From January 2009 onwards public sector employees will receive at least a 4% salary rise. However the majority of public servants will experience a salary rise of at least 7%. This is laid down in the collective agreements of a higher degree agreed on by government representatives, trade unions and local municipal authorities.
Although the majority of employees in the education, health care and culture sectors is going to experience the rise of the basic wage scales by 7%, their salaries could be even higher after counting in the additional parts of the salary. According to J n Gasperan, vice-president of the OZPSaV union confederation, the minimum rise should be at least 8.6%. He added that the education unionists were also happy with the agreement. Lately they were threatening with a strike if the higher demands on exercising the teaching profession would not be balanced with a salary rise.
(Slovakian: http://ekonomika.sme.sk/c/4104167/ucitelom-stupnu-platy-o-7-percent-vyskumnikom-o-pat.html)
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Impact, the largest public services union, is recommending that members accept a pay deal that will give them a 6% increase over the next 21 months although no increase for the first 11 months. Lower paid workers --those on less than Euro 11 an hour -- will get an additional 0.5%. Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said that this was the best deal available in difficult circumstances even though it entailed a "special sacrifice" from public servants in the form of an 11-month pay freeze.
Yet a week later Unite, the country's second largest union, proved to recommend to its members that they should reject the deal in a forthcoming ballot. The Unite executive believes the deal, besides effectively representing a pay cut for members, also does not meet demands it had set out in advance of the talks in areas such as mandatory union recognition and improved pension arrangements.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=162; http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0927/1222419966687.html)
Local government workers in Scotland have organised another one-day strike on 24 September and agreed to further action if the employers do not respond with an improvement on their 2.5% offer. UNISON, the largest council staff union, claims the action by around 150,000 staff across Scotland a success. Local authority employers' group Cosla called on the unions "to bring more realistic demands to the table", but the unions claimed that notably Cosla's failure to improve their offer after the first strike led to the action.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2008/septoct/1709.htm; http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=97519; http://www.amicustheunion.org/default.aspx?page=9167; http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Council-workers-stage-second-strike.4523320.jp)
In late September, the Estonian minister of education, Tonis Lukas, has promised to increase teachers' wages in 2009 despite the country's economic problems. "I'll propose to the government to raise minimum salaries of teachers by 8%, which exceeds the average wage growth forecast of the Finance Ministry", Lukas told the daily Eesti Paevaleht in an interview.
(English: The Baltic Times, 26 September 2008)
On Friday 26 September, medical workers, teachers and police took the streets of Riga, capital of Latvia, to demand higher wages. The protests were called in effort to have the government reverse is plan to freeze all public sector wages in 2009. An estimated 1,500 medical workers and teachers took part in the first protest. In a meeting between Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis and Valdis Keris, chairman of the Latvian Health and Social Care Workers' Union, following the demonstration, the prime minister reportedly said that he would "try" to find ways to increase medical workers' salaries, but that he could not make any promises. Later that day, about 200 police officers gathered to protest low wages. On 4 October, the police plans a much larger protest.
(English: The Baltic Times, 26 September 2008)
On the eve of the new bargaining round for a road freight transport agreement, the FNV Bondgenoten union started a mobilization campaign, including a petition to the employers. The union points at a report produced by AWVN, the employers' service institute, stating that the monthly wages of (international) truck drivers are lagging on average 18% behind those in comparable occupations in a number of Dutch industries, as well as at the shortage of truck drivers. The current collective agreement, covering about 140,000 truck drivers and warehouse staff, expires on 1 October, and the unions, FNV Bondgenoten and CNV Bedrijvenbond, demand a 6% wage increase for one year. In the first bargaining round the employers offered 3% per year, called "totally unacceptable" by the union negotiators as this offer remains even below the expected inflation rate.
(Dutch: http://www.fnvbondgenoten.nl/branches_bedrijven/branches/vervoer/beroepsgoederenvervoer/actie_tegen_beloningsachterstand/; http://www.nieuwsbladtransport.nl/nieuws/id23199-Wegvervoer_op_dieptepunt,_meer_loon_uit_den_boze.html)
The public transport network will be heavily disrupted on 6 October when unions plan to protest against the alleged government's failure to respond to rising prices, union officials said on 24 September. Unions are urging the government to take steps to alleviate the impact of inflation after it hit a 24-year high of 5.9% in last July, and hope the planned strikes will send a clear signal to the government before it presents its 2009 budget to parliament on 14 October.
(English: http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USLO22647820080924, via http://www.labourstart.org)
About 2,000 Estonian seafarers are set to benefit from a three-year wage deal, covering 1 January 2008 till 31 December 2010, following nine months of negotiations has been agreed between the Estonian Seamen's Independent Union (ESIU) and the transnational ferry company Tallink Group. The settlement follows a one-hour warning strike on 4 August when five Tallink ferries were stopped in Estonia's capital Tallinn, as well as in Helsinki and Stockholm, where Finnish and Swedish unions organised solidarity action. The deal will provide the seafarers with a 25% pay increase in September 2008, 9% in 2009 and a further 6% in 2010. Workers with more than four and nine years' service will also receive a seniority bonus of five or 10% respectively, from 1 April 2009.
(English: http://www.itfglobal.org/news-online/index.cfm/newsdetail/2611)
The government is willing to discuss an increase in the minimum wage with the MSZOSZ union federation, state secretary of the Social and Labour Ministry G bor Simon said in an interview with business daily Napi Gazdasag. He expects this \to be a lengthy discussion. The current minimum wage was set per 1 January 2008 on HUF 69,900 (Euro 274) per month. Simon also said that the skilled minimum wage (an extra 20-25% on top of the minimum wage for jobs requiring high school diplomas or special training) could become a victim of the negotiations as to reach consensus. Union representatives disagreed, stating that "MSZOSZ always said and will always say that wages should be in sync with the level of expertise required for a particular job".
(English: http://www.budapesttimes.hu/content/view/9236/2195.html)
The Central Committee of the IG Metall (Metal Workers' Union) has decided about the wage claim for the new collective agreement on pay for 3.6 million workers in the engineering industry: an increase of 8% for a period of 12 months. The current collective agreement is valid until 31 October 2008. First negotiations start on 2 October. IG Metall states that most likely warning strikes will start from 1 November onwards. Current accords in the automobile, IT and household goods industries all end on October 31.
(English: European Metalworkers' Federation, message to members EUCOBAN network;
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3667120,00.html)