The Public Service Benchmarking Body (PSBB), which compares pay and conditions between the public and private sectors, has decided that the vast majority of Ireland's 300,000 public servants should not receive any pay increase other than the rises agreed on as part of normal national pay negotiations. It concludes that "this reflects pay practices in the private sector". In its report issued 11 January 2008, PSBB recommends pay increases for just 15 of the 109 grades it examined. It estimates its recommendations to be worth €50 million a year, or 0.3% of overall public service pay costs. Public servants will, however, receive the 5% pay rise due to them in 2008 under the Towards 2016 national partnership agreement. Public sector union leaders have shown their disappointment with the results of the PSBB report. The Irish Nurses Organisation (INO) demanded that the report be reconsidered. The General Secretary of the Irish Municipal and Civil Trade Union (IMPACT), Peter McLoone, argued that the report had concluded that most public servants should receive no pay rises for two reasons: "First, the benchmarking body changed its methodology (..) Second, it imposed a much higher premium on pensions this time." It is expected that the unions will seek to reform the benchmarking process in forthcoming talks on the next module of the Towards 2016 agreement.
(English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2008/01/articles/ie0801059i.htm; http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/pub/defaultarticle.php?cArticlePath=193_258_375_535)
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The Austrian government has largely given in to the demands of the two unions involved, the Gewerkschaft ffentlicher Dienst (GD) and the Gewerkschaft der Gemeindebediensteten (GdG) of the GB confederation, and agreed on a one-year wage agreement for 2008, covering public servants of the state, federal states (Lnder) and municipalities. On average, their incomes will increase by 3.3% on January 1, 2008: through compensations by 2.7%, with on top a non-recurrent allowance for everybody of Euro 175 in May 2008. The agreement implies the highest wage increases since years. Moreover, it has equalizing effects: those with the lowest incomes will receive a 3.8% wage increase, and those with the highest incomes 2.7%.
Other recent pay settlements in Austria include 3.3% pay rises for 70,000 employees of banks and financial institutions, and a 3.4% increase for private-sector bus drivers.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/r/163; Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 1/2008;
German: http://www.goed.at/13891.html and http://www.gdg.at)
The two GB union confederation affiliates, Gewerkschaft Metall-Textil-Nahrung (metal, textiles and clothing, GMTN) and Gewerkschaft der Privatangestellten, Druck, Journalismus, Papier (functionaries, printing and journalism, GPA-DJP), jointly representing workers in the private electricity industry (EVU), negotiated a 3.7% increase on pay and other allowances in a 12-month deal from 1 February 2008. The agreement also includes a €250 lump sum payment. This is about 0.6%pts higher than the average pay rise for 2008 agreed thus far in Austria.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=249#a3596;
German: http://www.gpa.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=GPA/Page/Index&n=GPA_0.a&cid=1200959080722)
Although neither Cypriot employers' associations nor trade unions follow a clear formula when calculating wage demands, their calculations go back to two basics: labour productivity and implementation of the system of pay indexation. Recently, in discussing the renewal of the 178 collective agreements due to expire in late 2007 / early 2008, the Pancyprian Federation of Labour (PEO) and the Cyprus Workers' Confederation (SEK) decided to demand increases that would outstrip productivity. In particular SEK mentioned several reasons for such wage increases: the robust situation of the Cypriot economy, characterized by an adequate growth rate; unemployment, which has remained under control at low levels; controlled inflation, despite the recent upsurge in inflationary pressures. PEO also highlights the need for the convergence of wages in Cyprus with wage levels in the more advanced countries of the former EU15. This new basis for wage demands runs counter to both the employers' and government's official positions.
(English: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2007/12/articles/cy0712019i.htm)
The 26 public service unions in the TUC confederation have joint forces to oppose the government's demands to keep public sector pay below 2% in the coming year. The TUC has produced a report, Six million pay cuts, to counter some of the government's claims about public sector pay increases fuelling inflation and warning of the anger generated in 2007 when health service pay awards were staged rather than paid in full in April.
On December 18, 2007, the TUC and its 26 member unions launched the Speak Up for Public Services Campaign. General secretary Dave Prentis of the major UNISON union stated: "A 2% pay limit, for each of the next three years, will mean a pay cut for the UK's six million public-sector workers. It represents a real cut in living standards and could cause long-term damage to industrial relations, recruitment, retention and morale." "The government must remember what a demoralised, under-resourced public sector it inherited from the Tories," Mr Prentis warned. "We cannot go back to those days." On January 23, eight TUC leaders met Alistair Darling, finance minister (chancellor) of the Labour government. The TUC team pressed the Chancellor that public service negotiators need greater flexibility in their negotiations with unions, including scope to address long term problems in pay structures and low pay.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=244; http://www.unison.org.uk/news/news_view.asp?did=3915; http://www.tuc.org.uk/publicsector/tuc-14102-f0.cfm; http://www.tuc.org.uk/publicsector/tuc-14222-f0.cfm)
Public service unions have been forced to mobilise their members once again in order to secure the pay increases they negotiated for their members for the years 2006-2007. The public sector pay agreements are re-negotiated every two years, although often with long delays. The various agreements on pay for 2006-2007 for public sector workers for were finally signed in May 2007 but have still not been implemented. A national mobilisation campaign of workers in local and regional government was called for 28 January, while health workers will demonstrate on 4 February.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=245; Italian: http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/5381 and http://www.fpcgil.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/5400)
In a joint declaration as of January 25, public service federations (CGT - FO - FSU - CFDT - CFTC - UNSA - Solidaires) stated to be delighted by the level of support across the country for strikes and demonstrations over pay and collective bargaining of the day before. They emphasized that hundreds of thousands expressed their dissatisfaction over wages and employment in the public sector. In response the government has offered to meet for talks on 18 February. Yet, unions are also concerned that at the same time the government is talking about restricting the right to strike in the education sector. They want proper negotiations to begin in the first week of February and are calling on members to maintain pressure on the government through local actions and in particular during the "week for public services" organized by the government between 1 and 8 February.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=245; French: http://www.spterritoriaux.cgt.fr/spip.php?article2144)
The FSP-UGT and FSAP-CCOO public service federations have secured a minimum Euro 1,000-a-month salary for workers on pay band 5 in the general state administration. The lowest annual salary (14 monthly payments) will now be Euro 14,000, an increase of 13.8% and significantly higher than the 5.41% and 6.30% increases for workers on the higher scales 1, 2, 3 and 4.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=245; Spanish: http://www.fsap.ccoo.es/webfsap/menu.do?Actualidad:Sindical:Actualidad:16787; http://www.fspugt.es/index.php/mod.noticias/mem.detalle/idnoticia.2880/idimagen.913/relcategoria.7)
In December 2007, the bargaining committee of services union ver.di voted to submit an 8% pay claim in the negotiations with employers in local and central government, covering in total over 1.3 million employees. The union argues that the pay of public sector workers has been eroded by inflation, particularly higher prices for energy, housing and food and this has hit lower paid workers above all. The union is also claiming a minimum Euro 200 increase. Ver.di wants the pay agreement to run for 12 months. The last agreement ran 27 months, from October 2005 to December 2007.
Following a second round of pay negotiations, ver.di has rejected the government employers' latest offer. The employers claim the deal is the equivalent of a 5% increase on pay, but ver.di argues that in fact by the end of 2009 workers would be worse off than they are today. The employers want a two-year deal with increases of 2.5% from 1 February 2008, 1.0% from 1 October 2008 and 0.5% from 1 March 2009. A further 0.5% in each year would be performance-related and so not available to all workers. The union also criticizes the offer because employers are demanding an increase in working hours to 39.5 a week from 1 July 2008 and then to 40 hours a week from 1 January 2009. In that way, ver.di argues, the workers are effectively financing the deal.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=244; http://www.epsu.org/spip/cob.php3?id_mot=245;
German: www.verdi.de/nachrichten)
The three unions affiliated with the major confederations, FNV Bondgenoten, CNV Dienstenbond and De Unie, and the employers' association `ICT' have agreed upon a basic agreement in information, communication and office technology. The agreement will be in force from January 1, 2008, till January 1, 2010. The agreement provides pay increases of twice 3%. Remarkable is the fact that the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment is not willing to declare this collective agreement mandatory extended, as he judges the employers' association not fully representative.
(Dutch: www.ictoffice.nl/index.html; www.computable.nl/news)