Remunicipalisation, Privatisation, Portugal, Italy, Europe

Three trade unions (CGT, FP-CGIL and PCS) representing workers in cultural services in France, Italy and the UK have come together to highlight the urgent need for action to support the sector and tackle poor pay and employment conditions. They argue that the sector has been particularly hard hit by measures to tackle the pandemic and these have been intensified because of the extent of outsourcing and precarious employment. The unions are calling for a strengthening of public culture services, decent and secure employment conditions and action to stop privatisation and outsourcing. CGT (EN

The four main public service unions - FP-CGIL, CISL-FP, UIL-PA and UIL-FPL - have together launched a major campaign and petition calling for action to improve public services and deliver better employment conditions. The four unions have drawn up a document with 11 key proposals that cover calls for increased public investment; substantial recruitment of new workers and improved training provision; better union representation; finalising outstanding collective agreements for the 2016-2018 period and ensuring resources for the next round of agreements for 2019-21; bringing back privatised

The Eurofound research agency has published its first major overview of trends in the eldercare sector noting the spread of private provision in some parts of Europe and the challenge to maintain adequate levels of public funding. A section of the report addresses employment issues, notably staffing levels, the education and training of staff and wages. There are examples of staffing ratios from eight countries and some indicators of pay (public and private) from seven countries and the study notes overall that personal carers' pay falls into to the bottom 40% of pay (two lowest quintiles).