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STRIKES

Denmark faces potential nurses’ strike after deal rejected

The Danish Nurses' Organization (Dansk Sygeplejeråd, DSR), a union representing the majority of the country’s nurses, on Thursday issued a notice of strike action to employers.

Denmark faces potential nurses' strike after deal rejected
File photo of a nurse at a Danish hospital: Linda Kastrup/Ritzau Scanpix

The union confirmed its action in a statement after a slim majority of its members voted to reject a new collective bargaining agreement over working terms.

Dissatisfaction over the rejected agreement is related to the wages offered, news wire Ritzau reports.

A collective bargaining agreement or overenskomst in Danish is a central part of the national labour market model, given that almost 70 percent of people in the country are union members.

The agreement itself is a set of working conditions agreed between employers and union representatives. It regulates wages, for example stipulating that all employees with a certain job title must receive a salary within a certain pay band, as well as holiday allowance, overtime pay, working hours, and other benefits.

“We emphatically wish to put pressure on both regional health authorities and municipalities to get them back to the negotiation table with a view to finding a solution” to the conflict, union chairperson Grete Christensen said.

DSR has around 80,000 members. It has given notice of a strike taking in ten percent of its members employed by municipalities and regional health authorities.

Should the strike become reality, that number would encompass a broad section of members from across the country, Christensen said.

It would begin during the night of May 20th-May 21st.

There remains hope that the two sides will find a resolution prior to the strike taking effect, with DSR saying it could not rule out the possibility of a new agreement being reached with employer representatives.

Christensen said the situation was “not optimal” in relation to the coronavirus crisis.

“But that doesn’t make the message from our members any less clear and we must act,” she said.

“So we hope that employers are prepared to come forward and take part in finding some solutions together with us,” she added.

The rejected collective bargaining agreement provides for wage increases of just over five percent and would have taken effect from the end of April.

READ ALSO: Trust, risk and regulation: how Denmark’s 2013 teachers’ lockout built the platform for a far greater crisis

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TRAVEL NEWS

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

Germany's Deutsche Bahn rail operator and the GDL train drivers' union have reached a deal in a wage dispute that has caused months of crippling strikes in the country, the union said.

German train strike wave to end following new labour agreement

“The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and Deutsche Bahn have reached a wage agreement,” GDL said in a statement.

Further details will be announced in a press conference on Tuesday, the union said. A spokesman for Deutsche Bahn also confirmed that an agreement had been reached.

Train drivers have walked out six times since November, causing disruption for huge numbers of passengers.

The strikes have often lasted for several days and have also caused disruption to freight traffic, with the most recent walkout in mid-March.

In late January, rail traffic was paralysed for five days on the national network in one of the longest strikes in Deutsche Bahn’s history.

READ ALSO: Why are German train drivers launching more strike action?

Europe’s largest economy has faced industrial action for months as workers and management across multiple sectors wrestle over terms amid high inflation and weak business activity.

The strikes have exacerbated an already gloomy economic picture, with the German economy shrinking 0.3 percent across the whole of last year.

What we know about the new offer so far

Through the new agreement, there will be optional reduction of a work week to 36 hours at the start of 2027, 35.5 hours from 2028 and then 35 hours from 2029. For the last three stages, employees must notify their employer themselves if they wish to take advantage of the reduction steps.

However, they can also opt to work the same or more hours – up to 40 hours per week are possible in under the new “optional model”.

“One thing is clear: if you work more, you get more money,” said Deutsche Bahn spokesperson Martin Seiler. Accordingly, employees will receive 2.7 percent more pay for each additional or unchanged working hour.

According to Deutsche Bahn, other parts of the agreement included a pay increase of 420 per month in two stages, a tax and duty-free inflation adjustment bonus of 2,850 and a term of 26 months.

Growing pressure

Last year’s walkouts cost Deutsche Bahn some 200 million, according to estimates by the operator, which overall recorded a net loss for 2023 of 2.35 billion.

Germany has historically been among the countries in Europe where workers went on strike the least.

But since the end of 2022, the country has seen growing labour unrest, while real wages have fallen by four percent since the start of the war in Ukraine.

German airline Lufthansa is also locked in wage disputes with ground staff and cabin crew.

Several strikes have severely disrupted the group’s business in recent weeks and will weigh on first-quarter results, according to the group’s management.

Airport security staff have also staged several walkouts since January.

Some politicians have called for Germany to put in place rules to restrict critical infrastructure like rail transport from industrial action.

But Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the calls, arguing that “the right to strike is written in the constitution… and that is a democratic right for which unions and workers have fought”.

The strikes have piled growing pressure on the coalition government between Scholz’s Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business FDP, which has scored dismally in recent opinion polls.

The far-right AfD has been enjoying a boost in popularity amid the unrest with elections in three key former East German states due to take place later this year.

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