Union Rights

Factsheets on the right to strike in public services in 48 countries are available on the EPSU website, with most updated during 2021. The initiative began in 2019 with the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) coordinating the research and writing of 35 factsheets, all of which have now been updated. EPSU has separately commissioned a further 13 factsheets on countries outside the ETUI’s remit. Each factsheet sets out the main rules on who has the right to call a strike; the definition of a strike; who may participate in a strike; procedural requirements and the legal consequences of

EPSU, along with the trade union federations representing police and military personnel – EuroCOP and EUROMIL, is organising a conference on trade union rights in Skopje in North Macedonia on 22 September. The conference is the final event of a two-year, European Commission funded project that has been investigating the challenges facing public service unions in defending and strengthening their rights to organise, negotiate and take collective action. The conference will include speakers from the ETUC, Council of Europe and European Commission and the presentation of research carried out

EPSU has joined with the European and global trade union confederations, ETUC and ITUC, in protests over anti-union legislation passed by the Ukrainian parliament. A major concern is law 5371, which has been attacked by the FPSU confederation for severely restricting employment protection, but other legislation also weakens workers’ rights, including law 5161 which allows the use of zero-hours contracts. The ETUC and ITUC have called on the European institutions to intervene in the light of Ukraine’s new status as an EU candidate country. EPSU has also written to the European Commission about

The International Trade Union Confederation has published its latest global rights index which exposes the scale and extent of attacks on fundamental trade union rights across the world. In the European region, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Turkey are the worst offenders appearing in the index’s category 5 – assessed as countries providing no guarantee of trade union rights. But plenty of other countries feature in the next categories with Greece, Hungary, Kyrgyzstan, Romania and Serbia all category 4 countries where there are systematic violations. These are followed by eight countries where there