Celebrating World Public Service Day 2025

In a commentary recently published by the European Policy Centre, the authors, Claire Dhéret and Simona Guagliardo, argue that the EU and its member states must learn from the current pandemic if they are to improve their health systems and build up their resilience before the next one hits. Their ability to draw the lessons of this crisis will determine their resilience to address future pandemics.

While the EU has very limited competences in the area of health, it can still support a more equal development of health systems’ resilience across Europe. To do so, two key lessons need to be drawn. Firstly, the EU needs to exclude social investment from future public deficit calculations. Secondly, the EU must make the convergence of working conditions a key objective of the Single Market, with a specific focus on health professionals.

Full article available here: http://www.epc.eu/en/Publications/Boosting-Europes-resilience~3160a0

Authors’ contact details:

Claire Dhéret; [email protected]

Simona Guagliardo; [email protected]

Until now, in the European debate, contrasts between so-called rigorist countries and the south of Europe have prevailed. Beyond flags, we believe that at this stage, a common sense of providing Europe with a collective economic and social commitment as well as common health care, capable of putting in place ordinary and extraordinary tools to support recovery, must prevail.

So far significant measures have been taken and tax measures are multiplying. The anti-European sentiment and a dangerous underestimation of the measures taken until now by Brussels and Frankfurt must be overcome. Europe is there, it exists, it is effective, it is flexible, it is fast and, while not yet doing everything it could do, it has already done a lot to avoid some European countries from falling on hard times.

The European Commission, in less than a month, reviewed the state aid rules; set up a first € 37 billion investment fund to provide liquidity for small businesses; proposed to use every single euro of the European Union budget for policies aimed at protecting the lives of its fellow citizens; launched a one hundred billion euro (Sure) support initiative to mitigate unemployment risks in the event of an emergency; proposed to redirect all available structural funds to respond to the crisis generated by the coronavirus; applied full flexibility to tax rules; suspended budget discipline rules and created a potential bazooka worth € 2.770 billion, more than the US $ 2 billion.

To these amounts, we must also add other precious resources which are strategic, crucial and vital. Those that come from the other guardian angels of Europe, such as the ECB: to the 120 billion of Quantitative Easing already planned until the end of the year, it has flanked and additional 750 which will allow for substantial purchases of debts issued by member states and their respective companies; and like Bei which will present a proposal to the Eurogroup for the creation of a guarantee fund that will allow European companies to offer liquidity for investments up to around 200 billion.

Are these measures sufficient? Of course not, but the populist view like Trump’s must be overcome and further interventions must be targeted to support an economy that has been stagnant for over a month and which, at the time of recovery, will have to deal with giants such as the Us and China.

Marshall plans are currently being discussed at the Eurogroup, but in order to be successful, the reconstruction plan must, first of all, have dimensions comparable to those implemented by China and the USA and have flexible financing instruments for businesses, both for small and big. A plan capable of favouring solutions to European giants in order to face crisis and technological transformation effectively and win the global competition.

In recent days, the European Commission has launched an instrument (SURE), funded with 100 billion that can effectively deal with the employment emergency, approved by all governments. Well, that instrument can be enhanced, it is able to issue guarantee bonds (Coronabond and European Bond) and it could overcome the ongoing ideological debate giving perspective to the European economy in view of the recovery. But this is not enough, the proposal of an Esm without conditions could be fine. A new type of unconditional Esm instrument could pave the way for the ECB’s role as lender of last resort of a government in difficulty for the pandemic. 240 billion euros that will be accessible to States unconditionally, this for Italy could mean an additional 36 billion to improve the national health safety network put to the test by COVID-19.

Furthermore, the discussion is open to launching an extraordinary plan of 500 billion that the EU has allocated through various tools to overcome the economic crisis and which, in our opinion, should be guaranteed by the issue of European assurance funds. This must happen because we are in an exceptional moment which we must face with exceptional interventions.

Therefore, we suggest strengthening the existing tools, starting from SURE to give European people the financial strength necessary to overcome an unprecedented crisis. The fate of hundreds of millions of men and women exhausted by the pandemic, as well as industries, is at stake. We, Italians, must be aware that without the EU the road to recovery would be even more difficult. But the EU must be equally aware that without Italy, it would not exist. This is what is at stake. Rulers should put away the cross vetoes dictated by childish political reasoning and face the dramatic phase with measures capable of making a qualitative leap forward for the whole old Continent, also taking advantage of the new 2021/2027 European multiannual budget in order to mobilize large financial resources that could be used to truly make a ‘Europe of peoples’ and not of big finance.

Roberto Di Maulo
CESI Vice-President
FISMIC Confsal Secretary-General

“A few months ago the world saw what was happening in China as something distant that we would never live in our country, much less in our day to day, in our hospitals, in our families, much less what happened to our colleagues, and for sure to ourselves, because it always seems to us that misfortunes happen only to others, until one day the first coronavirus positive case appears in your country, and even so, you still see it far away because the responsible experts who should have foreseen it do not take it seriously. Then every day the number of cases rise, one here, another one there, but in two weeks everything goes haywire and the hospital emergencies begin to fill with sick people, so many of them that you even have to assist them on the floor of the corridors because there is no more room to put them in. So you have the impression that this is not your life, that what you are living seems like a science fiction movie, until you start to see how your classmates start to fall ill and you realize that this is for real. We realize that we are in a silent, but cruel war that they have sent us without ammunition, without the adequate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) so that the damn coronavirus does not defeat us. It feels like they have deceived us all.

We have seen how protocols have been changed from time to time in order to “justify” the lack of PPEs, while professionals and the generous population invented some forms of PPEs from garbage bags and with everything that was thought to protect us at all cost, without being able to move or almost breathe.

Meanwhile, every day when I wake up, I keep thinking that it was a bad dream, but soon I come back to reality, because I discover that I am afraid, much more, if possible than yesterday, because every day people I care for are dying. And although in our profession we are used to dealing with disease and death, this damn COVID still makes death even more cruel because it adds a perfidious and horrifying ingredient – loneliness. It is horrible and painful to see patients, most of them elderly, lonely and scared, without the comfort of their loved ones. Isolated, as if they were plagued, with the only consolation that we professionals provide some form of care. They are scared, us too, although we try to hide it because at the moment we are everything to them, that’s why I draw strength from the depths of me and a smile hidden behind my mask that I try to perceive in the happy tone of my voice or in my eyes, also hidden behind that home screen that the good anonymous people have donated to us in the absence of the real ones (those that they say they have asked from China, but which never arrived because of the incompetence of those who should protect us). Meanwhile, the number of deaths is increasing every day and the number of patients reaching the hospital emergency room is increasing. We do not know where to put more beds, the consultation rooms have been turned into ICUs, the corridors are equipped with armchairs, the gymnasiums are filled with beds, it seems that we are in a war although without bombings or bloody patients.

Every day, after devastating shifts of 10 to 12 hours, using the precarious improvised protective equipment in the absence of the real ones, you feel even more afraid if possible, because you might have been infected and because you might take the virus to your house where your children are waiting for you, or your elderly and delicate parents or your husband who also has health problems and then you run to the shower to rub your entire body as if you wanted to tear off your skin. Then when you get home and want more than ever the hug of yours, for fear of infecting them, you just say hello from afar and you run to take off your clothes to put it in the washing machine and you go to bed because the next day you have to come back. That is why there is no more right for days off and they even had to hire students to make up for the lack of sufficient staff.

The saddest thing of all is the ethical one: despite the fact that the Spanish army set up in record time hospital facilities in exhibition halls, sports centers, gyms, and so on, due to lack of sufficient respirators, it has been necessary to choose who to save and who not to. Unfortunately, our elders, the most vulnerable, those who have struggled so much in their lives so that we have everything to thank for until today, we had lost.

However, this war is revealing great things that have been forgotten lately due to the superficiality of having a lot of everything and feeling with many “false” entitlements. It has been revealed that although in a society we are all necessary, some are more necessary than others: the health professionals who used to be mistreated and assaulted, often with words but sometimes also physically, are now the “angels” or “heroes” who are being applauded every evening at eight from all the balconies and windows in all corners of Spain. Today more than ever I feel proud of my profession because I feel valued and respected as never before, hoping that when all this ends, they will continue to value me and recognize what until now it cost many to recognize. Although on the other hand, my sadness increases every day because there are already many colleagues infected, sick, isolated in their homes or in hospitals. Five technical colleagues in the nursing care unit, a nurse and several doctors have already died, all because we do not work with the appropriate security measures that they promote. To make matters worse they do not test us, which increases our fear and spreads the contagions.

As for the disease, we are learning a lot and very quickly. We have observed that when our patients start having respiratory distress, if they are lucky to control it and to get intubated in time, sedate them to calm down and if they do not have previous pathologies, they usually come out ahead, although some die very quickly. We have had cases that have entered the emergency rooms by their own feet and had died within five hours. The profile of these are usually men older than 70 years with a certain degree of obesity and some previous pathology, but there are also younger people with no previous pathologies who have serious difficulties; experts say that the form of the disease depends on the viral load to which they have been exposed.

Some recommendations have also been described to avoid that professionals suffering from certain pathologies are not in the front line of fire, such as those who suffer from:

• Diabetes;
• Cardiovascular disease, including hypertension;
• Chronic liver disease;
• Chronic lung disease;
• Chronic kidney disease;
• Immunodeficiency;
• Cancer in active treatment phase;
• Pregnancy;
• Over 60 years;

In conclusion, it is incredible that in the time we live in high technology, advances, discoveries and research in medicine, a miserable virus is responsible for so many deaths, it has confined billions of people, ultimately to the entire world and that it is responsible for a global human and economic catastrophe from which we do not know how we can recover, which will mark a before and after both on the material and spiritual sides.

Data concerning COVID19 cases in Spain on the 7th of April 2020

Confirmed cases: 140510

In intensive care: 7069

Deaths: 13793

Recovered: 43208″

These testimonies underline the systemic problems our European societies had to deal with sooner than later, why today they are in such jeopardy and what has been missing: investment in the workforce, reallocation of funding for public social services, fair and good working conditions for the most important professions in society.

CESI publishes these testimonies in hope that once the crisis is over all these issues can be addressed and that a new societal order will be established with fair and safe working conditions for everyone as the building block of such a construction!

A nurse from FANO, Ancona, shares with us: “Today you call us heroes but the PPE (personal protective equipment), which we should have to work safely, in many realities is scarce and you work with what is there, even if not suitable: an example is the FFP2 / FFP3 masks, replaced in almost every activity surgical masks (which, I want to clarify, are not PPE but medical devices, a big difference!) and, moreover, even those now almost impossible to find and replaced with improvised “masks” with materials probably good at most for dusting at home.

(…) Do not take me as venal because, and I think this applies to all my colleagues, we are not interested in receiving anything more on this specific occasion. What we would like is a contract that always reflects our work and our professionalism! Every day we carry out advanced resuscitation manoeuvres together with our medical colleagues, we are trained to know how to use infusion pumps, defibrillators, monitors, machinery for invasive and non-invasive lung ventilation, yet we do not have a critical area allowance. Every day we are exposed to people potentially affected by diseases, due to the most varied viral or bacterial microorganisms (MTC, HIV, HCV, HBV, meningitis, pneumonia, and a myriad of other pathogens that would be too long to list) who expose us to the risk of developing diseases such as tuberculosis, hepatitis, AIDS, meningitis, and so on up to this COVID-19, yet we do not have an infectious disease allowance. Every day, when we carry out triage activities, to assign, with an evaluation that lasts just over a minute, a priority code to the hundreds of people who access our emergency room daily, we expose ourselves to the risk of errors that could also have consequences serious for patients. Yet we do not have a specific allowance for this delicate activity.

Today you call us heroes but every day, until just over two weeks ago, we were the workers most at risk of aggression than any other category of workers. “

Lorenzo Grazioli, Anesthesiologist, tells us: “My day starts at 7.30 am, at 9 am I reconnaissance all Intensive Therapies, which are now all Covid. We have reached 80 beds. Every day I take stock of how many intubated people are and then I manage the clinic. My day ends around 8 and 9 evening. The patient case history is a broad case study, here there are many infected patients and we have a huge number in Intensive Care. I collaborate more with Intensive Care Nurses and Perfusionists as regards the management of extracorporeal support. I feel very tired, I work with a madman, but none of us draws back “, to the Grazioli citizens he sends a piece of advice:” People must stay at home so as to block the infection, we are already at the limit: if we exceed this limit it is really a big problem”.

Nicola, 26 years old, resuscitation nurse in a COVID-19 sector, testifies: “I am afraid to return home to infect parents and grandparents”. In just a few days, its operating unit was transformed into COVID-19 Resuscitation. He works on three shifts, as does the vast majority of colleagues. He explained that he is afraid, afraid to go home and harm his loved ones by infecting them. He hasn’t seen his grandparents for weeks for the same reason. Yet hie and his family are very close, they used to eat lunch or dinner together. Now it is no longer possible, he lives locked up in his bedroom. He undresses in the garage, washes himself in a bathroom near the house, he no longer has the life as before. He works and returns home, goes home to work, is often frowning, nervous, inclined to cry. “I can’t take it anymore, it’s been a month since I have ceased to live and I am busy, this is the height, to save the life of my patients in Resuscitation – Nicola explains – it’s always more difficult, it seems we live in a film. For six hours locked in a suit, without eating, without drinking. I try to do my best, I try to pay attention to details and not to make the slightest mistake. I go home and go straight to my room. I miss the hugs of my parents and my sister, I miss the smile of my grandmother and of my grandfather. I miss my dog, I miss the life I used to have, I miss my hooks, I miss arguing with colleagues, my head nurse. I miss going to the bar, I miss cycling, I miss going running and playing soccer. “

Alessandra Ziniti goes straight to the heart of the problem of our health systems: “Until yesterday, politicians and economists taught us that, due to urgent public debt reduction needs, departments, hospitals had to be closed, hiring blocked when, despite these draconian treatments, the debt increased dramatically. After decades of villainous health policy based exclusively on cuts, only now, do some politicians realize that there are no beds, no machinery, no health personnel?

Now, by virtue of those unfortunate choices, Italy has 3.4 beds/ 1000 inhabitants, well below the threshold for adequate assistance. You blocked the competitions for specialist doctors, nurses, when you realized that the Doctor is no longer a coveted profession for various reasons (inadequate remuneration for commitment, responsibilities and professional risks; inadequate social protection, even before legal of health workers, etc.), that many of us prefer to work abroad and that the competitions to fill vacant positions in the emergency rooms are deserted, now what do you do? Now run to the shelters, trying to modify the employment contract, after for decades you have favoured the culture of precariousness and the intensive exploitation of the healthcare profession (doctors, nurses, socio-health workers, laboratory technicians, pharmacists, biologists) and you treated and humiliated us like many serfs, to whom everything can be imposed (exhausting shifts, missed rest, unused holidays). You have sown the wind and now you reap a storm.

We trust that citizens will finally understand who to blame for this dramatic situation and that the national health system has ruled only and exclusively thanks to the self-denial of health personnel. To the Italian citizens who today join the thanks of the politicians, we want to remind you that we are always the same ones who are attacked in the various Italian emergency rooms. (…) We are always the same ones who are killed at night in front of the entrance to an outpatient clinic or raped during a shift on medical guard, in a remote inland country. To all of you, politicians and citizens, I ask: why and above all for what do you thank us?

Maybe because none of you would be willing to do what we do, by free choice, every day? Do you thank us because today you are afraid, afraid of getting sick and not being treated, afraid of dying without assistance, fear of not finding a bed in an intensive care unit, of not finding an anesthesiologist, a pulmonologist, an internist who will heal you from Coronavirus? Once the spotlight has gone out and the curtain has fallen for this unfortunate epidemic spotlight, what we would like is only a minimum of respect for us health professionals and for our profession; not false thanks or ritual solidarity, but only respect and understanding. Understand and respect us, this would be enough to make us understand that you understand.”

How can one sum up the last few weeks? Uncertainty, lots of questions, a dynamic state of play, challenges across the board and, in spite of everything, especially in this age of social distancing, people coming together in many places and showing solidarity to one another.

We can rely on the public sector

What does the current situation show? That we can rely on the public sector. In many areas, the public sector is keeping the country running at a time when corona is calling the shots. They run the infrastructure, meaning they are under additional pressure at a time like this. Wherever we look in this shared world of ours, it’s our colleagues who are doing their bit to ensure that people stay healthy and that public life goes on.

It’s the medical and care workers, our colleagues in health administration, crisis management, local and regional administration, the fire and rescue sectors, educators and those who maintain public order, who are responsible for making sure everything keeps running. Many are reaching their limits. For this, we owe them a debt of gratitude. But the thing they need most right now is strength, perseverance and their health. All – employees and citizens alike – must show consideration for others. The smallest act can make the biggest impact.

Working in the age of corona

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted weaknesses. The lack of staff in many parts of the public sector is now glaringly obvious. This has been apparent for quite some time. Here, it’s time to play an active role in turning this around, once corona is behind us. Everyone ought to have registered by now how important a good, secure network of professionals is.

Something people have now grasped is this: we need to make greater strides when it comes to digitisation. This situation shows us that processes of change can be speeded up. Pretty much overnight, IT equipment and modes of digital communication were no longer a theoretical construct, but rather a reality. And it’s a reality which reveals prevailing deficits. The available infrastructure often sets limits upon mobile working, even if this style of working is definitely possible in some jobs.

Now is the time to learn from our experiences of these weeks, examine them closely, ask honest, enquiring questions – also with regard to how we can avoid a further blurring of the borders between work and rest time, and seek compatibility – and shine a light on naturally unavoidable reasons which can restrict mobile working, such as how we deal with data protection regulations. This must then give rise to measures which we in the komba trade union follow attentively and actively.

Working at the moment is an endurance test. Not everyone is able to work from home. For many, their job is no longer secure. More than ever, the labour market is facing enormous challenges. Some employers have now registered for short-term work. As wages sink, living costs remain constant for those affected by the shift to short-term work. This is why all states must top up the reduced hours compensation to cover workers’ running costs.

An arrangement for the public sector has now been reached. Collective agreements have hitherto contained no basis for short-term work. Nevertheless, the Works Constitution Act, and in some of the German Länder, staff representation acts, already make such agreements possible. This is why the present situation made a uniform, national arrangement, which also heeded the need for equality, a must. That being said, the COVID-19 collective agreement which has now been reached, and which is intended to be used as a nationwide arrangement for short-term work in the public sector, only applies to certain, pre-agreed areas and the particular case of coronavirus. Consequently, it definitely doesn’t give people a free ride for the future.

Health system: abuses are becoming glaringly obvious

Across the health and care sector, staffing is incredibly stretched. Even on a typical working day, it cannot be said that staff are well equipped and given a fair workload. Staff continue to give their all, making sure that people get what they need. Applause alone, even if they undoubtedly deserve it, is not enough. The problem in the health sector has been apparent for quite some time. In several debates over pay, we have pointed out that shortages exist in the health department; that those in charge have lost sight of what it means to be a doctor or carer. There are too many unoccupied posts in the health sector, and this is something which becomes apparent in a crisis such as this one. It is to be hoped that employers learn the right lessons from this and finally improve the income and working conditions of those working in this field.

Childcare arrangements

Those working in nurseries are currently making an important contribution towards getting through this crisis. They are looking after the children of key workers, so that infrastructure can keep running. We are keeping an eye on how safe and protected those working in childcare facilities are and are paying close attention to the rules.

What’s more, public sector employees have been having to find flexible solutions concerning childcare since the nurseries and schools closed their doors. Until now, they had been entitled to a maximum of 3 working days to look after their children. Local employers spoke up about this and now more generous provisions for leave, which go beyond the standard arrangements, are permitted.

What is going on with the 2020 pay scale developments?

Talks for those working in social care and education had only just begun. Collective bargaining rounds are due to take place in the summer for local transport and for government and local authority employees. When, and in what form, negotiations will once again be possible is a question to which no reliable answer can be given at this point in time. The collective bargaining parties remain in close contact.

Komba trade union work and coronavirus

All areas of komba trade union’s work had, until now, packed agendas. Now, all events, seminars and meetings have been called off, provisionally until the end of May. That being said, we are still manning the office – from home and on site – and we’re dealing with our members’ enquiries. Consultations on the part of the executive board also continue, albeit in a new format. Rather than gather around a table, our members recently met virtually. Naturally, the focal point of the discussion was the effect of coronavirus.

In all areas, we can see that we need to think outside the box and that we can only do so by working together. All are called upon to think collectively and act decisively in order to find solutions fit for all. This goes for the whole of Europe.

Stay well!

Andres Hemsing

National Chairman of the German komba trade union

CESI Trade Council ‘Defence’ (DEF)

The first case of COVID-19 came to our country at the end of February. Today, on April the 6th, as I write this article, there are more than 17.000 confirmed cases. Most of the people who were tested positively live in the southern province of Noord-Brabant.

Like in every other country, the actual number of COVID-19 infections in the Netherlands is likely to be higher than the number of reports as not everyone suspected of a COVID-19 infection is tested.

This extreme situation needs extreme measures to be taken.

Measures to fight the virus

Every country has chosen its own approach in the fight against the virus. The Dutch approach: maximum control of the virus (‘flattening the curve’). That should lead to a controlled spread among the groups least at risk.

Maximum control means taking measures to reduce the peak in infections and stagger those infections over a longer period. By taking this approach, one in which most people will experience only minor symptoms, the Netherlands can build population immunity and make sure that its healthcare system is able to cope.

The aim is to stop nursing homes, home care services, hospitals and, above all, intensive care units becoming overwhelmed. And to make sure they always have enough capacity to help the people who need it most.

… and the economic damage caused by it

The Dutch government has decided to implement a series of unprecedented economic measures. The measures are designed not only to protect our health, but also to protect people’s jobs and livelihoods and to minimize the impact on self-employed people, small and medium-sized enterprises and major companies.

Under the newly announced measures, billions of euros will be invested into the economy every month, for as long as necessary. The measures will ensure that companies are able to pay their employees’ wages, grant a bridging arrangement for self-employed people and allow companies to hang on to their money through relaxed tax provisions, allowances and supplemental lines of credit.[1]

Reaction of CNV to governmental measures

My reaction to the measures taken by the Dutch cabinet: ‘The emergency package announced on March 17 is enormous. And that is good. If the government does not act (and no one else can but the government), thousands of companies go bankrupt and hundreds of thousands of people lose work and income’.

My colleague, CNV chairman, Piet Fortuin, stated: ‘With this package, the cabinet offers some help to the workers in the Netherlands. A ray of light at the times of uncertainty. The cabinet gives employers 90% compensation for the continued payment of salaries. An operation of unprecedented size. The billion-dollar injection to continue to pay all salaries, which the CNV urgently requested, has been largely honored’.

But not all the workers will be able to fully profit from the measures taken, especially workers with flex contracts remain extremely vulnerable. ‘Many of them are already on the street. It is crucial that they are not left out and that they benefit from these measures’, Fortuin said.

Public services are the services of the utmost importance

This crisis has a major impact on everyone’s daily lives. Children cannot go to school, elderly may no longer see their beloved ones, social contacts at work are banned, no activities are allowed in sports associations. There will be no birthday parties with family and friends, no church services, concerts or any kind of cultural events – for an indefinite period of time. People will have to get used to ‘online’ instead of ‘live’ social contacts. The impacts are difficult to assess, but they will be deep.

The importance of the work of public services for keeping society together is now more evident than ever. Our society will only continue to function if workers employed in crucial professions can do their job.

Especially workers in government and public services, in the health and welfare sectors are of crucial importance for care, safety, crisis management, enforcement, payment of benefits, energy and electricity supply, water and waste management etc.

….especially the healthcare services

All the public sector workers nowadays are under enormous pressure. But of all the public sectors, the health sector workers are by far the most affected. My colleague, the chairwoman of health and welfare sector, Anneke Westerlaken, is in continuous dialog with the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport. The biggest problem health workers are facing is the lack of protective equipment. Mrs Westerlaken emphasizes that all possibilities must be exploited to fix this, knowing that this of course also has priority in the regions and at the Ministry.

In care institutions, time should be made available to get some sleep, eat quietly or relax. Professionals must be able to decide for themselves which administrative tasks are (temporarily) unnecessary. The Dutch cabinet acknowledges the impact on the health professionals. A motion to give healthcare personnel a bonus for their extra efforts in tackling the coronavirus received the unanimous support of the House. She has stated: ‘It’s very good that the cabinet is also showing its appreciation for the care staff in this way’.

With all measures taken, Dutch society is fighting the crisis and is on its way to recovery. But we are not there yet, not even close. It’s a long and difficult process. For the Netherlands and for the rest of the EU.

We must face this together

I believe that only if we all act together and co-operate, we will be able to overcome the challenges we are facing. The coronavirus does not take borders, languages, cultures and economies into account. As global citizens, we are all affected. In times of worry and crisis people are aware of their own vulnerability and that of their neighbours. Therefore, it’s important that all the people take care of each other, pay more attention to each other’s needs and help those in need. The whole of Europe is gripped by the pandemic. Researchers collaborate in the search for a drug or best practices in treatment. Let’s also learn and support each other as countries where possible. Cooperation is more important than ever. Therefore, the CNV supports CESI in its appeal for international solidarity.

Patrick Fey, CESI Vice-President and President of the CNV Government and Public Services

Dutch National Federation of Christian Trade Unions ‘Connectief’

The main considerations for a codification directive on administration cooperation in the field of taxation raised by CESI include the following key aspects:

• In the private and the public sectors the text of the new directive (once implemented) will be a great challenge for all employees and civil servants. They have to change from the well-known traditional text of the six directives on administrative cooperation in the field of taxation to the new codified text of the new, unifying codification directive. Therefore it is a very useful advantage that the proposal does not change the global structure of the initial directive 2011/16/EU.

• The proposal for a new codification directive on administrative cooperation in the tax area is a technical work on the administrative level, containing no new measure to strengthen the cooperation rules. Therefore CESI hopes that the proposal is not the final act of directives 0n administrative coooperation in the field of taxation, but a new efficient base for further tax cooperation actions in a more transparent way.

• In the Directive (EU) 2019/1937 on the protection of persons who report breaches of Union law, the recitals 18, 66 and 72 make reference to the exchange of information in the field of taxation and the administrative cooperation through the Directive 2011/16/EU. In this sense the present codification proposal should also mention the whistle-blower protection in the taxation field.

• Further more general problems exist in relation with tax avoidance and tax fraud that have a link to the proposal for the new Directive on administrative cooperation. For instance, by the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD 1 – (UE)/2016/1164) the Member States had only to implement a minimum level of protection of the internal market and aimed to achieve the essential minimum degree of coordination within the Union (recital 16). So, further, stronger actions are necessary. Moreover, by the Anti-Tax Avoidance Directive (ATAD 2 – (UE)/2017/952) the Directive ATAD 1 was amended as regards hybrid mismatches with third countries. In order to assemble a complete directive concerning entities in the Member States and permanent establishments of entities resident in third countries it would be useful in the future to propose also a codification version of the directives ATAD;

CESI’s full consultation contribution is available here. More information about the consultation and the draft directive can be accessed here.

All laws, regulations, directives or instructions must be guided by this. The economic consideration of the postal service and telecom suppliers is also subordinate to this guideline.

In CESI and Eurofedop in particular, where liberal and Christian social trade unions fight as part of a large community for better working conditions in Europe and beyond, it is, of course, difficult for us and our members to get to grips with all of these commands and bans.

Those working for the postal service and in the telecoms sector are finally getting the recognition they deserve. People can now see that, alongside health care workers, supermarket staff, refuse collectors, electricity suppliers, etc., the two professions of postal and telecoms worker also feature among those jobs which make it possible for our society to function “normally”.

And it’s in these times of social distancing in particular that we award special recognition to those trades which make sure people are able to communicate. Here post and telecoms workers are very much in demand, as they ensure that people are able to stay in contact.

As trade unions, we also have the obligation to make good on our supply mandate vis-a-vis governments. But only for as long as the employers do everything within their power to guarantee the safety of their workers.

They must fulfil their obligation to care for each and every one of us.

Sadly, as we reach the third week of the pandemic, we are still not in a position to provide the most rudimentary protective gear in the numbers and quality required across the country.

This is why CESI’s trade council ‘Post & Telecoms’ demands:

• For all workers in at-risk groups (immunocompromised, those suffering from cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.) to be decommissioned and for them to continue to be paid. If necessary this should be due to an order given by member state governments!
• For sufficient disinfectant, protective gloves, face masks for all and protective screens to be supplied in telecom shops and branches of the post office.
• The post and telecoms services must be cut back to what is absolutely necessary. No-one can understand why we are still delivering junk mail at a time like this!
• If a worker (and sadly, there are already many cases) tests positive for the virus, the offices should be closed until all tests are available!
• It must be guaranteed that the minimum distance can be kept to, whatever duties are being carried out. If necessary, this can be done by reorganising the way things are done.
• And the CESI Trade Council demands that this extraordinary act of service to the community must finally also be recognised financially for all those who have to work on the ‘FRONT’ on a daily basis.

Sadly, this catastrophe will be with us for many months to come. Returning to normality is utterly inconceivable at present.

Protect yourselves! Insist upon protective gear! This is about your health and that of those you love.

Stay healthy everyone! We trade unions will work tirelessly to put the required amount of pressure on governments, employers and, if necessary, the media, so as to guarantee you the greatest possible level of safety.

Trade Council ‘Post and Telecoms’ (P&T)

Corona – it’s an invisible danger, which we can’t stop at the borders, whether we’re talking about interstate borders or European borders. We also can’t stop it by isolating Europe from the rest of the world.

We could despair. Many people are despairing, of their own apparent powerlessness.

We could despair. Many people are self-isolating, keeping themselves to themselves.

We could despair. There are still people who have yet to grasp the seriousness of the situation.

But despair is not the approach with which we must and can defy corona.

Showing solidarity with one another is one approach we can take. Showing solidarity whilst keeping a safe distance. Showing solidarity by looking for, finding and using new ways of communicating and being together.

Sharing, through which we provide others with essential things, whether this be one of the last packets of flour on the supermarket shelf or protective masks which are not needed at present in the industry.

Sharing, by offering assistance across borders when it comes to caring for the sick.

Sharing, by saying THANK YOU to those people who, because of the jobs they do, are now exposed to particular burdens.

The public service is a sector which is under a particular amount of strain. Citizens want and are entitled, to rely on the public service.

This is not the time to grumble about what may have been falsely prioritised in the past. And it’s more than obvious that mistakes were made. We need to make use of the time to reflect on solutions which meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

The challenges are of a material nature but are in particular challenges involving physical and psychological stress. Thank you to the doctors, nurses and carers who work in our health service.

Thank you to those people monitoring internal security, thank you to the police and public order officials, and thank you also to those who are actually meant to provide external security but are now helping out in those places where domestic provision is reaching its limits, thanks to the soldiers, thanks to armed services personnel and thanks to the reservists.

Thanks also to the pedagogues and educators, who have taken on the task of urgent childcare, thanks to the teachers, who are making sure that a minimum amount of training can take place online.

Thanks to all public service employees.

Thanks to the shop assistants and people working in logistics, who are making sure that comestibles and other staples continue to be supplied.

But thanks also to the politicians who are taking care with their generous decisions to absorb or at least mitigate the economic damage felt by those who suddenly find themselves without work and those who are offering jobs, because there will be a time after corona, for which we need to prepare today, even if we don’t know when this day will dawn.

We must not allow ourselves to be taken hostage by feelings of despair. We need to think of tomorrow.

I wish for all of us who manage to emerge physically and mentally unscathed from the social distancing phase to keep our sense of optimism for tomorrow.

And when, one day, Corona has been vanquished, we shouldn’t be too quick to forget the lessons we’ve learned. Instead, we should devote more attention to foresight. Corona reveals to us that, despite highly developed technology, we can come up against boundaries, boundaries which can only be overcome if we are prepared to shape things together in a way which takes account of others.

It will fall to the independent trade unions and lobbies in their capacity as key public service organisations in Germany and Europe to make sure that our society, in which we have a stake, does not just go back to business as usual as soon as the crisis is behind us. We will admonish anyone who deviates too quickly from the path and we will rise to the challenge of ensuring that, next time, we are better prepared.

Thomas Sohst

Regional Chairman for the West in the German Bundeswehr Alliance

President of the CESI Trade Council ‘Defence’ (DEF)

For further reading:

COVID-19: The Pandemic and Its Impact on Security Policy

In a split of a second, everything we knew, everything we were used to, everything which seemed normal, has become different. What has so far represented warmth and safety -human proximity and closeness- is now a source of danger.

Shaking hands, the millennium-old ritual of showing each other’s peaceful intention: a relic of the past. Social gatherings, ever since central for mankind’s survival and human evolution: a punishable act. The picture of a jogger being pursued by a policeman -for jogging!- speaks for itself.

And we accept it. We accept the strongest repressions of our civil liberties since the end of WWII. We accept being controlled and fined for sitting on a bench, for going for a walk, for being too close to someone else.

In just a few weeks…

Predictions of political analysts and sociologists “that this crisis will result in a growing tendency amongst our citizens to prefer effective authoritarianism above slow and ineffective democracy” indeed cast a shadow on the future of our freedoms.

But I still believe that we accept it for good reasons. For the reason that human lives, regardless of their age, count. For the reason that human lives must prevail over profit. For the reason that human lives are to be saved – (so far) at any costs.

Whatever it takes.

How far are we willing to go? How big are the collateral economic and social damages we are willing to bear? Our policy responses to Corona lead us straight to core ethical questions. And proposals for new approaches to confinement policies (which would target the risk groups, above all the elder population, not the entire society) reveal first societal cracks which may divide us.

Our societies are being put to the test.

***

So are our members and their affiliates, countless of them currently fighting at the frontline. And the weight mainly lies on the shoulders of the public sector, most visibly on public health care services.

But we notice how much more is essential: pharmacies, supermarkets, transport companies and courier services, cleaning companies… These are services almost unnoticed in normal times, yet indispensable for our societies to function; as many of us only realise now.

Confronted with ever-increasing death tolls, saving lives becomes a frenzy obsession. In a collective defiance, society braces itself against the virus.

Whatever it takes.

***

And the European Union is put to the test.

The image of an EU coming too late and doing too little – if not being cold-hearted in the face of unseen needs for help- will hardly be erased from too many memories, and has led to incommensurable damage.

“The European Union may have survived Brexit, the refugee crisis and the financial meltdown of 2008 — but don’t assume COVID-19 can’t destroy it”, an American scholar recently wrote in Politico.

Yet, despite the EU facing one of its most existential crisis, it might be more needed than ever.

The CESI Presidium established on March 26 that to fight pandemics “in the future, the allocation of competences, finances and capabilities will have to ensure more solidarity among the Member States and crisis management that do not stop at borders. A stronger role, more financial resources and enhanced capacities for the EU will be necessary” In other words, more competence for the EU is needed.

And the EU has to do whatever it takes to mitigate the tremendous economic impacts, not least because no national economy can shield itself on its own; even more so given that “the countries hit the worst by the pandemic — Italy, Spain and France — are the ones that have the least amount of fiscal breathing space”.

Fabian Zuleeg and Janis Emmanouilidis from the European Policy Centre wrote: “Decisive action from political leaders can still reduce the negative impact – but only if there is a coordinated and concerted response, encompassing countries across Europe. Fortunately, we have an instrument to deal with cross-border challenges – the European Union”. According to them, the EU will “potentially be even more important in the aftermath of the COVID-19 crisis” and “a coordinated and robust action plan based on effective interaction between economic, financial, monetary and fiscal policies … has the best chance of succeeding.”

It is, therefore, the EU which has to pool resources, which has, as some called it, to deploy a ‘battery of measures’, including “‘whatever it takes’ fiscal responses”. This would comprise Eurobonds (recently recoined Coronabonds) and send an important message both to citizens and the world: the EU is there to help. It guarantees unity, strength and stability.)

Whatever it takes.

***

It is our future which is put to the test.

A major German investor told me recently that compared to previous crises the difference of the COVID-19 crisis lies in the fact that each and everyone of us is deeply affected. And that we can assume that the world, our societies, the economy will be different; a divide between pre-Corona and post-Corona- maybe for worse, maybe for better.

I hope that our societies will have shielded as many as they could and that my 88 years old father will be as feisty as always. I hope that my children will not be faced with economic devastation, but that they will look into a bright future, where both wealth and freedoms are granted. And I hope I will then take my father and my children and travel to Italy or Spain – to places with great food and warm people, where life is exuberant and generous.

‘Never Waste a Good Crisis’ was the conclusion of the so-called 2009 Wolstenholme Report, calling on the British construction industry to use the ‘Great Recession’ as an ‘opportunity’ to change – for the better.

Mourning thousands of victims can hardly be called an ’opportunity’. It is a devastatingly painful lesson. But it marks an opportunity to rethink our lives, our societies and our work. It will impact on our future decisions on how to organise our health services, how to green our economies, how to improve coordination and solidarity in the (by then hopefully still existing) European Union, how to increase the respect and the tribute we must pay to public services and the general interest – for the better.

And not least how to further improve and adapt our work at CESI.

As I wrote to you two weeks ago: CESI is not only a confederation. We are designed to help. It is our raison d’être, and we can only hope that belonging to ‘our family’ may make the situation a little bit more bearable.

Take care of yourselves – and of each other.

Whatever it takes.

Throughout last week, the European Commission announced several key measures to address the ongoing crisis and to help weather the storm caused by the outbreak.

From an economic perspective, the Commission reacted by proposing to activate the escape clause of the Stability and Growth Pact (so that Member States can indebt themselves to fight COVID-19 without having to respect the EU’s budget deficit rules), announcing previously unseen flexibility on state aid rules (so that Member States can subsidise economic sectors and actors without violating the competition rules of the EU’s internal market), as well as putting forward a proposal for a Corona Response Investment Initiative to instantly make available close to €38 Billion to support member states’ economies and healthcare systems in their fight against the pandemic.

From a health perspective, the European Commission published European manufacturing standards for medical supplies. The European Commission also announced a joint procurement plan for personal protective equipment. Moreover, it adopted decisions on harmonised standards which will allow manufacturers to place on the market high performing devices.

The European Parliament approved the European Commission’s proposal on more flexible airport slots for airlines, in order to help them not lose slots as they do under ordinary rules if the do not operate them sufficiently as is currently the case. Now, the Council has to formally approve the European Parliament’s position; the adopted measures will enter into force once published in the Official Journal of the European Union in the coming days.

In the area of food supply, on March 25^th, the Croatian Council Presidency published a press release following the videoconference of EU Ministers in charge of agriculture and fisheries. Ministers discussed measures already taken, as well as those planned at the national and European level in order to counteract the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the agriculture and fisheries sectors.

On transport, the European Commission published a communication on the implementation of the Green Lanes for a seamless cross-border transport of essential goods in the EU under the Guidelines for border management measures. These “green lane” border crossings should be open to all freight vehicles carrying any type of goods. Crossing the border should not take more than 15 minutes.

The European Commission followed up on this on March 26^th by publishing an additional communication calling on EU Member States to support air cargo operations during the coronavirus crisis. It recommends operational and organisational steps to keep essential transport flows moving. Further recommendations include granting temporary traffic rights for additional cargo operations from outside the EU.

On 23^rd March, European Commissioner for Justice and Consumers Didier Reynders sent written letters to Facebook, Google, Amazon, Alibaba Group, eBay, Rakuten, Cdiscount, WishShopping and Allegro requiring their cooperation in taking down Corona-related scams from their platforms.

On that day, European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton held a videoconference with CEOs of European telecommunication companies to discuss: network resilience, the need to collect anonymised mobile metadata to help analyse the patterns of diffusion of the coronavirus in full compliance with the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and ePrivacy legislation, and the importance of protecting the networks against cyber-attacks.

On March 25^th the European Commission launched the AI-ROBOTICS vs COVID-19 initiative to collect ideas about deployable artificial intelligence and robotic solutions as well as information on other initiatives that could help face the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

On March 24^th, the Eurogroup convened via video conference in order to take stock of the measures already taken and of the initiatives that are being explored among institutions in response to the COVID-19 economic fallout.

On March 25^th, the European Commission issued guidelines to ensure a strong EU-wide approach to foreign investment screening in a time of public health crisis and related economic vulnerability. The aim is to preserve EU companies and critical assets, notably in areas such as health, medical research, biotechnology and infrastructures that are essential for our security and public order, without undermining the EU’s general openness to foreign investment.

(This content was created with the help of content provided by Dods Parliamentary Communications Ltd.)

Public health systems and other public services and administrative bodies in several Member States are reaching (or have already reached) a breaking point, and millions of jobs and businesses are already being affected around the world.

The labour markets are being profoundly hit by this invisible threat, while the public services are also reaching the limits of their capacities, and alleviating actions are of utmost urgency.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has already released preliminary assessments on the first effects of the coronavirus on the labour markets and the daunting scenarios of what is yet to come. ILO preliminary estimates see a growth in unemployment between 5.3 million jobs (low scenario) to 24.7 million (high scenario)[1], which would also translate in a GDP growth drop between 2% and 8% respectively[2].

The sectors most affected are the services sector, tourism, travel and retail[3]. Furthermore, certain groups of workers are more vulnerable to economic shocks, needing more targeted policy measures for their protection.

These groups are people with underlying health conditions; young and old workers, precarious workers and/or in atypical contracts (such as solo self-employed and workers in the gig economy, as well as seasonal workers), migrant workers and women[4].

Women are particularly vulnerable during this crisis, since they are mainly overrepresented in caregiving professions, such as health workers (nurses), social workers and teachers[5]. Furthermore, women represent most of the caregivers in our society (for example elderly people, disabled people or children), which is mostly unpaid and increases the gender pay gap[6].

Against this background, the ILO determines three dimensions of impacts of COVID-19: the quantity of jobs, the quality of jobs and the effects on specific vulnerable groups[7]. This implies consequences for the rates of unemployment and underemployment[8]; wages and access to social security protection; and increasing social exclusion and working poverty.

In order to tackle this crisis and minimise its impacts, policy responses need to be taken immediately. In this light, a coordinated, large-scaled and integrated COVID-19 response by the European Union and its member-states is fundamental to overcome this crisis. This will not only need to translate in more robust health systems for the future, but also in mitigating the consequences for the labour market, especially for the groups who are most at disadvantage.

Many states have quickly adopted massive economic stabilisation packages to financially protect and ensure monetary liquidity for all those affected. This will be vital to prevent or at least mitigate larger-scale economic downturn, rising unemployment and financial problems of households and families. CESI welcomes the announced additional flexibility on state aid and (overdue) flexibility for governments within the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP).

The EU and the Member States need to ensure financial and income support for those employees and workers who are hit by unemployment, short work or a temporary reduction of work. Importantly, support must also be given to the solo self-employed and those in atypical or new forms of employment.

National trade unions are encouraged to engage into dialogue with employers and governments on how to protect jobs and incomes. Employers should give employees the necessary flexibility to manage work and home office with domestic responsibilities such as child and elderly care. Special attention should be given to women who bear up to most care work.

The crisis also shows that in the future considerable investments will be needed to bring the resilience of health systems to a higher level. This concerns equipment, facilities, staff levels and employment conditions. Re-communalisation of any privatised core health services should hence be increasingly considered in the future.

CESI acknowledges the tremendous efforts which have been undertaken since the beginning or the crisis, but crisis preparedness and management will have to be further improved. A stronger role, more financial resources and enhanced capacities for the EU will be necessary.

Coronavirus is a word that will surround us for the next months, possibly years. Its consequences will continuously be felt for the near future. However, with a solid, cohesive and cooperative response, we can overcome this crisis, without leaving anyone behind. CESI has been underlining for many years, that expenditures in public services are not merely costs, but that they are investments in the future.

Guide for further reading:

International Labour Organisation, 2019: Guidelines on decent work in public emergency services

International Labour Organisation, 2020 18 March: COVID-19 and world of work: Impacts and responses

World Economic Forum, 2020: How Governments can soften the economic blow of coronavirus, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/how-governments-can-soften-the-economic-blow-of-coronavirus

World Economic Forum, 2020: The coronavirus fallout may be worse for women than men. Here’s why, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/the-coronavirus-fallout-may-be-worse-for-women-than-men-heres-why/

[1] International Labour Organisation, 2020 18 March: COVID-19 and world of work: Impacts and responses, p. 3

[2] Ibidem, p. 13

[3] Ibidem, p. 4

[4] Ibidem, p. 6

[5] World Economic Forum, 2020: The coronavirus fallout may be worse for women than men. Here’s why, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/03/the-coronavirus-fallout-may-be-worse-for-women-than-men-heres-why/

[6] Ibidem

[7] International Labour Organisation, 2020 18 March: COVID-19 and world of work: Impacts and responses, p. 3

[8] Underemployment is related to informal types of employment, which are less socially protected, and tend to increase during economic crisis.

Kirsten Lühmann, the Chairwoman of the Committee on Women’s Rights (FEMM), which is part of CESI (European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions), spoke on Monday about the specific ways the coronavirus pandemic is affecting women. Attention needed to be paid to the particular situation of women when it came to the compensatory and aid measures offered by the state, she observed. “The EU member states must agree on shared guidelines in their fight against the virus. This also goes for the types of social and economic programmes which affect women first and foremost”, the FEMM Chair continued.

“The bans on going out, which many member states have imposed, are hitting many women hard. All people are finding themselves under huge pressure in this unprecedented situation. We have already witnessed an increase in domestic violence, which is mostly directed at women and all too often, at least psychologically, impacts children too.” In many EU states, according to Lühmann, women’s refuges were almost at full capacity. “What we need now, and fast, is more places for women in danger and their children”, demanded Lühmann. Social distancing measures like those seen in Germany, which still allow people to go out and get some fresh air, ought to be favoured over harsh bans on leaving the house.

Furthermore, women’s concerns needed to be focused on when it came to finding the right labour and social justice responses to the corona crisis. “Many lone parents, the vast majority of whom are women, can’t go to work in the present situation. In some EU states, they are being forced by their employers to take annual leave. This only delays the problem until the summer, when the schools are normally closed.” Doing away with overtime was to be expected, said the Chair. However, adhering to measures to mitigate the crisis did not constitute rest and recuperation.

“Many women-run small businesses and many more work alone in that business. That means that these people urgently need state help.” Deferring loans or offering new loans at favourable rates would not be of any help, in Lühmann’s view. “Solo entrepreneurs, women and men alike, need compensation for the income which has dwindled away. They need real money, or they will have gone bankrupt in a few weeks’ time.” Lühmann is thus calling for emergency aid to be granted to solo entrepreneurs.

Commission ‘Women’s Rights and Gender Equality’ (FEMM)

The German Armed Forces’ Federation of Civil Servants and Employees (VBB) is the strongest lobbying group for civilian staff in the Ministry of Defence and the German Armed Forces as a whole. It is also the one most steeped in tradition. We are happy to support CESI and the European notion of peace and freedom.

Head of the European Commission and former German Defence Minister Dr Ursula von der Leyen hit the nail on the head in a newspaper interview: “I think all those of us who aren’t experts underestimated the coronavirus in the beginning.” In Germany, the situation has continued to worsen, which one could observe from the extraordinary address made by our Chancellor Dr Angela Merkel. In her order of the day on 20 March, our Defence Minister established clear priorities as we move forward.

First, we need to ensure that we can fulfil our core mission at any time. Second, at this time of crisis, we will help wherever we can with whatever is needed. Third, we should use the invaluable capacities of our reservists in a sensible fashion.

For the civilian staff, this means working from home as far as possible in order to protect oneself as well as one can. People have been going above and beyond the call of duty in many areas in the most diverse areas of the organisation in order for the German Armed Forces to be able to fulfil their core mission. Here are two examples from a long list: reservists are having to be recruited and deployed as quickly as possible. In addition, our colleagues have, over the course of the last few weeks, signed procurement contracts to the tune of over 200 million euros in order to supply the federal government with medical equipment and protective gear.

At this difficult time for Germany and the whole of Europe, our task as trade unions is to give people courage as we confront this crisis, but also and in particular to say thank you. I’d like to express my thanks to all those working in the Ministry of Defence and in the German Armed Forces administration, who, over the last few days, have served us tirelessly, sometimes day and night, as well as regularly at the weekend. And I have the greatest respect and the highest regard for our European colleagues who are making great personal sacrifices for the citizens of Europe.

Just to be clear: we are all making an important contribution towards helping the state function.

This also entails us doing our bit in our private lives, by keeping our distance, staying at home as much as we can and minimising the number of people with whom we come into contact. Once again, this presents us with new challenges in our work as a federation, since the situation is extremely changeable here too. In many telephone calls, what once more became apparent was that the federation is sticking together and that it can cope with these challenges. At a time of crisis, we can follow words with deeds. We can help those who need help.

Dear colleagues,

I am particularly concerned about how you are all bearing up. Stay well, keep your chins up, show solidarity to your colleagues. CESI will also continue to stand up for your rights. However, we must not neglect the need to protect against infection. I’m counting on you!

Dr Hans Liesenhoff

Federal Chair of the German Armed Forces’ Federation of Civil Servants and Employees (VBB)

CESI Trade Council ‘Defence’ (DEF)

The lights of society in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg are abruptly being switched off, in the wake of all school activities being suspended a few days previously. Just as a tornado occurs when very damp soil vapour and cold and dry mountain air meet, the inner revolt asserts itself in detail when two equally opposed principles collide: whilst most of us are required to slow down and be passive, even come to a standstill, the coronavirus is raging all-around at a diabolical speed. What can we do in this state of limbo, which parades our powerlessness and loss of control before our very eyes on a daily basis? What can we education experts contribute towards fighting the crisis?

Whilst those working in the sectors of health, security and the food supply chain face concrete challenges and expose themselves to risks every day, we need to consider the spiritual and emotional needs of overwhelmingly young people. Our children and young people must continue to enjoy the opportunity to undertake training and benefit from the chance to educate themselves, in order to build a secure future. In these times of isolation, this calls for a complete methodological volte-face as we resort to exclusively educating young people via electronic means.

This paradigm shift, which has arrived unexpectedly quickly, demands flexibility, constant adaptation and a spirit of innovation on the part of the teachers. What’s essential is that, at this time of total standstill, we maintain and support a continuous thinking and learning process amongst the young: the dynamic processes of thinking and learning can serve to counteract the stasis occasioned by our isolation.

After all, if the coronavirus has an impact on our physical wellbeing, fighting the virus through isolation and social distancing places a strain on our mental equilibrium. It’s no longer possible to take your mind off things through enterprise and most of us are being forced to concentrate on ourselves and occupy ourselves. This too requires strength and support, which is being supplied by additional people working with schools, such as psychologists and educators. Currently, more hotlines providing psychological support are being set up, in order to cope with increased demand.

How do things look in my home, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg? – Well, it’s just like the rest of Europe: state of emergency, freedom of movement significantly curtailed, growing numbers of infected people. The virus is raging, society stands still. My call to all colleagues in education is to create hope, take courage and continue to stand up for children and young people and a safe future. I also call on those politicians working in the field of education to lend their active support to all teachers, educators and students. For something is becoming clear: something which we can’t do without in education is human interaction. Society needs committed teachers and educators. They can’t be replaced by computers.

Claude Heiser

President of the CESI Trade Council Education, Training and Research

The main considerations for a functioning Just Transition Fund raised by CESI in its contribution include the following key aspects:

• The budget to be allocated to this fund should be sufficient to effectively help mitigate both possible acute negative repercussions of climate change measures via social inclusion and social protection measures, as well as help actively manage functional labour transitions via up- and reskilling for workers and employees that are likely to be affected by climate change policy measures.

• Clear and easy-to-understand communication of the nature, scope and functioning of the fund to all trade unions, further NGO and employer stakeholders as well as the broader public. is essential. Non-awareness of the fund or technical or know-how related barriers should not be a factor limiting its pick-up on the ground.

• Effective communication of the fund is also important for a better, well-deserved public appreciation of the EU. The public, as well as the affected workers and employees, need to be aware when they have benefited from an EU fund – Where the EU does good for the people, this should be known.

• Next to patching acute adverse social and employment-related symptoms of climate policies, CESI also stresses the need for the fund to also take a strategic and long term investment-related approach, in order to reach long-term goals of climate neutrality and sustainable employment at the same time. As such, the fund’s individual implementation programmes should be detached from and go beyond single terms of office of key regional or local politicians that are keen on winning the next elections.

• Beyond the fund itself, the EU and the Member States need to set up and maintain a regulatory framework which ensures decent work and adequate social protection in new jobs created in the area of climate change and which rules out abusive and precarious employment models. The transition to a green economy should be accompanied by fair and secure work

CESI’s full consultation contribution is available here.

In the position, the main issues relate in particular to the following:

• Financial assistance for companies and businesses: Many states have quickly adopted massive economic stabilisation packages and financially protect and ensure monetary liquidity for all affected companies, businesses, employees and citizens. This will be vital to prevent or at least mitigate larger-scale economic downturn, rising unemployment and financial problems of households and families.

• Safeguarding of employment: The EU via its structural funds and the Member States via public investments need to ensure financial and income support for those employees and workers who are hit by unemployment, short work or a temporary reduction of work.

• Performing public health services: In the future considerable investments will be needed to bring the resilience of health systems to a higher level. This concerns equipment, facilities, staff levels and employment conditions.

• More competence for the EU and solidarity among the Member States in cases of pandemics: CESI acknowledges the tremendous efforts which have been undertaken by different actors since the beginning of the crisis, but crisis preparedness and management will have to be further improved in Europe.

• A strong public service for sustainable societies: More public investments will be needed in the future also in other public services.

It is the public sector which is ‘essential’. It cares, protects and supports – the citizens, the society and the economy. It determines whether societies are sustainable or not. And the need for strong public services is increasingly recognised among citizens, the media and politicians.

• Paying of tribute to the heroes of the crisis: The doctors, nurses and hospital administration staff: They are at constant risk of own infection and the truly indispensable ones who deserve extra respect and thankfulness. But not only them: All those who keep key public services going at this very crucial moment, often also at elevated health risks, deserve deep appreciation. As do private-sector employees in sectors that need to stay operational.

• Act together hand in hand: Despite all margins for further improvements in the future, a multitude of actors have shown their willingness and ability for concerted efforts and actions. CESI expresses its gratitude to those acting in the common interest of us all.

The full position is available here in English and here in German language.

CESI Europe Academy – PULSER project on performing public service personnel implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights

In an existential crisis, people’s characters come to the fore. Some are still in denial about how serious this is and are taking risks which do not just put themselves at risk but also endanger countless others.

However, the vast majority of citizens are pulling together – and this means keeping their distance. With the exception of partners and core family members, the advice over the coming weeks and months is to keep a physical distance from other people. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be there for each other. And here so many wonderful examples of neighbourliness are becoming apparent, and all the creative ways one can think of to help others, without getting too close.

Governments and the EU institutions are now called upon to ensure that our European economy and the financial system are able to recover from the standstill. Many are worried about their jobs, whilst the self-employed fear their entire livelihoods will disappear. This is why the public sector is now called upon to come up with unorthodox aid measures.

I expect that EU member states all sing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to all the measures that need to be taken. Whether we’re talking about equipment for hospitals, closing shops, schools and nurseries or setting up border checks: there ought to be a little more coordination within the EU. Choosing to go it alone and failing to stand shoulder to shoulder will only worsen the crisis.

Those working in the public sector are on the frontline for everything that needs to be done at this difficult time. And truly, they are giving their all. Think of the nurses, carers and doctors, also particularly in the health departments, police and public order officers, educators providing emergency child care, the teachers putting together basic online classes in the toughest circumstances and so many more public sector workers in the most diverse fields.

Even if they are not employed by the state, I’d like to make a point of including people who work in supermarkets and drug stores and in the field of transport and logistics. Many people are playing a decisive role in making sure that society is supplied with the things it needs to survive. They are the guarantors of our society’s survival.

The public sector and critical infrastructure and many women and men – we all depend on them. But now they’re finally becoming visible. They are all heroes in the fight against the virus; they are the backbone of our society, even in normal times.

Our colleagues are lending a hand even when they are not in a position to protect themselves as well as they’d like. The fact that a lot of vital equipment is missing across Europe in the basic areas of services of general public interest is a scandal which we’ll need to deal with after the crisis.

SARS-CoV-2 shows us clearly where the ideology of the small state can lead us, as well as the extent to which public infrastructure has been starved of funds and, in some areas, bled dry. It shows that when push comes to shove, we all rely on a functioning public service and that without it continuing to function, we cannot uphold any public decency, the likes of which we need so badly now. Humankind must be placed front and centre, today, yes, but also tomorrow, when the crisis is over.

We will withstand this test by pulling together as citizens and especially by providing any help we can to those who find themselves on the frontline in the battle against the invisible enemy. And we independent trade unions, in our capacity as a key organisation for the public service in Germany, will make sure that society does not just return to business as usual once the crisis is behind us.

Ulrich Silberbach,

CESI Vice President

President of the German Civil Service Federation (dbb)

“As a President and as a man, I feel the need to share with you all the deep concern for this recent, incessant and pressing dramatic situation, which has inevitably swept over our beloved country and our lives”.

The numbers in Italy speak clearly and make noise: 59,138 total cases, 46,638 infected, only 7,024 healed, 5,476 deaths.

We are worried, but our work and our commitment continue; we adapt ourselves to the increasingly frequent decrees of the Conte government. Due to the rapid spread of Covid-19 and to the consequent declaration by the WHO of the pandemic state, the Italian Government has correctly and drastically limited the freedom of movement for all of us. It has imposed drastic closures of all non-essential activities and has suspended all school activities in the national territory to protect the health of workers, students and their families.

We also note that the precautions taken by the Italian Government are not applied in too many other countries in Europe and in the world, which seem to remain unaware of the dangers that Covid-19 poses to human health. What is happening is dramatic, and with bitterness, in our hearts, we are witnessing the negligence of these countries that have not yet taken the necessary measures to prevent the propagation of the virus, hence further contagions and deaths.

But what are we doing, as a union?

We are active supporters of the #iorestoacasa motto (#Istayathome), but we do not abandon our greatest vocation: defending the workers of the school sector, their protection and the protection of their rights.

Despite the lockdown and the closure to the public, of all the trade union’s offices in the area, the national and territorial telephone and telematics consultancy services remain active. We must be smart-working, since our trade union does not stop and always wishes to write new pages in the history of the protection of workers’ rights – especially now, in the time of the Coronavirus.

Following further measures applicable to the red areas and their extension to the whole national territory, and in light of the umpteenth record of contagions and deaths, all educational activities of schools and universities have been suspended until April 3^rd. Personally, I immediately requested the closure of all school and Universities locations until April 15^th to allow school staff and directors to stay home.

Since freedom of teaching must always -and in any circumstance- be protected and encouraged, requests for clarification of the management methods on how to teach via the web (which have been launched weeks ago) are increasing. This is the teaching procedure that all schools are promoting to tackle the suspension of school and teacher’s activities scheduled until April 3^rd.

It is obvious that the difficulties in carrying out the work under these conditions are manifold. However, the teachers have shown and are showing that they want to face these challenges and pursue their commitment to continue to maintain active contact with their students; although there are no contractual obligations in this regard.

Our trade union reiterates that it is necessary to operate with greater attention to the risk of the digital divide: a concrete danger given that not all families have Wi-Fi networks, computers or other electronic devices to use. Good news come with the Cura Italia Decree, through which millions of euros are allocated to counter this shortcoming. It is designed to support less well-off students use and to allow them the use of individual digital devices; this can serve to buffer the situation and to bring to a successful end the current school year, despite all challenges. It should be remembered that, although good practices are in use in some case, Italy still lags behind in terms of IT.

Following the Decree-Law n.18 of 17^th of March 2020, all schools’ recruitment competitions and procedures are suspended. With competitions blocked, recruitment remains at a stalemate – and this will solidify the situation of thousands of precarious workers, who, for a long time have now been fighting, together with us, to achieve long-awaited stabilization of their work contracts. Our trade union has asked for an extraordinary stabilization plan to allow continuous recruitment via a third recruitment channel: the Institute rankings. So to finally put an end to the phenomenon of “substitutes”.

We are sure to continue to follow the evolution of this emergency, having as an additional priority also the protection of the safety and health of school staff serving abroad. In fact, our Constitution guarantees to the Italian citizens the right to safety and health at work, a right which cannot have boundaries and which must also be guaranteed to teachers carrying out a central task: the diffusion of the Italian language and culture in the world.

In this particular context, our trade union also remains active and committed: we have sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Mr Luigi Di Maio, to the Minister of Education, Ms Lucia Azzolina, and to the Minister of Health, Mr Roberto Speranza, in order to protect teachers and their families who are currently abroad, so that these school professionals can swiftly be guaranteed their rights to safety and health at work- not least through the organization of special repatriation flights for those who have good reasons and who are in good health.

With great satisfaction, after the following ANIEF´s letter to the competent Ministers on 19^th of March 2020, further provisions relating to the Covid-19 emergency were taken by Minister Mr Roberto Vellano. Thanks to ANIEF’s tenacity and competence, school staff on-duty abroad who need to return to Italy can now come back to our country.

Teachers abroad can also apply for holidays to return first, and then ask to be placed under Art.186 of Presidential Decree 18/67 so to activate the distance learning programme. This result is a great achievement and rewards our efforts in this difficult moment. And it strengthens our way of work as a transparent trade union.

We are confident that this pandemic will soon pass, and that the dramatic numbers will be the cause of an enormous about-turn. As Italians citizens and as ANIEF, we will continue to be fervent supporters of agile work. In the interest of our trade union, of all the employees, co-workers, associates and teachers, and not least of our country, we will engage in distance learning.

With are confident that, despite these difficult times, the autonomous trade unions will guarantee the consultancy and remote protection activities for all employees and managers of the public and private sectors.

We agree with the Government: To avoid an ever greater contagion and that the country will lose even more human lives, additional time is needed.

After all, the school has never stopped – and we will not stop.

We won’t have a break. We are and will remain all united for our beloved Country that we hope will soon experience a real and intense spring.

Prof. Marcello Pacifico

CESI Europe Academy Vice President

ANIEF President

CISAL Confederal Secretary

CONFEDIR Organizing Secretary

#CESI #PULSER #CESIEUROPEACADEMY #TRADEUNION #ANIEF #CONFEDIR #CISAL #COVID19 #ITALY #IORESTOACASA

The whole world is suffering from a serious pandemic, a situation that no one thought could be experienced but which we need to be able to cope with today. Our country, in particular, is being hit hard and entire regions are recording a greater number of deaths caused by Covid-19 than in all other areas of the world.

As a trade union, we thank all those who are working to ensure that the pandemic is contained. Starting with the medical and nursing staff, but also cleaning services, transport and public sector staff as well as the many workers (technicians and executives) who ensure the continuity of manufacturing activities at such a serious and troubling time.

We have immediately demanded that not productions activities shall be closed, but that hygienic-sanitary conditions be provided for all those who have to continue and to make the workplace as safe as possible.

This was not possible in all workplaces, given the lack of adequate health care equipment. Therefore, we have asked the Italian government to put in place special measures, starting with the guarantee of pay cover for all those who cannot go to work. Moreover, we have asked the companies and the government to make an extraordinary effort in order to allow remote working to all those who can be physically absent from the job.

Now the government has freed up an initial sum of 25 billion which provides for interventions to help support the health system and cover people’s salaries through the employee redundancy fund. Europe also responded too late; the European Commission and the ECB initially underestimated the impact of the pandemic and, as a whole, national governments took too long to follow the example of China first and then Italy,, delaying the lockout around the outbreaks of infection. The UK Government, which even in the first phase argued that it was more appropriate not to intervene to contain the pandemic, has failed to cover itself in glory.

The effects of the pandemic cannot yet be predicted. Today, the ILO estimates that 26 million people will find themselves unemployed after the crisis and the impact on world GDP is estimated by leading analysts to amount to two/four points. This means that, in the coming days, the European Commission, flanked by the ECB, will have to provide extraordinary measures, setting aside the Stability Pact and intervening to support the economy to the tune of hundreds, if not thousands of billions of euros.

In this context, the role of CESI is fundamental and it must act as a stimulus for politicians to make clear that the post-pandemic world will have to look different to how it does at present.

Here’s what is needed:

• An efficient public administration, there to serve its citizens
• An efficient public health systems that needs to be better managed and equipped, instead of being subject to cuts
• Research and Development capable of facing the technological revolution effectively
• A Europe that does not outsource all manufacturing to China and the Far East, but that resumes producing essential goods on its own. Europe should manufacture with European champions able to compete with American giants as well as Russian and Chinese companies, with an entrepreneurial class that does not think only about profit, but also about their social responsibility.

Roberto Di Maulo

CESI Vice President

Roberto Di Maulo

CESI Vice President

Fismic Confsal Secretary General

Video message in Italian

At present, in Europe and beyond, we find ourselves facing an unprecedented, highly serious situation. Containing the rapid spread of the coronavirus is currently our top priority as a society. With this in mind, each of us must act responsibly.

This is a time to show solidarity to all fellow citizens, irrespective of nationality and home and irrespective of whether these people work in the public or private sector.

It must be everyone’s goal to overcome this extraordinary situation as best as we possibly can.

This means above all that we should show solidarity and discipline: in the interests of all citizens, we need firmly to adhere to the rules laid out by our political leaders in full knowledge of the fact that all those working in the health and care sectors are currently often being asked to make superhuman efforts. This is why we need to support those who help us as best as we possibly can.

Alongside the human suffering, it is already clear to see that the economic impact of coronavirus and its global negative effects, chiefly a global recession, will undoubtedly be huge. The state must, therefore, take all measures necessary to help all affected companies keep afloat, in the interests of its employees.

This is why we are making this request: support all who help us, be they workers in the health, care, emergency services, police or army sectors. Honour in particular the work of all those working in the grocery stores and supermarkets, permanently putting their health at risk in the interests of looking after all citizens.

Whether we’re talking about the public or the private sector, it’s only by working shoulder to shoulder that we will manage to overcome this unprecedented situation.

CESI will do all that is conceivably possible to make sure we succeed!

Romain Wolff

CESI President

I, the national President of CSIF, like all Spaniards, am facing a completely new situation. We Spaniards had never had the experience of confining the population to their homes to prevent the spread of a virus; something that we thought would never happen to us.

This situation represents a challenge, not only of a professional but also of a personal nature.

It is a professional challenge because we are going to continue to work alongside public employees and private sector workers whom we represent and we have had to redouble our efforts to address the doubts, queries, and fears of these workers in the face of a labour scenario that has completely changed.

If we think about it, our work is the same, but isolation makes it more difficult to interact with workers and the administration, something that is the basis of our work. For this reason, this crisis is putting to the test all our organisations and forcing them to adapt and, from my personal point of view, it requires each and every one of us to work even more intensively.

It is a personal challenge because extreme care must be taken to minimise the risk of infection. We need to create new routines and keep our heads busy either working or doing any other activity and, above all, trying to keep our spirits up, since this has only just begun.

Since last Saturday, March 14, Spain is in a health emergency and the government has restricted travel and the movement of people on streets to the most essential tasks (buy food, go to work, etc.)

The whole country is at home under the #YoMeQuedoEnCasa #IStayAtHome. This is the motto spread by the public employees of the health sector to avoid the collapse of health services in Spain.

On Thursday 12 March, CSIF requested the government of Spain to declare a state of health emergency in the face of the alarming data we received from health professionals. This is because the main problem is not the virus itself but rather its impact on the health system due to the swift infection rate that threats to overwhelm it.

At the time of writing this report, the number of those affected by COVID-19 is about 14,000 with 1,081 deaths, when a week ago they barely exceeded 2,000 cases and 50 deaths. And the number continues to rise because experts have confirmed that we have not reached the maximum point of infection. That is why the government is preparing to extend the health emergency for another 15 days.

This official data do not take into account the citizens who are in their homes in quarantine because they present symptoms of COVID-19 and who have not been tested because there are not enough tests. Given this, it is possible that health personnel, who are in quarantine for having been exposed to the virus, do not have it and could return to their jobs if they could be tested and found not to have the virus.

The situation is especially serious in Madrid, which is the region that has registered the most cases, followed by Catalonia, which is approaching 2,000 infected people, and the Basque Country with almost 1,000 people with COVID-19.

In this situation, the sector that is suffering the most from this pandemic in our country is healthcare, for several reasons:

• Lack of staff. Health personnel, especially in the most affected cities, are working double shifts in order to attend to all patients. They have requested the hiring of at least 25,000 health professionals. In addition, CSIF’s health delegates who work full-time for the union have offered to job-share in order to do their bit.

• Lack of protective gear for health personnel. Masks, gloves, antiviral protection equipment, etc. The impact of this is that the patients cannot be properly cared for and that health personnel are one of the groups most affected by COVID-19.

• Lack of beds and means especially in the regions and cities most affected by the health crisis.

CSIF has expressed its recognition, support and thanks to the health public personnel who are making an enormous effort to attend to the growing avalanche of those infected. We must take care of our carers.

Likewise, CSIF has asked the Ministry of Health to guarantee non-on-site work measures in the whole of the public sector to limit the exposure of public employees to the virus and, in accordance with the aim of this health emergency, to maintain social distancing measures to avoid the spread of the virus.

With this in mind, CSIF has proposed measures to promote teleworking or, failing that, provide the service on an availability and location basis for when public worker intervention is really necessary.

Likewise, the lack of means of protection (alcoholic gels or gloves) and inadequate disinfection of public buildings is the general trend in all of the various public sectors in Spain at the moment and this is suffered by those workers who have to attend essential services in their workplaces.

If anything is becoming apparent in this crisis, it is that the cuts in public services, ageing of public sector workforce and the non-replacement of workers come at a price, especially in times of crisis like those we are suffering today.

In the last 10 years, 53,300 jobs have been lost in public administration, 30,000 people will retire this year and the healthcare sector needs 25,000 more professionals to overcome this situation and offer a solid staff structure to provide the standards of quality that citizens require.

That is why CSIF has proposed an ambitious public employment plan to create 100,000 new jobs with which to reinforce the structure of the kind of welfare state to which Spain should aspire.

At CSIF, we are calling on everyone to sign solid agreements, as well as improve the quality of employment. We must dignify and place at the centre of the reforms the group of public employees who, with professionalism and dedication, have kept the state running, contributing to economic recovery and stability commitments.

In the field of private companies, CSIF welcomes the measures adopted yesterday by the government that include 200,000 million euros to avoid an economic crash and to jump-start the Spanish economy once COVID-19 is defeated (117,000 from the public budget and the rest from the private sector) but calls for its scope to be broadened by introducing:

• more flexibility in working time schedules,
• an increase to the number of labour inspection staff to monitor the suspension of contracts, temporary redundancy dismissal procedures and shortened working hours caused by this crisis,
• more protective measures against the virus for all workers, including the disinfection of workplaces,
• measures that facilitate teleworking and organisational changes in companies during the duration of the pandemic.

Before I close, I would like to voice our CSIF solidarity to the great CESI family, starting with the Secretariat staff as well as each and every member organisation and its affiliates. We offer our support and wish strength to the colleagues from those countries that are passing through the worst part of this infection, like Italy, and, particularly to all those who are directly or indirectly suffering the impact of COVID-19 personally, in their families and friends. We wish all a speedy recovery.

We are at your disposal for whatever you need.

Hoping to see you again soon in Brussels, in Madrid or in any CESI event. Sending a big hug from Spain.

Take care and keep safe.

Miguel Borra

CSIF President

Spanish Central Independent and Public Employees’ Trade Union

My name is Milena Popović Samardžić, an epidemiologist and the President of the Union of Doctors of Medicine of Montenegro that has been a member of the CESI family for the past 4 years.

I am writing deeply concerned, as I follow daily reports on the number of people infected with the new coronavirus as well as on the number of those who have lost the battle with it.

Only a few days ago, Montenegro confirmed first cases of COVID-19 infection. We have been preparing for that moment by closely watching the experiences and messages of colleagues from the countries that had already been facing all the challenges of this pandemic.

This is the moment that recognizes no borders nor nations. We are all in this task together and only in this way can we succeed. Let’s join forces and capacities. Let’s share experiences and information in one place. Information on the clinical picture, on treatment, the effects of treatment, on the protection of medical professionals and the equipment they use in particular situations. Countries that do not have enough equipment and human capacities will be at greater risk of spreading the infection among healthcare professionals, which will bring them before even greater challenge. Please share your experiences with us in the rare moments of rest.

Finally, I want to express my deepest gratitude, my utmost respect to all my colleagues for everything they do to put the spreading of COVID-19 infection under control and to wish us all good luck.

Dr Milena Popović Samardžić

Epidemiologist

Union of Doctors of Medicine of Montenegro

In the position, the main issues raised by CESI relate in particular to the following:

• European legislators should make a clear commitment to the continued existence of an EU postal directive and advocate, in the case of a revision, for its further development. The central objective must be the maintenance/establishment of a balance between competition, consumer needs, a functioning and economically viable universal service as well as the maintenance of decent employment in the postal and parcel sector. Wage dumping, undue discrimination and the exploitation of workers must be precluded;

• Offering a universal postal service must be conditional upon the provision of a minimal postal infrastructure and the continued achievement of an ambitious minimum level of quality service;

• Given that the employment situation in the postal and parcel service sector often leads to marked social distortions and violations of the laws and rules, the EU should ensure appropriate national-level frameworks fit to counter this undesirable development. In so doing, minimum wage payments, for example, as well as the respect for applicable driving and rest times must be subject to permanent and transparent controls carried out by the competent national authorities. The legislator should intervene, should the rules not be adhered to.

• The distribution of letters and parcels could be subject to licensing for providers. Delivery licences c´should ensure the respect for environmental protection as well as, beyond, the obligation to provide social insurance as well as further non-environmental criteria. In the framework of binding licences, all companies that provide services relating to the delivery of letters and parcels should obliged to report to the national regulatory authorities in a standardised manner, on (1) social data such as number of employees, nature of contractual agreements, staff fluctuation, and pay gaps; (2) social standards including employment standards; and (3) environmental standards;

• The member states’ national legislation should also introduce subcontractor liability in the post and parcel industry. Should a service partner (subcontractor) of a postal service provide violate the law, it should also be possible to hold the postal service provider accountable;

• Beyond this, the legislator should encourage work in the sector within the EU to be part of a collective agreement. It is only through involving the social partners in all EU member states that minimum standards and acceptable wages can be guaranteed and any exploitation and old age poverty precluded;

• As work becomes increasingly digital and online-based, the protection of the personal data of employees and their private lives is more important than ever before. In the framework of the EU postal directive, but also beyond this in the context of the EU general data protection regulation (GDPR), employees and staff must be protected from inadequate surveillance and control by digitial technology potentially deployed by employers. Digital systems purely for the purposes of monitoring staff and employees should be rejected.

The full position is available in English and German language.

“As CESI Secretary-General and as President of the CESI Trade Council ‘Health’, we express our deepest gratitude to all health professionals EU- and worldwide.

The real impact of their work on our daily lives has never been as tangible as today.

We acknowledge the commitment of the hundreds of thousands of nurses and doctors, who do their utmost to care for citizens and patients, and who put our health and safety first.

Our European health systems are the backbone of our societies – and our lives. From the cradle to the grave we want to rely on viable, well-functioning health systems which can respond to our needs in a timely and trustworthy manner.

Despite these needs, and notwithstanding a further increase -such as an ageing population with increasing complex care needs-, the provision of health care has become increasingly difficult. This is due to a continuous lack of investment and an ongoing shortage of staff in the sector.

We, therefore, call for an overall societal reflection on the long-term sustainability of our health care systems. Europe needs better equipped and well-staffed health care services. And this requires more investment!

In concert with our member organisations, we insist on the necessity to pay more attention to the human factor as the key element in the provision of good and sustainable health services.

In light of the recent dramatic evolutions in the world and the drastic safety measures taken, we would like to reiterate our gratitude, appreciation and respect for the work of all our health professionals.

We care for those who care. Thank you.”

Versione in Italiano

“Just last week, the European Commission put forward a new gender equality strategy for the years 2020-2025. This responds to long-standing calls by NGOs and trade union organisations, including CESI and its Commission on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality, for a new, fully-fledged vision of the EU for more gender parity in Europe.

In its strategy the European Commission sets out targeted measures it intends to pursue for more gender equality, including in the areas of combating gender-based violence and challenging gender stereotypes, boosting women’s economic empowerment and ensuring equal opportunities in the labour market, achieving more equal pay, and giving both women and men the opportunity to lead and participate in all sectors of the economy and in political life.

If these initiatives are all fully realised and implemented, this would be a great leap forward for women across Europe. This will however require cooperation by the EU’s other institutions, above all the Council; a success depends on the commitment of the member state governments to support the European Commission. As European trade unionists, we call on them not to hesitate. In this way, 2020 can see real improvements for gender parity in Europe.”

The main considerations for a boosted EU Youth Guarantee scheme raised by CESI in its consultation contribution include the following key aspects:

• A reinforcement of the Youth Guarantee should in particular circle around a further promotion of social inclusion and assistance to the most disadvantaged among young people, above all the NEETs. This would help them further escape a vicious circle of precariousness and assist them in avoiding prospects of long-term unemployment and social exclusion.

• CESI generally advocates tri-partite approaches, bringing together employer organisations, trade unions and public authorities and educational institutions, not only for the implementation of the Youth Guarantee but also in the context of broader and further policies and measures to achieve better results in the transition of young people from education to work.

• CESI strongly advocates the need for decent remuneration of all types of internships, traineeships or apprenticeships. A decent and fair remuneration is not only important to fight social exclusion and in-work poverty at an early stage, but equally important to keep young people engaged in transitioning to the labour market and further develop their skills. Their taking-up of a Youth Guarantee should not depend on the ability of the parents to fund their lives.

• For the Youth Guarantee to be an effective instrument to help young people with education-to-job transitions, CESI supports the idea to extend the maximum age of a person eligible to benefit from a Youth Guarantee placement to 29 years. The current maximum age of 25 years means that the large group of young people that has not yet completed its professional degree in its mid-20s is outside the scope of the Youth Guarantee.

• Youth Guarantee should also be considered as one element only in the fight against youth unemployment – It is a reactive tool needed to try to repair damages which were caused by insufficient preventative public investments in social inclusion, quality early childhood education and care as well as primary and secondary education and, importantly, VET. For long, CESI has advocated higher levels of public spending in public care and education/VET, which is a crucial economic investment for the future and represents lower costs than reactive ex-post remedies.

CESI’s full consultation contribution is available here.

As Erdogan has opened the borders to the EU for refugees in Turkey, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on March 1st that Greece will not accept any asylum application for one month – which is, interestingly, in line with EU law. And while a confidential report of Frontex allegedly expects “massive migration flows” into the EU, an extraordinary meeting of the EU interior ministers has been convened for this week.

According to Politico´s Playbook, Manfred Weber, chairman of the EPP Group in the European Parliament, had a wish: “When the EU Commission meets this week, the focus should not be on the pictures of Frans Timmermans with Greta Thunberg, but on the concerns of millions of Europeans about the protection of our external border “.

Not totally false, admittedly. In the light of the ongoing propagation of the Coronavirus Covid-19 and a new imminent migration crisis, it might not be the best moment to tan oneself in the recently heralded new climate change or digitalisation policies. At this very moment, citizens´ expectations could not be more concrete. And they may pitilessly unveil the EU´s (or rather the member states ’!) Blatant failure (especially in the aftermath of 2015) to adopt resilient common migration and asylum policies. For the time being, it´s all about solidarity with Greece and securing the EU´s external border, but how long this may resist to the certainly growing pressure will have to be seen – the stress-test for the new Commission could not be any harder.

***

Solidarity was already missing at the last EU Summit on the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) of the EU. On Friday, February 21, EU leaders had to recognize that the gap between the so-called ‘Frugal four’ (the net contributors the Netherlands, Denmark, Austria and Sweden) and 17 other member states (the ‘friends of cohesion’) was too big. While the former demanded an EU budget cap at 1.0% of the EU´s gross GNI, the latter advocated a 1.3% ceiling. Different proposals submitted by the EU Commission and the President of the EU Council, Charles Michel, were rejected amidst a plethora of ‘red lines‘.

It is not without a certain irony that among the increasingly pressing debate to link EU spending to the respect of the rule of law and democratic checks and balances, countries such as Poland and Hungary -which are currently challenging the “delicate balance of powers that holds together consolidated democracies founded on respect for the rule of law and human rights“-, are among the fiercest defenders of a higher EU budgetary frame (for cohesion).

Migration, Coronavirus, border control, climate change, digitalization, Erasmus … Given the pressing challenges, more EU money is actually needed – while Brexit leaves a 75 billion hole in the 7-year-budget. (Reasons to assume that sooner or later cohesion policies and the Common Agricultural Policy will be subject to cuts.)

And some further food for thoughts: When comparing, these major challenges with the image of member states fighting over proposed 1.074% or 1.11% GNI caps, either our expectations or the EU´s financial envelope must be reviewed.

***

Regarding the Coronavirus Covid-19, EU solidarity (and the Four Freedoms of its Single Market) may be put to the test too. And images of busses carrying Ukrainian citizens evacuated from China being attacked by an angry mob should remind us that dark ages are far from being over and that our civilization´s layer remains wafer-thin.

It is not without a certain irony either, that we needed an outbreak of the virus to bring back to the spotlight CESI´s mantra-liked demands of the past years to adequately equip and staff the health care sector. But trade unions have to realize that they are more than ‘only’ specific interest representatives – they are overall societal mediators and stabilizers. Having been travelling a lot recently, it still strikes me how many committed activists, pro-Europeans and pro-‘CESIrians’ I meet during my visits in the member states. In French, you would say “Ce sont des gens bien!” Devoted, honest and credible. This is what I mean by mediators and stabilizers.

***

At the CESI General Secretariat, we have had quite some political meetings in the EC and the EP, and have also been busy answering to all the different consultations launched by the European Commission in the aftermath of its January 2014 communication on the future employment and social policy priorities: the EU gender equality strategy, the updated Skills Agenda for Europe, fair minimum wages in the EU, the reinforced Youth Guarantee. And more is yet to come in the coming weeks.

We also agreed with the Bertelsmann Foundation and the EUObserver on jointly hosting the 2nd edition of the Summer Days – mark June 17-18 in your calendars! -, and we look forward to welcoming many of you on that occasion. Because the future of work is our future.

The main considerations for an EU framework for minimum wages raised by CESI in its consultation contribution include the following key aspects:

• A binding framework for minimum wages would represent an important commitment of the EU to the implementation of principle 6 on minimum wages of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

• Action at the EU level for a binding minimum wage framework is necessary especially in the context of increasing numbers of persons being economically active in new and atypical forms of work, including via subcontracting and in (outsourced) bogus and/or dependent self-employment (the ‘independent dependent’) in which the risk of wage exploitation tends to be high.

• EU level action for a binding minimum wage framework is also necessary in the context of the single market which should ensure that workers and employees are granted the minimum wage applicable in the country where they effectively work, and not the minimum wage of the member state in which the employer happens to have its seat on paper.

• The EU cross-sector social partners should strive to reach an ambitious framework among themselves first; however if negotiations are not possible or fail, the European Commission should put forward a legislative proposal for ambitious binding framework.

• Beyond an EU framework for minimum wages, the European Commission should take steps to strengthen social dialogue and social partner negotiations with the objective to increase the share of workers and employees covered by collective agreements. This could include soft measures such as assistance to capacity-building for trade unions as well as hard instruments award criteria for public procurement which take into consideration the coverage and respect of collective agreements.

CESI’s full consultation contribution is available here.

The project has 2 key objectives: (1) to anticipate skills needs in the postal sector, by identifying labour shortages and future skills needed for specific postal occupational profiles; (2) to analyse the positive and negative consequences of digitalisation on working conditions for the identified occupational profiles.

The project seeks to assist the postal social partners to anticipate future skills needs with special regard to the digital ones. The project will assist in adapting social dialogue practices to accompany the postal transformation by addressing the consequences of digitalisation on work organisation patterns and working conditions.

In parallel, the project will enable social partners to exchange good practices in terms of training and re-training programmes and therefore to accompany the change process; it will allow social partners to issue recommendations for future training programmes. The project will also provide the social partners with a common reference framework of skills (digital and non-digital) needs in a time horizon of 3-5 years for specific postal job areas.

The European social partners in the postal sector are subcontracting external expertise to support us in our work on the above project objectives, for the 24-month duration. Specifically, we will require an external consultancy to carry out research and analysis on the impact of digitalisation in Europe’s postal sector, assess and bring together good practices from the social partners at the European, national and company levels in training programmes, skills analysis and in dealing with the impact of digitalisation and work closely with the project steering group to bring all these areas of research together to contribute to the project implementation.

Further details can be found in the call for tender application. All interested applicants must send in their application by March 27 2020 to UNI Europa Post & Logistics Director and project lead coordinator Dimitris Theodorakis at: [email protected].

Logos: © PostEurop/UNI Europa/CESI 2020

This year, the two-day event for think tanks, trade unions, employers, platforms, institutions, civil society and youth representatives will be focused on ways to face the future of the new workforce by analysing the challenges and by coming up with ideas and proposals to shape tomorrow’s world of work.

Workers are facing important changes in their working environment. The digitalisation of the workplace allows increasing flexibility, agility and productivity.

What are the needs and expectations of workers and employers, and which risks and opportunities do they face?

Will new responsibilities, rights and obligations for workers and employers arise? May new practical approaches and legal definitions for ‘worker’, ‘working time’, ‘workplace’ and ‘work’ itself be required? Which are the challenges in terms of occupational safety and health?

Will labour law and social security systems have to be adjusted to stay future-proof and protective? How decisive are workers’ participation, co-determination and social dialogue? Will trade unions and interest representation become more agile and flexible themselves?

And finally how and at what level (company, national, EU) should these issues be addressed?

These and other questions will be answered during the three-round sessions on:

Event cancelled due to COVID19

9.00-13.30

Venue: Bouche à Oreille, Rue Félix Hap 11, Brussels/Etterbeek

#SUMMERDAYSFOW

Participation at the event is free of charge, but registration is compulsory.

We encourage early registrations

Video interviews from the first edition

The main considerations for a new EU gender equality strategy laid out in CESI’s statement include to the following:

• The European Commission should make sure that the new Directive 2019/1158 on work-life balance for parents and carers is implemented properly and swiftly in all EU Member States.

• As part of the European Semester and in line with a much-discussed Child Guarantee, the European Commission should encourage all Member States to invest in childcare with a view to establishing a legal right for all parents for free public early childhood education and care for their children.

• As an indirect way to help reduce wage (and thus pension) gaps, a new EU directive on pay transparency should give flesh to the already existing obligation for Member States to eliminate direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of sex with regard to all aspects and conditions of remuneration for the same work or for work to which equal value is attributed.

• The EU should swiftly advance in its agenda for a binding framework for minimum wages at national levels which should effectively eliminate exploitative and indecently low salaries especially in low-income sectors in which female employment is disproportionally high.

• The EU should also ensure a proper implementation of the directives on part-time work, fixed-term work and temporary agency work. There is an inherent gender dimension in this as, for instance in the case of part-time work, in some countries 96% of workers in this type of employment are women.

• The European Commission should monitor the implementation of the Council recommendation on access to social protection for workers and the self-employed by the Member States in particular with a view to detecting structural discrimination, disadvantages and/or risks for women in the area of access to social protection.

• As part of the European Semester, the European Commission should call on Member States to ensure that reduced working time, as a result of a special urgency to care for relatives in need to assistance, will be eligible for adequate pension benefits.

• As part of the European Semester, the European Commission should encourage Member States to attain gender parity in the management positions of their public institutions, entities, bodies and authorities. Moreover, the European Commission should continue to push the adoption of the Women on boards directive as a way to improve ratio of women in management positions in the private sector and help them break glass ceilings. Mandatory and functioning gender equality plans should be encouraged in all public and private bodies to ensure an adequate progress towards gender parity in management positions.

CESI’s full statement is available here. More information about the consultation in general is available on the European Commission’s website

Although I have ever since been advocating a clear cut instead of endless fiddling around, it was still a historically sad moment to see the UK leaving after 47 years of EU membership. For the first time in its history, the EU has declined in size. And not only that: It has lost an economic, military and political heavyweight – in times of increasing global challenges. Political tensions, migration flows, digitisation, artificial intelligence, climate change, demographic challenges will set the agenda for the coming decade, and it is hard to say if this tremendous loss is a first sign for a continuous decline of Europe’s geopolitical (and moral) weight in the world.

It will now be up to the negotiators to find new common grounds on which to place the EU-UK relationship. (According to the Withdrawal Agreement, a transition period will apply until the end of the year, and the Johnson government vehemently rules out a possible extension.) As Fabian Zuleeg, CEO of the European Policy Centre (EPC) and Brexit adviser of the Scottish government, stated during his intervention at a recent visit for a discussion in our premises: “It will either be a ‘no’ or a ‘bad’ deal, especially for the UK.” For Zuleeg, there will be no good Brexit and the blame game is far from being over.

***

Yet what will be the challenges for the remaining 27 members of the EU? After all, Brexit also opens a window of opportunity.

Firstly, Europe is probably well-advised to increasingly insist and set the tone in terms of soft skills: Diplomacy, negotiation, problem-solving, diversity management, awareness for non-discrimination etc. Many of the member states and the EU itself are already recognised mediators in many places of the world.

***

Secondly, however, it is not enough to preach soft skills: As generally known, diplomacy -the transformation of blood into ink- only functions if backed by credible power politics. The European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen stated recently, “Europe needs credible military capabilities.”

I would add: Europe not only needs capabilities but also the political will not to shy away from possible political conflicts if it wants to play a prominent role in the world and in crisis regions. If politics intend to be taken seriously, then ideas thrown into the ring without any readiness for commitment or engagement do not help – on the contrary. Only transparency and honesty can really establish credibility. For this reason, CESI has been advocating for quite some years for a more structured engagement of all stakeholders in the framing of the so-called European Defence Union (EDU). Last week, we launched the so-called European Defence Round Table (EDRT), hoping that this paved the way to a regular and formalised platform for stakeholders, including representatives of the personnel of the armed forces.

***

Thirdly, Europe can set global trends in terms of green policies – if it invests sufficiently and in the right places! I continue having doubts about the possibility to remain economically sustainable and competitive with insufficient public investments, average skills and education systems, radical energy transitions away from coal and nuclear energies and weakened key industries, like for instance the German car industry. Yet as a good European and a strong believer in the necessity of transforming the economy towards climate neutrality, I am willing to follow Ms von der Leyen and the general attitude that “supported by investments in green technologies, sustainable solutions and new businesses, the Green Deal can be a new EU growth strategy.” And by the way, this also seemed to be one of the key messages at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos: “Some say China has all the data, and the US has all the money. But in Europe, we have a purpose.” Let´s hope that all this is not just EU hubris, but that we can truly keep up with the US and China in the coming years and decades, not least to be able to stick to the green agenda.

At CESI, we will have to focus on the impacts and the policy choices flowing from the Green Deal, as we remain deeply convinced that such policies will fail if transitions are not socially fair. In the coming months and years, we will have to sharpen our positions and actions, and I am also planning to call for the establishment of a special advisory group on the subject.

***

Fourthly, Europe must continue its path towards more economic, social and political cohesion, meaning, let us be clear, more integration in some sensitive areas. According to the political guidelines of the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Commission’s work programme for 2020 and the Croatian Council Presidency’s priorities, the challenges that Europe is facing can only lead to and be tackled by more European unity; there is no other way. As a European trade union confederation, we must accompany these processes in the best possible way, and our so-called ‘Programme Commission’ met last week to set the agenda for the trade councils and commissions for the year to come.

***

On a final note, and as you will probably be aware already, the European Commission just presented its first ideas on how to make Europe more socially just and fair. In a communication entitled ‘A strong social Europe for just transitions’, the European Commission set out its social timetable and initiatives for the year ahead. This will mean extensive commitments and investment from our side too.

As you can see, a full agenda is awaiting us in 2020.

Let’s get to work. And thanks for joining us!

All workers count.

The main considerations for an updated Skills Agenda for Europe raised by CESI in its consultation contribution include the following key aspects:

• Sufficient levels investments, especially public investments, in education and training are crucial in order to keep educational performing. Europe, as a continent relatively poor in natural resources, has no choice but to invest heavily in the capacity of its people and workforce in order to remain internationally competitive and well-equipped for the future.

• There is an important responsibility that lies with employers to embrace training for workers and invest in the further training and re-training of employees. The employers benefit greatly from the training of its workers; hence, next to monetary investments, they should also take a proactive role and ownership in terms of making training possible during working time.

• The Skills Agenda should avoid an excessive focus on a ‘utilitarian’ focus on education as a mere provider for technical skills needed in the labour markets. Instead, education must remain a stronghold for youngsters to be equipped with the ‘humanitarian’ background necessary to become open-minded, responsible and engaged citizens that appreciate the value of liberal democracy and pluralist societies.

CESI’s full statement is available here.

Like every year in January, the meeting of the ‘Programme Commission’ kicked off the new year’s activities of CESI’s Trade Councils and Commissions.

The work priorities were set for all of CESI’s Commissions and Trade Councils against the background of the general agenda of the European institutions and the CESI General Secretariat. The further implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights and the broader ‘Future of work’ agenda will be fundamental priorities for all sectors.

See here for further information on the topics which CESI’s Commissions and Trade Councils will focus on in 2020.

Against the background of the challenges public services are facing nowadays, digitalization and artificial intelligence, as well as sustainable developments goals on top of many others, the project’s main general objective is to underline the overall societal importance of public services and public sector’s personnel in the context of the European Pillar of Social Rights (EPSR) and the new social agenda of the European Commission.

The project will include sectoral working groups, a study featuring some key data on the public sector in the early 2020s, an EU symposium and an EU-level campaign on the value of efficient public services and public sector employees, stressing the social return on investment that they generate.

#PULSER specific objectives are:

• Provide knowledge on the political agenda of the European Commission and developments of the European Pillar of Social Rights to sectoral working groups
• Assess the problem through these sectoral working groups and an expert study which shall highlight in which sectors and in which Member States gaps still persist
• Raise awareness among policymakers and the public about the added value of performing public services with proper public services and its personnel.

The working groups with the representatives involved in the project are:

• Justice services, representing police personnel, prison officers and justice sector staff in all levels of the judicial systems
• Health services, representing hospital staff, nurses and physicians
• Central government administration and finance as well as local and regional administration, representing personnel in all levels and sections of government, agencies and public bodies
• Education and training, representing teachers and educators in primary, secondary and tertiary education as well as in VET and further professional training

In the context of a modernisation of public services, CESI member trade unions will always speak up for the necessary investments in human resources and better equipment, to be considered not as a mere cost, but as a return for the economy and for society, thus supporting public recognition of the value and need for performing public services and public workforce.

Photos of #PULSER preparatory meeting

Video interviews of #PULSER preparatory meeting

Representatives of the European Parliament, the European Commission, the European External Action Service, NATO, civil society organisations, academia and trade unions discussed CESI´s proposal to establish a permanent platform on European defence policies. The breakfast was moderated by Steven Blockmans, head of the CEPS EU Foreign Policy unit.

According to CESI, the European Union of today needs to be based on more democratic and transparent practices, and this particularly applies to the defence sector. A 2017 Eurobarometer survey revealed that 55% of the EU citizens are in favour of creating an EU army and this opens a window of opportunity for a future European Defence Union (EDU). However, the complexity and lack of transparency endanger success.

MEP Lukas Mandl and CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger opened the event by emphasizing the importance of a more democratic and transparent frame when establishing the EDU and of taking into consideration the interests of civilian and military personnel of the armed forces and their representatives.

Trade unions are not only an important factor to make sure missions and restructurings are socially fair and sustainable. They are also the decisive link to make sure that EU initiatives in the defence sector are supported by those having to implement it – and not least by the citizens.

The EDU, in order to be successful, urgently needs to consider the “human factor”. “Soldiers are also citizens in uniform, the consideration and protection of their interests is urgently required“, Thomas Sohst, President of CESI´s Trade Council Security insisted.

CESI President Romain Wolff concluded the event as follows: “Today, a first important step was taken. Let´s hope to establish the ERDT as a permanent platform because involving representatives of the civilian and military personnel of the armed forces will be decisive for the success of the EDU.”

Photos of the #CESIBreakfastMeeting

Video interviews of the #CESIBreakfastMeeting

CESI breakfast meeting
‘A European Defence Roundtable: how to ensure better stakeholder consultation in the context of the future European Defence Union’

Realised by Lukas Mandl, Member of the European Parliament, and the European Confederation of Independent Trade Unions (CESI)

A by invitation-only event
Wednesday, 29^th January 2020, 8:00 – 10:00 hrs
European Parliament (ASP 0 G saloon)

Working languages: EN/ DE; no simultaneous interpretation

Confronted with new geopolitical realities and security threats, the EU is under pressure to deliver progress in the European Security and Defence Policy (ESDP), with the ultimate aim of a genuine European Defence Union (EDU). Support of citizens is strong and a window of opportunity is given, while at the same time, the complexity and lack of transparency in the area of ESDP endangers the process.

Also representing the interests of military and civilian personnel in the armed forces, CESI advocates a more structured engagement in the frame of ESDP and the meanwhile heralded EDU. A European Defence Round Table (EDRT) as a formalised platform for stakeholders, including representatives of the personnel of the armed forces, is being proposed. A structured and regular exchange with key stakeholders is considered key for success. During the breakfast, the feasibility, composition, tasks and potential mandate of such EDRT should be subject to discussion.

Welcome

Lukas Mandl, European Parliament

Introduction

Klaus Heeger, CESI

Moderation

Steven Blockmans, CEPS

Statements

Thomas Sohst, German Armed Forces Association (DBwV)
Wilhelm Waldner, Austrian Armed Forces Union
Delphine Resteigne, Belgian Royal Military Academy
Georgis Bikakis, European External Action Service
Lisa Picheny, NATO
Raluca Csernatoni, Institute for European Studies
Sylvia Kainz Huber, European Commission/DG GROW
Alain Alexis, European Commission/DG GROW

Open discussion with the audience

Concluding remarks

Romain Wolff, CESI

In an explanatory communication entitled ‘A strong social Europe for just transitions’, the European Commission set out its social timetable and initiatives for the year ahead, all centrally bundled under the umbrella of the European Pillar of Social Rights.

We have very clearly welcomed the speedy start of the new European Commission and the swiftly tabled new ideas for more social justice and fairness in the EU and its Member States, and we stand ready to assist and advise the European Commission in shaping a future-proof Europe. We look forward to working to this end with Ursula von der Leyen, Valdis Dombrovskis, Nicolas Schmit and the college of Commissioners.

In 2020, therefore, CESI will, of course, make it a priority to lobby on the most important of the planned initiatives of the European Commission in EU employment and social affairs, which include proposals for an EU-wide minimum wage framework, binding measures for pay transparency and the regularisation of employment in the platform economy. Moreover, our internal trade councils and commissions –most notably those on education, health, defence, central administration and finance, local and regional administration, defence and security– will, of course, continue to drive CESI’s sectoral policy work also in 2020.

We will also continue branding our “own” topic and continue putting it on the EU agenda: The future of work, spanning across the aspects of adequate labour law, social protection and effective interest representation. In December, the Presidium of CESI paved the way for further CESI action when it adopted a first position paper on this topic. One of the centrepieces of our work in this area will be the second CESI Summer Days on the future of work on June 17-18 2020 in Brussels. The first edition last June was a great success, and we look forward to making the next Summer Days even bigger and better!

While our work in the different European social dialogue committees will continue in good cooperation with our employer and employee partner organisations, CESI will strive to further expand the consultation by the European Commission of our members in the annual European Semester process, an activity that we successfully jumpstarted last year as a test if on a small scale.

Our Europe Academy is also looking forward to another year, continuing its projects on precarious work and third-party violence at work, and starting a further project with co-funding from the European Commission on the role of public services and their personnel in the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights. We look forward to the active engagement of all members!

Our year will then culminate in the next ordinary Congress, which will take place in Brussels on December 10-11 in conjunction with festivities on the occasion of CESI’s 30-year anniversary. Mark your calendars already now!

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “I welcome very much the quick action by the new European Commission to swiftly table fresh ideas for more social justice and fairness in the EU and its Member States. Certainly, the sketches of the plans can provide a significant scope for real improvements in the lives of workers and employees. CESI stands ready to assist and advise the European Commission’s work on shaping a future-proof Europe where people like to live and work in dignity, and I look forward to working to this end with Ursula von der Leyen, Valdis Dombrovskis, Nicolas Schmit and the college of Commissioners. ”

Social affairs initiatives announced by the European Commission

• A feedback period will start immediately and be open until the end of October during which public authorities, political actors, social partners and trade unions as well as NGOs and other interested stakeholder can provide the European Commission with expertise and input in relation to an action plan it intends to publish “in early 2021” on how to implement the European Pillar of Social Rights and make it a reality for the people.

• A first-phase social partner consultation will start immediately and run until February 25 in order to assess the need and desirable format of a European framework for a binding minimum wage.

• The Commission also pledged to explore ways to promote social dialogue and collective bargaining, since “strong, representative organisations and their timely involvement in policymaking both at national and European level are extremely important.”

• The European Commission aims to underpin its planned European Green Deal with a new Just Transition Mechanism and Fund in order to ensure that the desired economic shift towards climate neutrality will not have adverse social effects for workers and employees.

• Moreover, the European Commission will propose a European Unemployment Benefit Reinsurance Scheme with the objective to protect citizens and workers during external economic shocks.

• In order to arrive at and maintain high standards, the European Commission plans to review its occupational safety and health strategy and address new risks alongside the more traditional ones, such as exposure to dangerous substances and risk of accidents at work.

• The European Commission will issue a proposal for a European Vocational Education and Training (VET) recommendation and, following a currently ongoing ad-hoc European social partner consultation, update its Skills Agenda for Europe in the first quarter of 2020.

• Also in the first quarter of 2020, the European Commission intends to published an industrial strategy, setting out ways on how all citizens, businesses, regions and cities can benefit from current industrial transformations.

• Moreover, in the first quarter of 2020, the Commission will propose a new European Gender Equality Strategy along with, following an ongoing public consultation, binding pay transparency measures to help reduce the gender pay and pension gap, promote women’s access to labour market and increase the number of women in senior positions in businesses and organisations.

• The European Commission will also present a report on the impact of demographic change in the first quarter of 2020, followed by a Green Paper on ageing in the fourth quarter of 2020 to launch a debate on long-term impacts of ageing, notably on care and pensions, and on how to foster active ageing.

• In the second quarter of 2020, an updated Digital Education Action Plan will be published to help boost the digital skills of both young people and adults, and to ensure that every educational organisation is fit for the digital age.

• To step up the fight against youth unemployment, the European Commission will present in the second quarter of 2020 proposals to reinforce the Youth Guarantee.

• A new Digital Services Act, to be presented during the fourth quarter of 2020, will upgrade liability and safety rules for digital platforms, services and products. This will be preceded by, in the third quarter of 2020, a Platform Work Summit hosted by the European Commission to discuss priority issues and possible solutions, including for example employment status, working conditions and access to social protection of platform workers, access to collective representation and bargaining, as well as cross-border aspects of platform work.

• In the third quarter of 2020, the European Commission will establish a new education and training cooperation framework with the Member States, with a view to further developing the objectives of the European Education Area.

• In 2021, the European Commission plans to launch an action plan for the social economy to enhance social investment and social innovation and boost the potential of social enterprises to create jobs, including for those furthest from the labour market.

• In 2021, the European Commission will present a Child Guarantee to make sure that children have access to the services they need and are supported until they reach adulthood.

• Next year, the European Commission will also present a strengthened strategy for disability, building on the results of the ongoing evaluation of the European Strategy for Disability 2010-2020.

The full communciation along with further accompanying documents is available on the European Commission’s website.

Founded in 1990, the USLIP Iaşi represents education sector personnel mainly in primary, secondary and other pre-university education.

The membership application was approved unanimously by the Board of CESI. Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “We are glad to welcome our new colleagues from USLIP in our CESI trade union family. Their expertise in the Romanian education sector will certainly bring further added value to CESI’s group of national education sector trade unions. We are looking forward to a lasting and fruitful relationship and working together for good employment and working conditions in the education sector in Europe and in Romania. I am sure CESI and USLIP will greatly benefit from each other’s experiences and engagement.”

Further information about USLIP is available in CESI’s membership website section.

The position paper argues that an ambitious common minimum wage framework would be essential to fight social dumping in the EU, prevent a race to the bottom, secure upward social convergence, ensure competitiveness and ultimately reflect the presence European Pillar of Social Rights in the economically and financially already well integrated EU single market.

It stresses that adequate minimum wages are an especially powerful tool to counter precarious employment – even if such a single tool for fairer pay is not sufficient on its own.

Considering that precariousness is about more than pay, further flanking efforts need to complement minimum wages in order to move towards more decent labour rights, social security, healthcare and accident prevention guarantees in so-far precarious employment.

The position paper also emphasises that any regulatory framework should not negatively impact collective bargaining and functioning agreements already established in the different EU countries. In this context, a minimum framework should ideally be established by the EU social partners; however, in the continued absence of an agreement it should be framed by the EU institutions by means of a legal act.

The full position is available in the resources section.

According to Javier Jordán de Urries Sagarna, an affiliate of CESI’s member trade union organisation CSIF (Spanish Central Independent and Public Employees’ Trade Union), it will be key that real improvements are brought especially to those in precarious work. He said: “The European Commission’s proposal for a directive contains some very constructive propositions on how to make sure that all people in de-facto dependent work relationships can enjoy basic minimum standards for decent and transparent employment and working conditions. The directive is a flagship initiative of the European Commission to deliver on several principles of the European Pillar of Social Rights, and I call on the European Parliament and the Council to adopt an ambitious piece of legislation. It would be an important message that Europe can deliver and improve the lives of the people.”

A critical aspect relates to a broad scope of application of the directive, Javier Jordán de Urries Sagarna said: “The directive must not only mitigate precarious work in yet unregulated and exploitative new forms of employment and for the many self-employed people which are in reality in dependent work relationships. Precarious work exists also in the public sector.” He added: “When the negotiators of the European Parliament and the Council discuss exemptions or derogations for public sector workers from Chapter III on minimum requirements for working conditions, I urge them not to apply a flat-rate scattergun approach. In article 10, why should certain groups of persons in the public sector be denied transitions to more stable forms of employment? In article 11, why should they not have rights to training like everyone else? In article 7, is there a reason for really many groups of public sector workers to be exempted from maximum probation period clauses?”

As a European trade union umbrella confederation, CESI has accompanied this dossier closely, having highlighted the merits of an ambitious and broad directive to the European Parliament rapporteur and shadow rapporteurs and to the Council Presidency on various occasions.

Javier Jordán de Urries Sagarna concluded: “Next to possible exemptions for public sector workers, it is a priority for us to ensure an EU directive with teeth: References to transitions to more secure (as opposed to only transparent) forms of employment should be maintained and the information provisions in Chapter II and clauses on minimum predictability of work in article 9 should not be watered down compared to the European Commission’s proposal. In article 10 we would also like to see a real right to more secure working conditions as opposed to merely a right to request this. This would not represent any improvement for workers in real life. Workers do not need a directive to give them a right to ask for something.”

For more information: European Commission proposal | European Parliament negotiation mandate plus Corrigendum | Council mandate (‘General approach’)

Picture: CESI Employment and Social Affairs Commission President Javier Jordán de Urries Sagarna (CSIF) © CESI 2018

In a debate with representatives from UNI Europa, -with CESI recognised European sectoral social partner on the employee side-, and the European Commission’s Directorate-General ‘Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs’ (DG GROW) on the current evaluation and a possible subsequent revision of the EU postal services directive 97/67/EC, the members of the trade council criticised the role of the directive to have contributed to the liberalisation of the sector, with subsequent deteriorations in the quality of delivery service and worsened working conditions for employees in the sector.

The trade council members emphasised in particular the key role of robust and extensive universal service obligations (USOs) for a continued maintenance of a high quality of postal delivery services. It was agreed to continue to push for strong USOs and decent employment in the sector, including together with UNI Europa.

A resolution spelling out CESI’s concrete priorities will soon be published in the resources section. Key issues will include the following:

• European legislators must make a clear commitment to the continued existence of an EU Postal Services Directive and work towards its further development. The top priority is to maintain or establish a balance between free competition, consumer needs, a functioning and economically viable universal service and the maintenance of job security within the postal and parcel industry.

• Appropriate measures should be taken to ensure that the national postal universal service provider does not experience any disadvantages compared to competing companies due to the task assigned to it.

• Since the employment situation in the postal and parcel industry regularly leads to strong social upheavals and violations of the law, the legislation of the member states should create the appropriate framework conditions to counteract this undesirable development.

• In case of a revision, the spirit of the green deal must flow into the EU Postal Services Directive

The next meeting of the trade council will take place in May 2020 in North Macedonia (tbc).

Also a result of the first CESI Summer Days in June 2019, the paper stresses the extent to which ongoing globalisation, rapidly-evolving digitalisation and the continuous development of revolutionary new technologies and mobility concepts on all levels have brought fundamental changes to our economies and societies.

It also underlines how more and more people work online, ‘in the cloud’, perform mobile work or engage in simultaneous employment for several employers, across borders or in different jurisdictions has all led to rapidly diversifying employment and social protection models.

Finally, it emphasises the need for trade unions to adapt or at least complement their role and portfolios if they wish to remain relevant actors and interlocutors to help shape employment, working conditions and social protection for people in de facto dependent, precarious employment and self-employment.

Key demands are in this context put forward in the fields of:

• labour law, including on retraining and skills training, working time, minimum wages, abusive uses of atypical employment models, and the classification of those in precarious atypical work or in bogus self-employment as ‘workers’ or ’employees’ that are subject to basic labour law
• standards for formal, effective and adequate social protection especially for all those in precarious employment, as well as further provisions to improve the transparency and transferability of social security entitlements
• more tailored interest representation of trade unions and ways for trade unions to expand and better represent individualising workforces

The full paper is available for download in the resources section.

The joint statement on the EU postal services directive was adopted following a request by the European Commission, which is currently drafting an evaluation report on the functioning of the directive. The statement acknowledges that the universal service is the core of the European regulatory framework for postal services and that the central focus on the provision of universal services needs to be maintained in the future. The text also recognises that fair working conditions support a sustainable and high-quality universal service provision.

The joint declaration on training of personnel in the postal services sector makes a case for the identification of digital skills useful for new jobs as well as for classic activities in the sector, and calls to monitor closely the impact of digitisation on training and retraining in specific sector activities that requqire new and advanced skills.

Full joint statement on the review of the EU postal services directive
Full joint declaration on training

Logos: CESI/ UNI Europa/ PostEurop logos © CESI/ UNI Europa/ PostEurop 2019

After the successful admission of the CESI Youth as a candidate member at the European Youth Forum (EYF) in November 2019, the Youth Board met to start developing a future-proof strategy

• to continue policy positioning on key youth priorities including better VET and apprenticeship systems in Europe and a strengthened Youth Guarantee,
• to further embed the CESI Youth in the Brussels public arena as a recognised and active advocate for good work for young people,
• to consolidate the CESI Youth’s voice within the CESI mother organisation and its member trade unions,
• to assist CESI and its member trade unions with expertise and strategic advice in their efforts to gain more new (young) members and better retain them in their organisations, which have in many cases been ageing demographically.

CESI Youth Representative Matthäus Fandrejewski said: “Since the inception of the CESI Youth in 2013, I am proud to see how long of a way the CESI Youth has come both within CESI as well as externally as a promoter of decent work for young persons. At the same time, we are all aware that a lot of work remains to be done.

I very much look forward to working with my colleagues in the CESI Youth Board to further root and consolidate our efforts and help making Europe an even better place for young people.”

Under the leadership of Matthäus Fandrejewski, the CESI Youth Board will process the strategic decisions that were taken at the meeting, thus jumpstarting another successful year as a strong voice of young workers and employees.

The project, -in which CESI, the World Employment Confederation (WEC) as well as Zurich Insurance were supporting partners,- saw interventions from the new European Commissioner for Jobs Nicolas Schmit, the national employment ministers of Finland (Timo Harakka), Germany (Hubertus Heil) and Norway (Anniken Hauglie) as well as from other high-level speakers including MEP Yana Toom, Member of the European Parliament Employment and Social Affairs Committee, Heinz Koller, Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia at the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and Joost Korte, Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Commission.

CESI was represented by its VET Spokesperson Stefan Nowatschin, who intervened in a panel on ‘Access to training in the 21st century’.

A study that the EPC published in conjunction with the conference takes an in-depth look at how labour is evolving throughout Europe and put forward a set of policy recommendations for the EU, which despite its limited competences, can still be the driving force behind a progressive agenda for the future of work.

CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “The evidence that the EPC research team found suggests that despite a rapid evolution, how the future of work unfolds is still in human hands, and that with sound decision-making the EU and its Member States can harness the benefits of new technologies, counter the polarisation of labour markets and make sure that no one is left behind. This proactive attitude also reflects CESI’s stated take on the issue, and we call on the European Commission and the Member States to take the new EU legislative term to make labour markets and employment in Europe future-proof – based on the credo ‘All workers count’”.

Further information about the conference is also available on the EPC website. The full study is available for download here.

The focus of the discussion was on the latest case-law of the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU), CESI´s upcoming European campaign on the re-valorisation of public services, the state of play of the third party violence in the public sector project, modernisation challenges faced by public Administrations, possible creative applications coming from “gamification”, the EU´s latest initiatives in terms of tax policies and the current developments of Brexit.

To convey the trade unions’ messages and have a direct exchange, guest speakers from the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Policy Centre were welcomed at CESI premises.

CESI Trade Council ACF President Wilhelm Gloss highlighted the importance of the Trade Council to voice the specific interests and need of the governments´ central administrations and tax authorities:

“Without efficient and well-equipped central state authorities, societies cannot function. Politicians and media are increasingly becoming aware of the need to invest in those. One of the key challenges for the years to come will consist of re-equipping central state administrations and tax authorities. A way forward certainly consists of efficiently fighting tax fraud and evasion, in establishing more fair and just taxation principles throughout the EU.”

On behalf of ALR, TC President Hans Freiler insisted on the contribution of services of general interests to the societies´ well-being and sustainability:

“Data are clearly showing that societies able to guarantee well trained public employees and provide good services to people can expect significant returns, not only social ones but also economic and financial. The Member States of the EU which were the most resilient during and in the aftermath of the financial crisis were those which had invested in people and performing services for the common good. It´s time to rethink the role of the public sector in our societies, crises are mostly created by the private sector and mitigated by the public one.”

Link to CESI project #NOVIOLENCEATWORK:

Trade unions for a zero tolerance towards violence at work: Protecting public sector workers in Europe

Trade Council video interviews

As the Commission´s work program is not yet adopted, looking at the respective mission letters to Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis (An Economy that Works for People) and Commissioner for Jobs and Social Affairs Nicolas Schmit gives an idea of the initiatives to be expected.

As for Valdis Dombrovskis, he is, among other tasks, supposed to overview the action plan to coordinate the European Pillar of Social Rights, to lead the work strengthening the role of social dialogue and to refocus the European Semester on sustainability. In all three areas, CESI has vital interests and has been involved intensively in the different dossiers over the past years. We look forward to continuing the cooperation with Mr Dombrovskis, who has repeatedly shown his sensitivity for trade union pluralism.

The letter of mission to Nicolas Schmit highlighted his tasks as follows:

Delivering on the European Pillar of Social Rights and its 20 principles, ensuring that every worker in the EU will have a fair minimum wage, monitoring and enforcing EU legislation for dignified, transparent and predictable working conditions, and looking at ways to improve the labour conditions of platform workers.

CESI has been deeply involved with all of these subjects, and in the first meeting with Nicolas Schmit, we had a tour d´horizon on the specific challenges of his portfolio. Interestingly, and in addition to his commitment for the tasks assigned, he both underlined his will to further include CESI in the EU decision-making process and highlighted the need to shift of paradigm regarding the importance of the public sector for the economic and social well-being of societies. Something we took positively notes of.

As for the upcoming Croatian Presidency, a “Europe that develops, a Europe that connects, a Europe that protects and a Europe that is influential” will lie/remain in the focus. Croatia´s Ambassador to the EU, Irena Andrassy, highlighted the key dossiers: the Multi-Annual Financial Framework, the European Green Deal and the EU´s enlargement to Western Balkan countries. Here too, CESI has some irons in the fire if one thinks of our new trade unions in the Balkans, our interests in avoiding budgetary cuts in the social sphere and in anticipating the future of industries (and trade unions) in the context of climate change.

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Speaking of the future, CESI is partner of the EPC project on the future of work. On a major conference which takes place on Monday, December 9 in Brussels, the main findings of the project will be presented.

From CESI´s side, we are invited to comment on some of the aspects of the report, namely on how the actions of trade unions could be reinforced to improve trade unions density among atypical workers, on how to resolve the tension between the fixing of tariffs (e.g. through collective bargaining) of so-called dependent independent workers and competition law, and on how platform workers could be classified in the future. Furthermore, our VET spokesperson, Stefan Nowatschin, will also take part in the panel on Access to training in the 21st century.

One thing appears to be clear: A new systematic approach and strategy seem to be required. Hence, we will support a particular role and function of the EU in the clarification of the status and protection of atypical workers, self-employed and platform workers.

Remember: All workers count.

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Finally, as this Newsletter is the last in 2019, I seize the opportunity to thank all of you for the great support and cooperation which we could benefit of.

At the last Congress in 2016, Romain Wolff and I highlighted that CESI has achieved a standing within the ‘fabric’ of Europe. And as it seems, this standing could be improved even further.

We would, therefore, like to express our sincerest thanks to all those who have actively participated in CESI´s work: the member organisations, the mandate holders and, last but not least, the staff at the General Secretariat which is as dedicated as ever.

In a recent meeting at the Leuven University, a Belgian professor for social law told us: “In the first time since 25 years, I am again positive when it comes to the social side of the EU.”

Enough reasons to be well-prepared and motivated for the years ahead, don’t you think?

In this spirit, we wish you all Merry Christmas and a happy new year 2020!