. The main demand will be for a real increase in pay plus a number of other measures including provision of shorter working hours for older workers to create more jobs for younger workers and commitments to take on more apprentices, totaling a 5% increase. There will also be demands relevant to particular groups of workers such as better on-call and overtime payments for hospital employees. WSI, the research institute in the Hans Bckler Foundation, also on 15 December issued a report noting that nominal pay increases in the public services have amounted to around 17% since 2000, below the 21.4% increase recorded across the economy as a whole. On 20 December, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said to see "no scope" to pay ver.di's wage claim and to be "shocked" by the demand.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/331; http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601100&sid=az2s_V_wgMRw
German: http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id .; http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/pm_ta_2009_12_15.pdf
After ten months of negotiations and a three-day strike earlier in the week of the 30,000 employees involved, a collective agreement has been agreed upon in the banking sector between the Federation of Finnish Financial Services and two unions, SUORA and the Federation of Professional and Managerial Staff (YTN). Under the contract, a general pay hike of Euro 18.50 a month, or at least 0.65%, will take effect from 1 January 2010. An increase of 0.95% will be paid by early June 2010. Separate talks are to be held on new pay increases for the autumn of 2010 and the summer of 2011.
English: http://yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/12/banks_reach_labour_contract_1296841.html; http://www.yle.fi/uutiset/news/2009/12/30000_finance_sector_workers .
via http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/show_news.pl?country=Finland
After several challenging rounds of negotiations the GD and GDG public service unions have accepted a pay increase of 0.9% plus €4 a month for 2010. The government had initially said that it had only budgeted for a 0.5% increase in the pay bill and that it only wanted to pay a lump sum payment. The flat-rate increase of Euro 4 means that the overall increase for the lowest paid will be 1.23% and 0.94% for the highest paid. Other payments and allowances will increase by 0.9%. The increase will cover around 400,000 workers across the public sector.
English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/331 ;
German: http://www.gdg.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=C01 .; http://www.goed.at/files/877/GOED-Info-Gehaltsabkommen-2010.pdf