A secure and affordable supply of energy, clean water and sustainable waste management are basic needs for each individual and our communities in society. EPSU believes that the best way to ensure that these needs are met is through the public management of utilities services, proper regulation of the sector and decent working conditions for employees. We represent workers in the electricity, gas, water and waste sectors – both public and private – and it is our job to make sure that their voices are listened to at a European level.
EPSU’s Utilities work has seen a number of successes, most notably the ECI Campaign Right2Water, in which nearly two million European citizens joined our call for the implementation of the human right to clean drinking water and sanitation in the EU.
The President of the EPSU Standing Committee for Public Utilities is Matthew Lay, UNISON, U.K. Jakob Embacher is the EPSU policy officer for the sector.
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The Right to Energy coalition has launched a manifesto advocating for a European ban on energy disconnections, urging the European Parliament to leverage the demand as they review the European Commission’s proposal to revise the energy market.
Eurogas, EPSU, and industriAll Europe have notified the European Commission of their intention to enter into negotiations towards a European Framework Agreement. The negotiations will be the first of their kind to focus on a Just Transition.
Public service federation EPSU is concerned that the proposed reform of the European Union’s fiscal rules, published yesterday, might undermine national action to address the widespread staffing shortages across a broad range of public services in Europe – in health and social care, the justice system, childcare, tax administrations, utilities and more.
European Commission reports on the Working Time Directive, published on 15 March, reveal that Member States’ legislation is generally compliant, but that some problems remain in ensuring that the legislation is having full effect, particularly across all public services.
The European Trade Union Federations, EFBWW, EFFAT, EPSU, ETF, industriAll and Uni Europa, jointly welcome the adoption by the European Parliament of the own-initiative legislative report on the revision of the European Works Council Directive.
Meeting in Skopje in North Macedonia on 22 September, public service trade unions from across Europe agreed to continue to work together to defend and strengthen trade union rights for employees, civil servants and all uniformed staff, from firefighters and health workers to police and military personnel.
