PHS Dialogue Webinar on the 14th of October: Social Dialogue and capacity building

EFFE is an active partner of the PHS Dialogue project “Building an EU Sectoral Social Dialogue and Collective Bargaining Capacity in Personal and Household Services”, with three other social partners at the EU level – UNI Europa, EFFAT and EFSI. In 2023, they launched this two-year EU co-financed project.

After conducting a survey on the state of play of PHS Employers and Business Organisations between September and October 2024, EFFE organised with EFSI an online Webinar last 14th October. This meeting gathering members and researchers aimed at presenting the results of the survey and hearing presentations on national experiences related to the construction of business and employers organisations in the PHS sector.

14 organisations from 8 EU countries responded to the survey. 43% of them represent user-employers and 21% represent PHS companies. The remaining 36% are private companies, NGOs, families and other associations. A large majority of organisations surveyed (79%) provide services to their affiliates, first of all information provision and training. They also represent collective interest, for instance engaging with decision-makers and issuing position papers. Based on the results, EFFE and EFSI identified two top priority areas for capacity building for the next 3-5 years, namely social dialogue and collective bargaining, as well as advocacy and strategic planning.

Representatives from national organisations who attended the Webinar expressed their concerns regarding several obstacles for their activities, such as a fragmented policy landscape, the role of state intervention, the lack of Social Dialogue and capacity building initiatives. 

Furthermore, three researchers presented the case of certain EU Member States regarding PHS employers’ organization structuration and dynamics: Clémence Ledoux (France), Giulia Frosecchi (Italy), and Barbora Holubová (Slovakia and Central and Eastern European countries).

Starting from very different perspectives, they shared the same views on the crucial importance of collective bargaining for PHS sector. However, many differences remain:

• In France, PHS sector is submitted to 3 different regulatory systems depending on the model of employment. Both direct employment by families and users going through public or private service providers are organised and have access to financial support and online declarative tools.
• In Italy, there is a strong culture of collective bargaining. The first collective agreement in the domestic work sector is the so-called “Domina Fidaldo Collective Agreement”, signed by two employer’s organisations and the six most representative trade unions. 
• Contrary to the first two examples, PHS sector in Central and Eastern European countries suffers a lack of representation, low investments and care drain, lack of professionalisation of the workers. On business’ side, small one’s lack of resources to be organized and on user-employers’ side, they are not recognized and not represented by any organisations. Consequently, in most countries, employers’ efforts to be organised is failing and social dialogue do not lead to good working conditions for PHS workers.

EFFE is proud of the results of this first-of-its-kind webinar, which enabled employers’ organisations both business and user-employers, to discuss the difficulties they faced to build national social dialogue in the PHS sector. They welcomed the toolkit that will be drafted by EFFE & EFSI. The toolkit will be further discussed in another webinar scheduled for December 16th.

Event Documents:

Agenda

State of play of PHS Employers and Business Organisations: interim findings of the PHSDialogue project

The case of France by Clémence Ledoux, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Nantes
The situation in Central and Eastern European Countries: results of the PERHOUSE project by Barbora Holubová, Senior researcher at the Central European labour studies institute