The main focus of PSI is on Quality Public Services which involves:

  Advocating, promoting and lobbying for quality public services.
  Strengthening trade unions to help them better defend and improve working conditions
  Working with communities and users to help them get the public services they need.

PSI and Global Institutions

PSI presents the public sector case at the International Labour Organisation and other United Nations bodies, the World Bank and the regional development banks, the International Monetary Fund, the World Trade Organisation, the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development and many others.

PSI and core trade union rights

PSI works closely with affiliated unions to protect and extend workers’ rights, including the freedom to join a union, to bargain collectively and other rights including gender equality, equity and diversity.

PSI solidarity and union development projects help affiliated unions by providing training and capacity-building support on the ground, especially in countries where trade unions are fighting for recognition.

PSI aims are

  Quality public services for all
  Union rights for all public service workers
  Gender equality & employment equity for all
  Public alternatives to privatisation of services
  A strong and united trade union movement
  Social justice in the workplace
  Poverty reduction and debt relief
  Sustainable development

PSI structures and organization

PSI’s international office is next to Geneva on the French-Swiss border.

PSI has regional bases in Washington, Singapore, and Lome and many sub-regional and national offices as well. Barbados, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, India, Japan, Lebanon, Malaysia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, South Africa, Togo, Ukraine and the USA.

Affiliates meet at Congress every five years to adopt/vote a programme of action which forms the basis for all PSI work. The Congress also elects the President and General Secretary and other Executive Board members.

It has active women’s committees at global, regional and sub-regional levels, and all decision-making structures are based on gender parity.

PSI works closely together with International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Unions and coordinates its work with the Council of Global Unions and - and other global federations, in particular EI, the European Federation of Public Service Unions.

The six official languages of PSI are: English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish and Swedish.

 PSI Constitution (adopted in Vienna, September 2007)

Quality Public Service Campaign

PSI advocates partnerships between workers, unions, public authorities, and local communities to build quality public services.

PSI has a strong sectoral dimension to its quality public services campaign. In the health and social services sector, there is a need for over 4 million additional health workers if the MDGs are to be achieved. Easily preventable diseases around the world are destroying lives. At the same time, privatization has failed to deliver. PSI wants a strengthened, responsive public health service, delivering universal access to quality care.

PSI recognises the human rights to water, and calls for public ownership and management of water and sanitation facilities. Therefore PSI advocates that International Financial Institutions must support the development of a strong public sector capable of delivering essential services, as a requisite for economic and social development and equality.