Norway - Municipal unions Fagforbundet, YS Kommune and Delta have signed a new agreement that focuses on working with the employers to improve local services. The agreement, a follow up to the initiative on quality municipal services run from 2005, includes several different elements including action on sickness absence, recruitment and competence, providing full-time work and improving the image of local government. The agreement comes shortly after scandals of low pay and poor working conditions in the care and waste sectors have been exposed, with temporary agency workers being exploited rather than services provided by directly employed workers on decent pay and conditions.
Sweden -The SKTF white-collar local government union has produced a new report demonstrating how workers doing the same job are on very different salaries depending on whether they work in a sector dominated by women or men. Taking the example of an economist, the union shows that on average the monthly salary for this occupation is Kr29500 (€3310) in the municipal sector (dominated by women) but Kr 41000 (€4600) in the private sector (dominated by men). SKTF is calling for a major initiative to address the problem involving employers, trade unions and the government.
Germany - A new collective agreement covering 580,000 employees in regional government has been approved by ver.di’s collective bargaining committee. There will be a lump sum payment of €360 (€120 for trainees) plus a pay increase of 1.5% from 1 April this year. Ver.di estimates this to be worth around 2.3% overall. There will be a further pay increase on 1 January 2012, consisting of 1.9% plus €17 (€6 for trainees) that ver.di calculates as an overall increase of 2.55%. The union also believes that a new pay structure, coming into effect from 1 January 2012, will mean workers moving more rapidly to the next grade and around two-thirds of employees should benefit directly from that change.
Denmark - FOA public service union says that progress to equal pay in the public sector could take over 500 years if future agreements follow the one just negotiated in local and regional government. Although the agreement did include some provisions for tackling the pay gap, if progress was the same for each future round of collective bargaining over a three-year period then it would take 178 agreements to close the 18% pay gap in the municipal sector. The union argues that parliament needs to contribute to the process and pass the legislation and agree the funding that would ensure equal pay for work of equal value across the public sector
Netherlands - Local government unions FNV Abvakabo and CNB Publieke Zaak are concerned that municipal employers will go back on their agreement to pay a salary increase this year. The rise was dependent on union commitments to negotiate on delivering efficiency savings, reducing bureaucracy and modernizing the collective agreement. The unions are putting forward a range of measures and argue that the employers should take a longer term view rather than just focusing on the need to ensure that short-term efficiency savings justify the pay increase(Advice and more on local govt in europe from EPSU - www.epsu.org)
PSI Asia Pacific - Utilities - Electricity - Water & Local Government Network Bulletin Blog - The below items are published as an internal PSI Bulletin monthly or you can follow by each post by e-mail.
