Collective Bargaining

The Solidarnosc security workers union used children's art to send the message that most security workers have no time to spend with their families. Part of the union's campaign to raise working conditions in the industry, the exhibition "Fathers return home: Our children need their fathers" took place in front of the Sejm, a chamber of the Polish parliament. As the majority of security workers only earn Zloty 5-6 (Euro 1.40-1.70) per hour, they have to work multiple jobs in order to make ends meet. This often means working more than 300 hours per month, doing back-to-back shifts of 12 hours. A union delegation delivered an appeal to the Speaker of the Sejm, pointing out that under Polish law public institutions are obliged to choose those (security) contractors offering the lowest price, thus exerting downward pressure on wages and working conditions. The Speaker met the delegation and viewed the exhibition, after which he asked the union for a letter with concrete proposals of changes in the law.
(English: http://www.uniglobalunion.org/unipropertyn.nsf/7f9bc1ab9d900747c1257044004ba821/4c9da75e43e81b1cc12574cd00280985?OpenDocument)

The G™D public sector union has written to the finance ministry asking for the annual pay negotiations to start soon to ensure that pay increases will be implemented as normal from 1 January 2009. The union also underlines the need for negotiators to take account of the agreed measures of inflation and national productivity growth in the 12 months to September 2008. The union's specific wage demand will be confirmed during the course of the negotiations.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269;
German: http://www.goed.at/files/877/Gehaltsabkommen_2009.pdf)

The SETCA/BBTK trade union has called for proper negotiations in response to the health ministry's plans to improve the attractiveness of healthcare professions. The union welcomes the initiative but argues that issues covered in the plan -- such as reducing workloads, tackling stress, training and qualifications and pay-- should all be the subject of collective bargaining. The union is also concerned about any proposals to single out particular professions for special treatment as it is important to see how the various professions complement each other.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; Dutch: http://www.bbtk.org/nieuws/Pages/News-De aantrekkelijkheidZorgberoepen.aspx; French: http://www.setca.org/News/Pages/attractivit%C3%A9 soins sant%C3%A9.aspx)

Figures produced by the FO civil service union federation show how different groups of workers are losing out because of below-inflation pay increases in the public sector. Last year's 0.8% rise was below the 1.5% inflation rate, meaning that workers were losing between Euro 136 and Euro 198 in purchasing power. This year the situation is worse with a 0.8% rise compared to 3.2% inflation. Over the two years workers will be up to Euro 880 worse off. The union believes that things will only get worse with 0.5% wage increases foreseen for the following three years.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269;
French: http://www.fo-fonctionnaires.fr/2008-09-10-pouvoir-achat-toujours-moins.html)

The CGT, FO and FSU public service federations have rejected government proposals to cut pension entitlement for public sector workers. The workers affected are public employees who do not have civil service status and who are covered by the IRCANTEC pension scheme. The government wants to reduce the IRCANTEC pension in terms of the level of salary it replaces from 75% to 67.3%. The unions argue that it is possible to maintain the replacement rate at 75% particularly if the government increases the employers' contribution, which is currently much lower than it is for civil servants who are covered by a separate scheme.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269;
French: http://www.ugff.cgt.fr/ftp/ircantec/cgtfp_08_09_04.doc;
http://www.fo-fonctionnaires.fr/2008-09-03-Communique-UIAFP-Ircantec.html)

The verdi public services union and Marburger Bund doctors' union have joined a "save our hospitals" campaign to argue for increased funding. The unions point to 50,000 job cuts, excessive overtime and workloads and poor working conditions resulting from cutbacks in recent years. There has been a series of local actions and demonstrations with a national demonstration in Berlin on 25 September.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; German: http://www.rettung-der-krankenhaeuser.de)

The latest analysis from the WSI trade union research institute based on European Commission data shows how pay developments in Germany have fallen behind all other EU member states. Since 2000 real wages in Germany have fallen by 0.8%, the only EU member state where there has been a decline. Several countries, particularly among the New Member States, recorded increases over this period of more than 30% and even seven of the EU-15 countries saw real wages increase by more than 10%. The report suggests that negative wage drift is a particular German problem with some locally negotiated increases falling below what is agreed at sectoral level.
The day before publication of the WSI results, a report in the German weekly Die Zeit pointed out that, following internal calculations, the European Commission has concluded that German wages would need to increase by 6% annually for several years to match up with the level of other Eurozone.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; German: http://www.boeckler.de/pdf/impuls_2008_14_1.pdf; Marc Bost / Claas Talje, Immer auf die anderen, Die Zeit, 18 September 2008, No. 39).

A series of assemblies have been organised over the next few weeks for different groups of workers in the public sector to discuss how to react in response to massive cuts in the public sector pay budget. The government claims that it is ready to negotiate over public sector pay increases for 2008-09. However, trade unions argue that government figures reveal a shortfall of Euro 1.7 billion in the public sector pay budget and that on this basis workers can only expect a pay cut in 2009.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269;
Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/7883; http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/7852)

Public sector workers affiliated to the CGTP confederation will join a national strike on 1 October in protest at government policies that they claim are undermining their employment rights. The protest is over falling purchasing power of public sector workers and the increase in precarious forms of employment in the sector.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; Portuguese: http://www.stal.pt/artigo.asp?id=978)

Public sector unions met with government representatives for the first time since the general election with a view to maintaining continuity in the discussions over pay, jobs and services in the public sector. The general pay increase for public employees is set at 3% for 2009 with those employed by the general state administration getting 3.875%. However, unions have called for this to be reviewed towards the end of the year in the light of increasing inflation. The unions also expressed concern at government plans to cut jobs in response to current economic difficulties. They argued that in fact it was crucial to maintain public employment during an economic downturn and that any reduction in jobs would impact upon service quality.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; Spanish: http://www.fsap.ccoo.es/webfsap/menu.do?Actualidad:Sindical:Actualidad:35345; http://www.fspugt.es/index.php/mod.noticias/mem.detalle/idnoticia.5463/cat.1028)