DA: Please describe your work situation. Where do you work? How big is
the company? What are the typical activities involved in everyday work?---- I work at the Rudolf-Sophien-Stift in Stuttgart. This is a
subsidiary of the Evangelical Society and therefore falls under the area
of "church labor law". The Rudolf-Sophien-Stift offers social services
for people with mental illnesses - among other things, this includes a
clinic and a medical+vocational rehabilitation area, workshops as well
as residential homes and assisted living apartments. The company
currently has around 500 employees.
My workplace is in one of the residential homes. Here I work shifts
(that is: early shift, late shift, night shift). My tasks include
accompanying and supporting the residents in their everyday lives; on
the one hand with the aim of reducing stress and overwork for them and
thereby avoiding psychological crises. This includes support with
official matters, accompanying doctors, but also support with household
chores and practicing practical life skills. On the other hand, our goal
is to enable residents to participate in social life, both in and
outside the residence, for example through leisure activities.
DA: In 2019, you achieved the first improvements for the staff. What
improvements are these? How were you able to achieve them?
At the beginning of 2019, several positions in the care team were
vacant. For us, this understaffing meant permanent stress in our daily
work, a high work intensification and (as a result) a high level of sick
leave among colleagues (which led to even more work). In discussions
with my colleagues, it quickly became clear that things could not
continue like this. We wrote a collective overload report, which was
signed by 90% of the team. The whole team was then invited to a meeting
with the department head. We had discussed beforehand that we needed
improvements in working conditions. I also consulted the FAU Stuttgart.
Ultimately, we made it clear in a discussion with the department head
that the company should both take initial measures to reduce the
workload and make our jobs more attractive to potential job applicants
(and us).
Ultimately, we were able to achieve the following improvements: Another
position was created in the area of housekeeping and building services,
which was immediately filled internally. A "fill-in bonus" of 100 euros
gross per day was introduced if colleagues come to work at short notice
and unplanned (because someone has fallen ill); for colleagues in the
3-shift system, rotating shift allowances were now paid instead of shift
allowances (this meant more money and three additional vacation days per
year). More staff positions were planned than before and the company
significantly expanded its online recruitment process. To be honest, I
was surprised by the amount of improvements compared to the effort.
DA: At the end of 2023, you have now set up a formal works group. What
can you tell us about that?
By now we had several FAU members in the company (at different locations
in Stuttgart). We talked to our colleagues about our working conditions
and possible improvements. We met outside of working hours, talked
together, ate together and built up mutual trust. When we tackled the
next common issue in the company together with other colleagues, a
regular and reliable collaboration developed between us - we were
already working like a company group. So it was only a small step to
officially establish the FAU company group at the union general meeting.
DA: Now you are on the verge of achieving further successes for the
workforce. What is it about and how did you achieve it?
People with different qualifications work together in the dormitories:
mainly nurses, special education teachers and social workers. Everyone
should do the same work. However, not all professional groups are paid
the same. There were previously three different pay groups: nurses
(unlike special needs educators and social workers) were not classified
in the social and educational services ("S table"), but in the nursing
classification ("P table"), and were therefore paid the lowest. Special
needs educators are in turn classified lower within the S table than
social workers. The different classifications have an impact on the
basic salary and the amount of allowances and bonuses. As a result of
the collective agreement in the social and educational services by
ver.di in 2022, there were even differences in terms of days off: those
classified in the social and educational services received up to four
additional days off per year (two regeneration days and two conversion
days, which can either be paid out or taken as days off) - employees in
the care classification went away empty-handed.
The situation of different pay has existed for a long time and has
rarely been openly addressed to superiors. After the collective
agreement in 2022, the different entitlements to days off ensured that
this topic was increasingly discussed among colleagues and sometimes
also with superiors.
We FAU members in the company were not classified in the P table. We
repeatedly sought to talk to our colleagues, listened and encouraged
them that improvements were possible. It was important to us that we did
not take action over the heads of the colleagues affected, but with
them. When a colleague from nursing said in September 2023 that he now
wanted to take action to ensure equal treatment of nursing staff with
SuE employees, things got started. Together with him and other committed
colleagues, we contacted colleagues from the rest of the company's
dormitories. We talked to them about the unequal leisure and wage
entitlements. We wanted to convey our demands to the company management
using signature lists. For various reasons, not all dormitories
submitted signature lists. Ultimately, just over 50% of all dormitory
employees signed the letters of demand. Together with a colleague, I
then personally handed in the signature lists to the company management.
Three days later, the staff meeting (= canonical format of the works
meeting) took place. We had already had our topic put on the agenda in
advance. In the presence of the company management, the colleagues
concerned had the opportunity to express their demands personally to the
company management, which some colleagues took advantage of.
The employee representatives (= canonical and more limited version of
the works council) had been raising the issue with the company
management for some time - so far without success. After the signature
lists were handed over, the company management promised improvements.
Ultimately, at the end of January 2024, the company management informed
the affected nursing colleagues that they would be reclassified into the
middle wage group in the SuE tariff (and thus treated equally to special
needs teachers). The employee representatives had negotiated that this
would happen retroactively to January 1, 2023.
DA: What would you recommend to FAU members who are considering starting
a works group in their company?
I work in an area where the level of union organization is usually in
the single digits. The most important thing that I have learned in
recent years is not to lose patience and to have a lot of patience. It
is helpful to keep talking to colleagues to ask which topics and
improvements they find important at the moment. Sometimes, however, it
takes not only a common topic, but also the "right" time for colleagues
to take action.
It is also essential that colleagues can build trust in you as a union
member who is committed to the company. This trust is created through
reliable, solidarity-based and professionally competent cooperation in
everyday work. And it is also created by taking on responsibility to
defend the common interests of the employees vis-à-vis superiors. A
longer period of employment has also made it easier for me to be
perceived as an authentic and reliable person.
DA: What would you recommend to syndicates that want to set up company
groups?
The syndicates should offer their members workshops on organizing and
building company groups at an early stage. They should have a company
group concept that clearly regulates the rights and obligations the
company group has towards their syndicate. They should plan enough
capacity to support the company group.
DA: Is there anything else you would like to say?
We should assess our situation and collective strength in the company in
a sober and realistic way - and at the same time be convinced that
together we can achieve improvements in labor law and union successes.
Company & Society By: Editorial staff of the DA distribution newspaper
on May 1st
Interview with Markus from FAU Stuttgart.
https://direkteaktion.org/mit-wenig-aufwand-viele-verbesserungen-erreicht/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten