UPDATE from EPSU - Europe - includes Local Government and Electricity news

http://gmpsiaprec.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/update-from-epsu-europe-includes-local.html

Europe	Commission agrees to extend working time negotiations Negotiations between the ETUC and the employer organisations (businesseurope, CEEP and UEAPME) were due to end next month in line with the normal nine-month timetable. However, detailed negotiations on the key issues have not yet started and the European Commission has agreed to the social partners’ request to extend the deadline to the end of December. The employers’ side have put on-call time, compensatory rest and sickness and annual leave at the top of their agenda while the ETUC is focusing on the individual opt-out, the reconciliation of work and private life and the definition of autonomous workers. Read more at > DG Employment (EN)
Sweden	Bargaining demands in private care The Kommunal municipal union has set out its key demands in negotiations with private care companies. The union is aiming for a monthly increase of SEK 860 (€103) and overall around 3.5%. It also has a range of other demands including a limits on temporary work and requirements to turn temporary contracts into permanent ones. It also wants action on gender equality. Read more at > Kommunal (SE)
Greece	ETUC supports complaint over pension cuts The ETUC is supporting a complaint over pension cuts being imposed as part of the austerity measures demanded by the European Commission, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund. The complaint is being submitted to the European Committee of Social Rights of the Council of Europe. Read more at > ETUC (EN) And at > CES (FR)
UK	Union rejects pay offer in higher education Unison members working in higher education are being balloted over industrial action following the union’s rejection of a 1% pay offer from the employers. Unison is calling for a pay increase that not only compensates for current inflation but also for recent years of below-inflation pay increases. The latest figures show consumer prices rising by 2.6%, although the retail price index is higher at 3.2%. Read more at > Unison (EN)
Croatia	Four-year agreement for public sector After several rounds of bargaining, public sector unions have agreed a new four-year collective agreement that maintains pay levels and protects jobs. However, the government was looking to make savings and so the unions have agreed to a temporary cut to Christmas bonuses in 2012 and 2013 and a reduction in holiday grants next year. Read more at > Dalje news website (EN)
Netherlands	Court victory for unions over contractor Unions have won a victory in court to ensure that a Polish contracting company working on a power station pays its workers in line with the relevant collective agreement. The company, Remak, is working on the construction of a new coal fired power stations in the port Eemshaven and is working on contract for the German company RWE. Remak was paying 9 euros an hour, instead of 11.50 but will now have to pay the higher rate and should respect the working time reduction, holiday and night work bonuses. Remak was also one of a number of contractors on power station sites in the UK who were exposed as paying below the nationally agreed rate. The various unions on the Eemshaven site have formed a coordinating body which is also reaching out to the 70% of the workers on the site who are not Dutch. Read more at > BNR news website (NL) And on the UK case > Process engineering news website (EN)
Netherlands	Care home workers take action over jobs Members of the FNV Abvakabo public service trade union working in nursing and care homes have been taking industrial action for the first time. The workers are protesting over pressure of work, wage dumping in the sector and want a guarantee that extra funding for the sector will be used to increase employment. Abvakabo members voted against the VVT collective agreement for the sector as they argued that it didn’t address pressure of work, low pay and flexbilisation. Read more at > FNV Abvakabo (NL)
Italy	Federations plan strike on 28 September The FP CGIL, UIL FPL and UIL PA public sector federations will be coordinating protest activity during August and September in the lead up to a public sector strike on 28 September. The federations are angry that the government has agreed a major spending review and cuts to the public sector that provide no scope for consultation or negotiation with the trade unions. [Read more at > FP CGIL (IT)>http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/...]
Norway	Striking for equal pensions Workers are on strike in private nursing homes following the failure to negotiate improved pensions with the NHO Service employers’ organisation. Not only do private nursing homes offer much lower pensions than in the public and non-profit sector but the retirement age is also five years higher at 67. Read more at > Fagforbundet (NO)
Germany	Union calls for action over strikebreaking Ver.di has called on the state government of Hamburg to intervene in a dispute involving workers at the Asklepios-owned hospital on the island of Sylt. the Asklepios company is offering bonuses to is workers from its hospital in Hamburg to come to Sylt to break the strike of 340 workers there. The Hamburg government owns 25.1% of the Asklepios hospital in Hamburg and so, ver.di argues, should try to stop the company’s blatent strike-breaking. Ver.di is also angry because the Hamburg hospital already enjoys the kind of collective agreement and pay and conditions that the workers on Sylt are striking to secure. Read more at > ver.di (DE)
Norway	Waste sector strike avoided The NTF transport union has agreed a deal for workers in the waste sector following mediation. The union had been planned a strike for 24 August but this was called off. There is a general wage increase for all workers of NOK 1.50 (€ 0.25) an hour while the union is particularly please that the minimum wage in the collective agreement goes up by just over 9% to NOK 150 (€20.50) an hour. Read more at > NTO (NO)
UK	Municipality to reverse pay cuts Following elections in May, the now Labour-controlled Southampton city council is to reverse pay cuts imposed by the previous Tory-led council. All council workers earning less than £35,000 a year could see their pay fully restored by April 2014. Those earning less than £22,000 will have their pay fully restored in November. Unite and Unison had been in dispute with the then Tory-led council since early 2011, including taking more than 200 days of targeted industrial action. Read more at > Unite (EN)
Spain	Unions criticise new redundancy rules The FSC-CCOO and FSP-UGT trade union federations have expressed their concern about new collective redundancy rules to be applied to the public administration sector. The unions see this as not only another attack on the public sector workforce but argue that the rules leave little scope for consultation or negotiation. Read more at > FSP-UGT (ES)
Europe	Working time survey The EIRO industrial relations observatory has published its annual review of working time developments, including information on the civil service. In 2011, average collective agreed weekly working time in the European Union stood at 38.1 hours with agreed normal annual working time averaging nearly 1,720 hours. Of the three sectors examined, retail recorded the longest average agreed normal weekly working hours with 38.3 hours, followed by the chemicals sector with 37.9 hours and the civil service with 37.6 hours. Read more at > EIRO (EN) Provided by EPSU www.epsu.org