EPSU Questionnaire: Outsourcing in the Public Services

Questionnaire FSESP: L'externalisation dans les services publics

EPSU Fragebogen: Outsourcing im öffentlichen Dienst

Cuestionario de la FSESP: Externalización de los servicios públicos

EPSU kartläggning: Outsourcing inom offentliga tjänster

EPSU affiliates in the public utilities have been discussing the impact of outsourcing as a major threat to workers' pay and conditions and the maintenance of collective agreements. The Public Utilities Standing Committee has agreed that there was potential to co-ordinate a campaign around outsourcing among EPSU affiliates in order to win concessions and guarantees from employers who are planning to outsource. Further discussion of this issue at the EPSU collective bargaining conference in October 2004 and collective bargaining working group in April 2005 led to a proposal to extend this initiative across all EPSU sectors.

The aim of this survey is to help us identify examples of good practice that can ensure that a proposed EPSU policy on outsourcing will be as relevant as possible to all EPSU affiliates.

Outsourcing is taken to mean any examples where a public service organization (municipality - government department - hospital - public utility):
- no longer carries out a particular activity but sub-contracts it to another organization resulting in redundancies or transfers for the workers involved;
- externalizes part of its operations to another organisation which continues to supply the services and to employ some or all of the workers affected;
- sets up a new organisation which carries out the service but now has a commercial relationship with the original organisation.