“Strengthening Social Dialogue in the hospital sector in the new Member States and candidate countries”

Project funded under budget heading 04.03.03.01 (Industrial Relations and Social Dialogue)

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Introduction

After several years of pre-social dialogue process led by the Joint Representative Taskforce[1], the Committee on social dialogue in the hospital sector (henceforward: the Committee) will soon be established. The Committee aims to improve the quality of employment and quality of services in the hospital sector by means of constructive social dialogue.

Adequate representativity of EPSU and HOSPEEM is an important condition for success. However, social partners from new Member States are not yet very well represented in the European Social Dialogue. Moreover, the situation and status of Social Dialogue within some of these Member States leaves much to be desired. A strong national dialogue is a conditio sine qua non for adequate representativity in Europe. In turn, a high level of representativity will make the sectoral dialogue more effective at the EU level. Hence, capacity-building in the new Member States is a major priority in the work programme of the Committee.

In this project HOSPEEM, EPSU and national social partners from Czech Republic, Slovakia and the Netherlands have joined forces to strengthen the Sectoral Social Dialogue in the EU 27 and to increase representativity in the Social Dialogue Committee. They wish to remove some of the main obstacles for constructive dialogue on national and EU level. They will combine theoretical and practical methods to tackle problems of a different character, thus optimising the final project result.

Link to the objectives and priorities of the budget heading

This project is the first major initiative of the Social Dialogue Committee for Hospitals after the formalisation in September 2006. This project will support the implementation of a major issue of the work programme of the Committee, i.e. strengthening Social Dialogue in the new Member States and candidate countries. It will also help to increase the representativity of social partners in the EU Social Dialogue, especially from the employers’ side. Finally, the pilot activities will contribute to the development of the three major topics defined in the EPSU-HOSPEEM work programme 2006-2007(ageing, recruitment and retention, skill needs).