The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the structural weakness of EU Member States’ care systems as well as the essential role of care workers. Despite policymakers’ efforts to address these weaknesses and recognise care work, many challenges persist, chief among them low collective bargaining coverage, lack of trade union and employer representation.
In response to this, EU social partners – employers and trade unions organisations – in Personal and Household Services (PHS) – UNI Europa, EFFAT, EFFE and EFSI – launched in 2023 the two-year EU co-funded project ‘PHSDialogue: building an EU Sectoral Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining capacity in Personal and Household Services (PHS)’.
PHS has been defined by the European Commission as “a broad range of activities that contribute to well-being at home of families and individuals: childcare (CC), long term care (LTC) for the elderly and for persons with disabilities, cleaning, remedial classes, home repairs, gardening, ICT support, etc”. The project aims to build an EU Social Dialogue and strengthen social partners’ capacity and collective bargaining.
This is crucial as Eurofound’s Industrial Relations landscape report acknowledged that Personal and Household (PHS) activities form an increasingly important part of the human health and social services. Meanwhile, the EU Care Strategy emphasised a shift to homecare services provision and different services provision models, which needs to go hand in hand with the creating an equal playing field and fair competition for all.
The project engages in numerous activities, including:
- Mapping the key players in the PHS sectors
- Publishing a Collective Bargaining & Social Dialogue report
- Creating a PHS Employment Monitor
- Organising Social Dialogue meetings
- Establish Sectoral Observatories at the national level
- Organise workshops for unions
- Capacity-building workshops for employers organisations
The project is part of the commitment enshrined in the PHS social dialogue work programme for 2023/2024, and will be followed up with another project.
For more information see:
UNI Europa contact for this project is Mark Bergfeld, Director Property Services & UNI Care.