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In preparation for the its
collective bargaining conference in Brussels on 13-14 December, EPSU has
produced a briefing document summarising the main issues for debate in the
various sessions and providing links to relevant documents. The briefing is
available on the conference website where you can also register and find
other practical details. There will be sessions on:
 economic governance and
wages public sector restructuring
and the impact on collective bargaining evaluation of the social
dialogue and attacks on labour law and
trade union rights. Read
more at > EPSU |
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The International Labour Organisation has issued a report
critical of the attacks on trade union and collective bargaining rights. It
concluded: "While deeply aware that these measures were taken within a
context qualified as grave and exceptional, provoked by a financial and
economic crisis, the Committee found that there were a number of repeated and
extensive interventions into free and voluntary collective bargaining and an
important deficit of social dialogue and thus highlighted the need to promote
and strengthen the institutional framework for these key fundamental
rights." Read
more at > ILO (EN) And
at > ETUC (EN) And
in French at > CES
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The position of the European Commission is becoming more
transparent. In its recent analysis Labour Market Developments in Europe
DG ECFIN identifies what it claims are employment-friendly labour reforms,
most of which are about increasing flexibility. However, in terms of
industrial relations DG ECFIN is explicit about its negative view of
collective bargaining and trade unions in relation to employment ( annex to
the report, page 104). Ronald Janssen, economic advisor at the ETUC, looks at
the report and warns of its implications and the threat of the "wild
west" attacks from the cowboys in DG ECFIN. Read
more at > DG ECFIN (EN) And
the Ronald Janssen article at > Social Europe Journal (EN)
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After the general strike on 14 November and the final journey
of the caravan of protest, local government union STAL will continue to
organise actions and protests against the austerity measures aimed at public
sector workers and public services. The caravan covered 9000 kilometres and
organised public meetings up and down the country. The next actions are
planned for parliament on 27 November, followed by demonstrations on 8 and 15
December. Read
more at > STAL (PT)
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Public services union Unison has analysed the latest official
pay statistics and put forward two key arguments for why any evidence of a
public sector pay premium needed to be treated with caution. In the first
place the outsourcing of services like catering and cleaning mean that many
low paid workers are now in the private sector although still working for the
public sector. Secondly, there are large numbers of specialised professional
jobs in healthcare, education and other parts of the public sector that
require significant training and so pay rates reflect this. Read
more at > Unison (EN)
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A study commissioned by the Impact public services union
reveals the complexity of making pay comparisons of public sector jobs
between different countries. The report looked at a range of occupations and
compared similar jobs in Ireland and Germany. The comparison of pay rates
showed that certain jobs such as clerical workers and primary school teachers
are paid less in Ireland even before taking account of the higher cost of
living. Read
more at > Impact (EN)
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The All-Russia electricity workers’ union has been organising
a series of pickets, protests and other actions in support of a significant
pay rise to compensate for several years without any increase. The key demands
are for a 25% pay increase and minimum wage in the industry of R6827 (around
€170) from January 2013. Read
the our solidarity message and union press release at > EPSU (EN, RU)
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Health unions in Madrid have agreed to four days of strike
action on 26-27 November and 4-5 December in protest at plans by the regional
government to cut over 1000 jobs. There will also be a demonstration in the
city on 27 November. Meanwhile, as part of the protest members of the unions’
executive committees have locked themselves into the offices of the region’s
ministry of health building. Read
more at > FSC-CCOO (ES) And
at > FSP-UGT (ES)
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The International Labour Organisation has confirmed that it
will investigate the attacks on trade union and collective bargaining rights
listed by public sector trade unions in a complaint submitted to the ILO at
the end of October. The ILO will now write to the government asking for its
response to the accusations. The unions also have time to submit more
evidence to support their case. Read
more at > FSC-CCOO (ES)
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The FOA public services union argues that women should take
the rest of the year off because of the scale of the gender pay gap. On
average women are paid 18% less than men which effectively is like being paid
only for 10 months a year and so they should refuse to work from 1 November
until the end of the year. FOA argues that efforts to close the gender pay
gap have been piecemeal and what is needed is major and coordinated action. Read
more at > FOA (DK)
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The Vision white-collar local government union has commented
on the latest official pay statistics that show a persistent structural
gender pay gap in nine out of 10 professional groups. Vision president Annika
Strandhäll is on the government committee on equality and is concerned not
only about the very slow trend towards closing the pay gap but also the fact
that sectors where women make up the majority of workers have lower pay then
those dominated by men. This is despite the fact that women are, in general,
better educated than men. Read
more at > Vision (SE)
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The LO blue-collar workers’ confederation has confirmed plans
to coordinate bargaining in the next pay round. The aim will be secure pay
increases of 2.8% for all workers earning at least SEK 25000 (€2900) a month.
The pay claim for workers on less than SEK 25000 will be a flat-rate amount
of SEK 700 (€81). The aim is to boost lower pay rates and contribute to
closing the gender pay gap. The coordinated claim will include a number of
other elements including an allowance for those on parental leave. Read
more at > Kommunal (SE)
Advice EPSU www.epsu.org |
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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.
Friday, 23 November 2012
epsucob@NEWS Collective Bargaining in the Public Services November
