16-2007 epsucob@NEWS 19 September 2007

The ver.di services union is to negotiate a sectoral minimum wage to cover the waste sector. Both the BDE private employers' association and local government employers (VKA) have agreed to talks. The union wants to ensure that current pay levels are protected by an industry-wide agreement. It says that while virtually all 90,000 municipal workers in the sector are covered by a collective agreement only 20,000 of the 70,000 private sector employees have the same protection. [Read more at > ver.di (DE)->http://presse.verdi.de/pressemitteilungen/showNews?id=640e8f28-62c7-11dc-51f4-0019b9e321cd]

The European Ombudsman has sent a special report to the European Parliament, criticising the Commission for not dealing with a complaint concerning the European working time directive. More than five years ago, a German doctor asked the Commission to open proceedings against Germany, alleging that it was infringing the working time directive. The Commission has said that it has not taken action because its proposals for amending the directive are still under discussion in the Council of Ministers. [Read more at > EU Ombudsman (EN)->http://ombudsman.europa.eu/release/en/2007-09-17.htm] [Read

Public service union IMPACT has joined with the Irish Nurses' Organisation and the SIPTU general union in called on the Health Services Executive (HSE) for assurances that certain services will be excluded from a staff recruitment freeze. The unions have also criticised the HSE for failing to undertake proper consultation over the issue. The HSE claims the recruitment freeze is necessary in order to reduce overall spending by the end of the year. The three unions are backed by other health service unions including the craft group of unions, the Medical Laboratory Scientists Association, the

A new collective agreement for the municipal sector has still not been signed as unions and employers fail to agree over one final element of the deal. The three trade unions in local government, ABVAKABO, CNV Publieke Zaak and CMHF, want increased compensation for ambulance workers and firefighters because of tax rules that hit their early retirement pensions. ABVAKABO negotiator Peter Wiechmann said he thought the employers' position was bizarre because the unions' demand would only add 0.05% to the overall wage bill. The unions are consulting with their members over what action they should

Health unions have voted to accept the government's revised pay offer for NHS employees. Unions had been considering industrial action in response to the government's decision to stage the 2.5% pay award, paying 1.5% in April 2007 followed by 1% in November. There has been no change to this proposal but the government has offered some additional payments: lower paid staff in pay bands 1 and 2 will be guaranteed an increase in salary of £400; staff in pay bands 3 and 4 will get 2.5% in salary plus an additional £38; staff in pay bands 5 to 8a will receive 2.5% plus an additional contribution of

On 19-20 November EPSU is supporting a research conference on the public services that will include a session looking at the impact of privatisation on collective bargaining and industrial relations. One important aim of the conference is to try to improve links between researchers doing work on public service issues and trade unionists who may be able to use their research in their campaigning and bargaining. On 3-4 December EPSU's annual collective bargaining and social dialogue conference will take place in Brussels. [Read more at > EPSU (EN)->http://www.epsu.org/a/3056] [And at > EPSU (EN