Standing Committee Health and Social Services - 14.03.17 - Report

(Brussels, 22 March 2017) The 46th Meeting of the Standing Committee on Health and Social Services was held on 14 March 2017 in Brussels. 50 colleagues from 33 EPSU affiliates from 19 countries and one guest speaker participated. Please find below summary information on the main issues covered and decisions taken.

Halfway through the EPSU congress period 2014-2019 participants had an exchange with EPSU General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan, both on key activities and main achievements in the field of HSS in the last about two years, but also on general priorities and challenges for EPSU up to the next congress. He i.a. expressed support for trade unions in Turkey, for the demonstrations organised by Belgian trade unions representing workers in the not-for-profit health and social services sector on 21 March 2017 and for the 2nd European Action Day against the Privatisation, Marketisation and Commercialisation of Health and Social Care on 7 April (World Health Day). He unterlined EPSU's continued work to defend and promote collective bargaining, social rights, gender equality and the working time rules and called for a stronger focus on organising and recruiting members to strengthen the trade union movement.
Concerning the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital/Health Care Sector (SSDC HS), the Work Programme 2017-2019 was endorsed (the final version in EN, FR, DE, ES, RU and SV will be published after Easter). It is built around four thematic priorities: 1) recruitment and retention; 2) continuing professional development and life-long learning; 3) health and safety at the workplace and 4) general health care policy & hospital/health care workforce (including “capacity building”). The EPSU Secretariat recalled the ceremony to celebrate 10 years of European sectoral social dialogue in the hospital/health care sector on 2 December 2017. An article summarises the five speeches given, i.a. by Director Generals Servoz (DG EMPL) and Prats Monné (DG SANTE). The EPSU and HOSPEEM Secretariats produced a table listing and the main outcomes the SSDC HS in the years 2006 to 2016 and a presentation illustrating important successes. Colleagues also exchanged on the EPSU priorities in view of the first HOSPEEM-EPSU Conference on continuing professional development on 19 and 20 June 2017 in Amsterdam in the context of the joint project “Promoting effective recruitment and retention polices for all health works in the EU by ensuring access to continuing professional development and healthy and safe workplaces supportive of patient safety and quality care". In April or May 2018 a second conference in Vilnius will be devoted to the two most prevalent health and safety risks in the hospital sectors, namely musculoskeletal disorders and psycho-social risks and stress at the workplace.
Jane Lawless presented the main insights from the ver.di-EPSU Workshop “Safe and adequate staffing in international comparison” held on 16 November 2016 in Berlin (see report available in EN, FR and DE). Links to a range of other topics were identified. Participants discussed proposals which aspects the future work of EPSU on this topic should focus on. General support was expressed for the idea to set up a online platform for EPSU affiliates to share information on the various activities of EPSU members and their successes to promote (mandated/enforceable) staffing levels and to host the EPSU survey used in October 2016. For the next SC HSS a document with conclusions and recommendations and proposals for the way forward will be prepared.
The SC HSS supported EPSU's involvement in the 2nd European Action Day against the Privatisation, Marketisation and Commercialisation of Health and Social Care on 7 April 2017, the World Health Day. They were invited to contribute to solidarity actions and to a Round Table organised in the afternoon of 7 April 2017 at the ITUH. The Round Table should showcase different examples of trade union mobilisation and what it can lead to/change to reverse or stop wrong and dangerous policies. Whereas it will stay important to address and fight against the negative impacts of austerity policies in health services on the workforce and on the patients, this year's action day will focus more on how to influence European policies to support universal, affordable and accessible health care for all European citizens. EPSU affiliates are asked to improve the evidence base by providing information on the impacts of privatisation, marketisation and commercialisation policies on the workforce, on the quality of services, on the patients/users and on the framework conditions for the financing and provision of health and social services by directly filling in a survey documented via the webpage “Our health is not for sale”.
It was agreed that EPSU and HOSPEEM should write a joint letter to react to the final report of the Feasibility Study on a Common Training Framework for Health Care Assistants (CTF HCA) when it will be published by DG SANTE (most likely in March or April 2017). It should highlight both organisation's support to the conclusions formulated by NIVEL and the EC not to pursue – for the time being – any action towards elaborating a CTF for HCA.
Baba Aye, PSI Policy Staff Health and Social Services, presented ongoing and planned activities in health. He gave an update on the planned follow-up measures by the WHO, the OECD and the ILO to the report of the UN Commission on Health Employment and Economic Growth issued on 22 September 2016 by highlighting that recommendations for investing in health employment andfor an improvement of the work quality of health workers have been agreed and now are to be implemented. He also informed about the PSI Campaign “Human Right to Health”. He finally explained the importance for the PSI of the forthcoming ILO Tripartite Sectoral Meeting “Improvement of Employment and Working Conditions in Health Services” that will be held between 24 and 28 April 2017 in Geneva, the first in about 30 years.
Colleagues were informed about recent EC initiatives and proposals in relation to a better enforcement of Directive 2003/88/EC on Working Time. The EPSU Secretariat highlighted the need to assess and most possible jointly with the ETUC react to a proposal for a directive that would introduce an ex-ante proportionality test in cases when Member States want to amend their legislation/rules on regulated professions. The participants were also referred to a "document pack" published by the European Commission (EC) on 10 January 2017 in relation to planned EU legislative and policy initiatives in the field of occupational health and safety (OSH) (cf. Communication (2017) 12) including an evaluation of the existing EU OSH legislation and a guide for employers. This guide could well be used in the context of national and EU-level social dialogue.
Finally, a table listing the ongoing projects in HSS in which EPSU is involved as lead organisation or as project partner was shortly referred to.