France - Government attacked over nurses pay - January 1, 2010

Trade unions have criticized health minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin for what they perceive as misleading statements about proposed increases to nurses' pay.
The unions say that her claims that nurses will see their pay rise by Euro 2,500 only applies to a small proportion of specialist nurses and that this will only be from 2016. For new starters nurses' pay will be worth 20% more than the minimum wage from 2016. In contrast, at the beginning of the 1980s starting salaries for nurses were worth 50% more than the minimum wage. Unions are particularly angry about proposals to remove the right to retire from the age of 55.

English: http://www.epsu.org/cob/332;

French: http://www.force-ouvriere.fr/page_principal/fede/index.asp?lk=fd&id .;
http://www.fed-cfdt-sante-sociaux.org/nego_fph.htm;
 http://www.sante.cgt.fr/spip.php?article4402

This article was published in the Collective Bargaining Newsletter, which presents up-to-date information on collective bargaining developments across Europe. It aims to facilitate information exchange between trade unions and to support the work of ETUC's collective bargaining committee. For more information, please contact the editor Maarten van Klaveren, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) M.vanKlaveren@uva.nl. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net. © ETUI aisbl, Brussels 2009. All rights reserved. The ETUI is not responsible for the content of external internet sites. The ETUI is financially supported by the European Community. The European Community is not responsible for any use made of the information contained in this news section.