After lengthy negotiations a new salary system was introduced across the public sector this year. One of the aims of the reform was to establish a fairer and clearer salary structure for public sector workers, recognizing that some groups were particularly worse off. The agreement included provisions to make some of the bigger wage adjustments over a longer period -- up to 2011. However, the new system has been subject to criticism by several different groups of workers and is now the subject of a constitutional court case taken by a union representing child care, education and research workers.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/r/192; Slovenian: The Slovenian Times, 17 October 2008)
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The ver.di services union has postponed its ballots and possible strikes envisaged in banking for November 2008, because of the crises on the financial markets. Yet Uwe Foullong, member of the ver.di board, made clear that the union expects the employers to prepare for reasonable collective bargaining. In an earlier bargaining round for private and state-held banks (250,000 employees) the employers had proposed to cancel one month's salary per year in case business targets would not be reached; the co-operative bank employers even suggested to cancel two months for sales staff. These proposals were at the basis of strikes of several thousands of employees.
(German: https://fidi.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=b519bb2e-9dde-11dd-547a-0019b9e321cd)
The president of German union IG Metall, Berthold Huber, said he was ready to consider a longer wage agreement than first planned for the engineering sector in an effort to respond to the uncertain economic outlook. "I'm quite prepared to react to the economic uncertainties, say by reaching a quick deal," Huber told weekly Der Spiegel in an interview published on 11 October. He emphasized that such a longer contract is in the interest of employers too. The original demand of the IG Metall was an increase of 8% for a period of 12 months for the sector's 3.6 million workers. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No. 7).
(English: http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/10/11/afx5539432.html;
via http://www.labourstart.org); German: Der Spiegel, 11 October 2008; http://www.igmetall.de/cps/rde/xchg/internet/style.xsl/view_4508_4525.htm?seitenid=469)
According to the STAL (National Trade Union of Local Administration), around three in four local government workers supported the national strike on 1 October. This strike was the latest protest in the unions' long-running campaign to defend the pay of public service workers and the quality of services in the face of government cuts and policies promoting privatisation. (See also this Collective Bargaining Newsletter Year 1 No. 7).
(English: http://www.epsu.org/r/189; Portuguese: http://www.stal.pt/artigo.asp?id=982)
The Sed Lex civil service union has said it will consider strike action at short notice unless the government responds to its demand for a 50% pay increase. "People are boiling ... All public sector unions demand a 50% increase," said Sed Lex president Vasile Marica. Earlier parliament, on the initiative of Social Democratic members, voted a 50% pay increase to teachers. The government challenged the legality of that move in the Constitutional Court, but lost its case.
(English: Watson Wyatt Data Services, New Industrial Relations Europe, 10/2008; http://www.epsu.org/r/190; http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2008/10/02/afx5502294.html)
Local government trade unions and employers met on 1 October in a new social dialogue forum that unions believe will be important in ensuring that key public sector agreements are properly implemented at local level but taking account of local circumstances. Unions are particularly concerned about maintaining employment and quality of services. They agreed with the employers to submit an amendment to the basic law on public employment to maintain staffing levels in local government.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/r/193; Spanish: http://www.fspugt.es/index.php/mod.noticias/mem.detalle/idnoticia.5654/cat.1030)
Members of the IMPACT union working in the health service have suspended their industrial action that began in May 2008 when they voted to refuse to cover vacant posts. The union action was prompted by the Health Services Executive (HSE) to impose a recruitment freeze. The union attacked not just the decision but the failure of the HSE to consult over the freeze. IMPACT members will now vote on a proposal to resolve the dispute negotiated by the Labour Relations Commission that includes provisions to ensure that consultation procedures will be followed in the future.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/r/179; http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=163)
From January 2009 onwards public sector employees will receive at least a 4% salary rise. However the majority of public servants will experience a salary rise of at least 7%. This is laid down in the collective agreements of a higher degree agreed on by government representatives, trade unions and local municipal authorities.
Although the majority of employees in the education, health care and culture sectors is going to experience the rise of the basic wage scales by 7%, their salaries could be even higher after counting in the additional parts of the salary. According to J n Gasperan, vice-president of the OZPSaV union confederation, the minimum rise should be at least 8.6%. He added that the education unionists were also happy with the agreement. Lately they were threatening with a strike if the higher demands on exercising the teaching profession would not be balanced with a salary rise.
(Slovakian: http://ekonomika.sme.sk/c/4104167/ucitelom-stupnu-platy-o-7-percent-vyskumnikom-o-pat.html)
Impact, the largest public services union, is recommending that members accept a pay deal that will give them a 6% increase over the next 21 months although no increase for the first 11 months. Lower paid workers --those on less than Euro 11 an hour -- will get an additional 0.5%. Impact general secretary Peter McLoone said that this was the best deal available in difficult circumstances even though it entailed a "special sacrifice" from public servants in the form of an 11-month pay freeze.
Yet a week later Unite, the country's second largest union, proved to recommend to its members that they should reject the deal in a forthcoming ballot. The Unite executive believes the deal, besides effectively representing a pay cut for members, also does not meet demands it had set out in advance of the talks in areas such as mandatory union recognition and improved pension arrangements.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; http://www.impact.ie/iopen24/newsdesk_info.php?newsdesk_id=162; http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2008/0927/1222419966687.html)
Local government workers in Scotland have organised another one-day strike on 24 September and agreed to further action if the employers do not respond with an improvement on their 2.5% offer. UNISON, the largest council staff union, claims the action by around 150,000 staff across Scotland a success. Local authority employers' group Cosla called on the unions "to bring more realistic demands to the table", but the unions claimed that notably Cosla's failure to improve their offer after the first strike led to the action.
(English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/269; http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/2008/septoct/1709.htm; http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=97519; http://www.amicustheunion.org/default.aspx?page=9167; http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Council-workers-stage-second-strike.4523320.jp)