(6 May 2013) EPSU condemns the one-sided measures announced by the Portuguese government this weekend. The measures hit public service workers and working families hard. 30.000 public service jobs will be cut. Civil servants will have to work 40 hours a week instead of 35, thus seeing a sharp fall in pay and worsening of working conditions. Workers will only get a full pension at the age of 66. The measures do nothing to address the recession in Portugal which sees its economy shrinking (...)

(15 May 2012) The European Court of Justice (ECJ) clarified on 10 May 2012 in the North Holland case that social considerations can be included in various ways in the tendering process under the current public procurement Directives. This important ruling supports a broad interpretations of social criteria as the ECJ states: ‘it must therefore be accepted that contracting authorities are also authorised to choose the award criteria based on considerations of a social nature, which may (...)

(15 May 2012) EPSU has joined the Global Campaign to end immigration detention of children, launched by the International Detention Coalition on 21 March 2012 condemning the use of detention as a common migration management tool. This campaign focuses on child detention by promoting stories of children and parents from all over the world who have experienced or been impacted by immigration detention. Key aims of the campaign are both to spread the stories of those children who have (...)

National Nurses United - Chicago Rally to Tax Wall Street and Heal America Please watch and share these two great videos with your Facebook friends and other social networks about why a Financial Transaction Tax—becoming known worldwide as a "Robin Hood Tax"—should become part of the economic recovery in the U.S., and what the National Nurses United is doing to fight for it. Visit this link to learn about RN actions in Chicago on May 18 This first video features an interview with NNU (...)

(8 May 2012) Workers, their families and communities have had an opportunity to express themselves on the austerity policies of their governments as pursued in tandem with the European Commission during recent local, regional and national elections this weekend. The results demonstrate that the extremely divisive set of policies undermining social rights and slashing public services are not supported by large parts of the population. The newly elected French president François Hollande (...)

(8 May 2012) After almost 25 years of privatisation of water services in the UK a national opinion poll reveals that citizens want to re-nationalise the water companies. They are not satisfied with the services provided. The lack of investment is showing in continued leaks while the private nature of the business is clear by continued profits that are not re-invested. In some regions like London an astounding 4 out of every 5 people asked want a return to public ownership. This is an (...)

(7 May 2012) The European Commission is proposing to regulate the right to strike. The need for this arises out of the decisions of the European Court of Justice that ruled in the Laval and Viking cases that the economic free movements are primary EU law and hence have a higher status as the right to industrial action. Strikes and other actions could be curtailed if they would hinder the free movement of establishment, goods and services. In its proposals to promote the internal market and (...)

EPSU Press Release - 7 May 2012 EPSU trade union representatives from more than 20 European countries will discuss at the EPSU Annual Conference Local and Regional Government in Riga on the 8th of May about the advantages and challenges of remunicipalization. Local and Regional authorities across Europe are responsible for the delivery of a wide range of services to citizens, which include: public passenger transport, public utility services (water supply and waste water treatment, waste (...)

European Commissioner for Climate Action, Connie Hedegaard addressed the EPSU Executive Committee on 24 April 2012. EPSU had invited the Commissioner to discuss the impact of climate change on public services following the EPSU study which explored the effects for a broad range of services. Public services play a key role in mitigation and especially in adaptation measures. The Commissioner is also responsible for adaptation. EPSU is concerned that the austerity crisis will affect the (...)

(2 May 2012) Meeting in Oslo on 12-13 April last, the EPSU prison services network agreed common demands to EU-EEA Justice Ministers, please see full text of the statement entitled ’Better Prisons for Staff, Prisoners and Society. Effects of austerity on prisons are like salt on an open wound …’ EPSU statement Prisons 120425 - EN EPSU statement Prisons 120425 - FR EPSU statement Prisons 120425 - ES Remerciements de la (...)