Trade unions care about caring women: campaigning for better conditions in care services
(Press Communication, 8 March, Brussels) Today is international Women’s day, but in the Care Sector is there much cause for celebration? “Care service workers, a majority of whom are women, continue to be undervalued and underpaid. And working women are facing more and more barriers in the access to care. So where is the official response? “Promises of gender equality and better work/life balance are undermined by the lack of any real action to improve public care services “ says Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of EPSU, representing care service workers in Europe, “Where are the concrete initiatives? We are looking to the EU to take the lead.”
The care sector, as one of the main employers of women, is characterised by precarious and low-wage jobs, irregular working hours and few career opportunities. Even though staff shortages and the demand for care workers are expected to accelerate in Europe, governments have failed to make the sector more attractive to both male and female workers.
Many governments dodge their responsibilities to be decent employers and public service providers. Instead, they exploit the generosity of women workers, volunteers, and family members. They turn a blind eye to appalling working conditions - conditions from which many migrant women rightly try to escape.
This does not do justice to either the people who need the care or to the people who provide the care. The standard of care work is a mirror image of the society. The care sector is also of crucial economic value.
Recent research in care services in Europe carried out by the Dublin Foundation recommends improvement of working conditions and increasing wages.
Later this year, as part of its Gender Equality Roadmap, the Commission will publish a Communication on the gender pay gap. It will also support research in job classification in care services. EPSU urges the Commission to make sure that the road is made of concrete actions! Specifically EPSU calls on the Commission to:
recognise that closing the gender pay gap requires improving conditions and ending the scandal of low wages in sectors in which most women are working;
call on EU governments to take action to combat gender sectoral segregation, by providing full training and career opportunities for care workers and improving working conditions in the social sector;
make the links between quality working conditions, quality of public services, and gender equality; and
stop promoting privatisation as the only solution to improve the availability, affordability and quality of care services
As part of its campaign to tackle low pay across Europe EPSU will collect data on working conditions in child, elderly and other dependant care services, be it home or residential-based, and will analyse the causes of the gender pay gap. The research findings will be discussed with a network of trade unionists, with a view to setting out new strategies and tactics to improve wages and working conditions in EU care services and so contribute to closing the gender pay gap.
On International Women’s Day let’s celebrate the central role that women play in the care sector and send out a clear message that its time to end the exploitation that many of them face in delivering these vital services.
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For more information, please contact : Tamara Goosens, Health and Social Services Officer, +32 2 250 10 93 Nadja Salson, National and European Administration, Gender Equality Officer, + 32 2 250 10 88 Brian Synnott, EPSU Communications and Campaigns Officer, + 32 2 250 10 89 or by email epsu@epsu.org
“EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC and comprises 8 million public service workers from over 200 Public Service Unions in 37 countries. We organise workers in health and social services, local and national administration, energy, water and waste. We are the recognised European social partner organisation in each of these sectors. EPSU is committed to building a European Union that promotes democratically accountable public services of the highest quality, within and beyond it’s borders. For more information on EPSU and our work please go to: www.epsu.org”
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