(20 March, 2025) EPSU’s NEA committee, representing central/federal government workers, held its first meeting of the year on 11 March with 27 delegates from 18 countries, as well as ten observers from Romania’s commerce registry department.
The workplan for the next four years was finalised with special activities for prison workers and labour inspectors, and a focus on the interrelated fights against the far-right and austerity.
With the far-right making gains in the EU Parliament, leading five governments (Slovakia, Finland, Hungary, Italy and arguably Belgium as Flemish nationalist ruling party remains in far right group ECR), being amongst the top three parties in Austria, France, Spain, Germany, Romania, Portugal, Bulgaria, Sweden and the UK, and making strides in other parts of the world, a coordinated trade union response needs to be reinforced. The NEA Committee recommends better coordination of union-led networks against the far right or fascism, i.e. the ETUC Bread and Roses Centre, the Workers Centre in cooperation with the ETUI, and CGIL network, which EPSU is active in.
As the past decade of EU-backed austerity contributed to the rise of the far right, the ongoing new wave of cuts in the state sector as in Belgium, France, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Finland will need to be part of a union response against the far right. Close monitoring of the cuts in light of the European fiscal rules will continue including via the ETUC austerity watch, while discussing further which types of actions to mark International Day of Public Services on 23 June will be most effective. In Belgium the whole week will be dedicated to unions making the case for public services.
While there is no need for a new NEA anti-far right network, the Committee will contribute to a survey currently circulated to the LRG committee on the concrete impact of far-right led governments by adapting the questionnaire including a question on how unions tackle members with sympathy for the far-right.
French, Italian and Belgian delegates highlighted the importance of a cordon sanitaire against far right and nationalist parties with actions planned to mark International Day for the Elimination of Racism on 21 March. EPSU’s EUCare network of workers in services dealing with migrants and refugees will also be critical. A better coordination of public services dealing with newcomers can make a key difference in the long-term inclusion of migrants and refugees and positive perception of the public. Two meetings will be planned with EPSU affiliates - one in 2026 in Italy and one in 2028 in the Balkans.
As the toll of the EU fiscal rules starts being felt, the recent RearmEU decision to mobilise up to €800 Bn investment in defence was also discussed. While reaffirming the labour movement as a peace movement, the Committee didn’t contest the legitimacy of increased defence spending to protect Ukraine and the EU in the face of the US halting military aid to Ukraine. However, the suspension of the Stability and Growth Pact should also apply, as called for by the ETUC, to social and welfare spending, which also needs substantial investment. Norwegian delegate underlined that the battle is both military and ideological, thus investment in welfare and democracy is as important as a military response.
The Committee agreed to maintain a meeting with the Peace Studies Institute, SIPRI, to discuss further military spending and defence industry and strengthen cooperation with Euromil on soldiers’ pay, working conditions and trade union rights.
Discussing EU sectoral social dialogue, the Committee noted the SDC CGA workplan 2025-26 including joint work on green transition, labour shortages, workers with disabilities and conflict of interest prevention.
The Commission’s stalling of the legislative implementation of the social partner agreement on digitalisation remains a sore point. Delegates reaffirmed the relevance of the agreement not least on AI, telework, equal treatment via reinforced national collective bargaining. Pressure on the Commission must be maintained while preparing to implement the Committee’s “baby”, as it was called, at national level, in cooperation with EUPAE, the employers.
In view of the backlash against telework in the UK and Canadian governments, the agreement might become even more relevant should similar negative developments take place elsewhere. As the Commission is dragging its feet with the publication of its second stage consultation of social partners on telework and the right to disconnect, this is a space to watch.
The Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE) presented its national campaign on telework. They’re using protest, litigation and awareness raising to regain the right to request to telework to improve workers’ autonomy and work/life balance, reduce commuting time, and reorganise office space for public services. The government’s unilateral decision to mandate public service workers to spend three days a week in-office was partly driven by the estate agent industry wary of reduced profits from office renting.
Unite and PCS in the UK have also been mounting actions including strikes and boycotts against the obligation to return to the office 60% of working time. The British government argues that more office work will increase productivity and creativity while shying away from its responsibility, putting it down to a management decision to reduce telework. The irony is that currently there is not enough office space to accommodate such a return.
NEA delegates confirmed that telework or rather hybrid work combining telework and office work, has become a favourite working arrangement for workers who can do telework, with no signs of reduced productivity or loss of creativity. At the same time, tools to improve trade unions’ access to workers doing remote work need to be further deployed and ascertain a digital trade union right.
At cross-sectoral level, EPSU will take part in the ETUC delegation to negotiate a new work programme. Internal discussions have started on policy priority areas. For EPSU, this should include the revision of 2007 agreement on violence and harassment, taking into account the recently revised multisectoral Guidelines on third-party violence and harassment at work (to be signed on 6 May) as well as AI at work and psycho-social risks. This is particularly important given the Commission will not put forward related initiatives this year. The ETUC mandate will be adopted in May or June in view of the negotiations starting before summer.
The Committee discussed the Omnibus simplification proposals which weaken EU companies’ reporting duties on human and workers’ rights and environmental protection. The Committee will develop a checklist of counterarguments from a public administration perspective.
A progress report of the CEECAW project on transposition of the national minimum wage directive and collective bargaining capacity in CEECs was given by Lithuanian union President, with the next meeting scheduled for 14 March.
Finally, the Committee was informed that the two-chair system of the NEA committee had been endorsed by the EPSU Executive Committee, allowing gender parity and geographical balance.
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