Category: Activities

HOSPEEMNewsActivities
Activities, Projects Hospeem

Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector

The project “Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector” builds on the Sectoral Social Partner’s Framework agreement on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector of 17 July 2009 incorporated in Directive 2010/32/EU.

The deadline for the transposition into national legislation was 11 May 2013.

The project allowed HOSPEEM and EPSU to obtain first hand information on the realities on the ground and on the role of social partners in the transposition of the directive. It also identified guidance to help with the implementation at the workplace level (e.g. as regards risk assessment, training or reporting), and gave inspiration

to those managing and working in the hospital and healthcare sector to have measures in place to reduce risks of workplace exposure to medical sharps injuries, in line with Directive 2010/32/EU.

In the framework of this project, HOSPEEM and EPSU have organized three regional seminars in Dublin (January 2013), in Rome (March 2013) and Vienna (April 2013), and a final conference in Barcelona (June 2013). These events aimed at providing space for mutual exchange on the experiences related to the implementation of the Directive, including the challenges and the problems that might have occurred. The results of a survey addressed to EPSU affiliates and HOSPEEM members were also discussed.The findings gathered during the events, together with the results on the implementation progress in the EU Members States, have been included in the final report from the project that were presented to the European Commission and disseminated.

EPSU member Royal Colleague of Nursing (RCN) on 23 January 2012 issued a press release reacting the PM David Cameron’s speech regarding the European Union where they point to Directive 2010/32/EU as one good example for the benefits and effectiveness of EU employment legislation to protect the health and safety of healthcare staff: “This directive provides much improved protection for nurses and other healthcare workers exposed to the risk of bloodborne viruses such as Hepatitis C from needlestick and other sharps injuries. It was also a directive that was supported by both trade unions and HOSPEEM – the European hospital and healthcare employers’ association”.

Report 1st Regional Seminar Dublin
31 January 2013

Brussels, 5 February 2013 Joint EPSU-HOSPEEM Project “Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector” Regional Seminar 1 – Dublin, 31 January 2013 Godfrey Perera, Chief Executive, HOSPEEM ; John Delamere, Head of Corporate Employee Relations, HSE ; Louise O’Donnell, Coordinator Healthcare Sector, IMPACT ; Tina Weber, ICF GHK (from left to right) during the opening plenary session The first (…)

Report 2nd Regional Seminar Rome
7 March 2013

Brussels, 10 March 2013 Joint EPSU-HOSPEEM Project “Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector” Regional Seminar 2 – Rome, 7 March 2013 The second regional seminar with about 80 participants from 8 European countries (Belgium, Cyprus, France, Italy, Malta, Norway, Spain and the United Kingdom) invited to attend the event took place on 7 March 2013 in Rome. It was hosted (…)

Report 3rd Regional Seminar Vienna
16 April 2013

Brussels, 25 April 2013 Joint EPSU-HOSPEEM Project “Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector” Regional Seminar 3 – Vienna, 16 April 2013 The third regional seminar with nearly 110 participants from 8 EU Member States (Austria, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia) as well as from Belarus, Croatia, Kosovo, Moldova and Russia took place on 16 April 2013 (…)

Report Final Conference Barcelona
20 June 2013

Brussels, 26 June 2013/18 September 2013 Joint EPSU-HOSPEEM Project “Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector” Final Conference – Barcelona, 20 June 2013 The final conference with about 95 participants from 24 out of 28 EU Member States (including Croatia to adhere to the EU as of 1 July 2013) took place on 20 June 2013 in Barcelona. It was hosted by EPSU affiliate Federación de Servicios (…)

Guidance
(Guidelines, Handbooks, Tool Kits, Films)

Film DG EMPL “From needlesticks to sharps. The added value”

In Europe, it is estimated that there are 1 million needlestick injuries annually. Film produced by the European Commission, DG EMPL, on the genesis and the year-long policy process towards the adoption of directive 2010/32/EU to prevent injuries with medical sharps. Watch the video in English: Watch the video in Spanish: Link to DG EMPL webpage for the video in other (…)

“From needle-sticks to sharps. The added value” Success Stories from the EU sectoral social dialogue

The added value of the framework agreement on the prevention from sharps injuries (Directive 2010/32/EU) (…)

Consultations Hospeem

WHO consultation on human resources in High Income Countries

4-5 September 2013, Oslo

The cooperation between HOSPEEM and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on recruitment and retention issues is dynamically developing. Tjitte Alkema, Secretary General of HOSPEEM a second time this year has attended as a speaker a WHO meeting after the Conference on mobility and recruitment of healthcare workers in May in Amsterdam.

The meeting took place in Oslo in September 2013 and was organised in the form of a consultation. It concerned the challenges that High Income Countries (HIC) are facing with regard to the issue of human resources in the healthcare sector. The aim of the consultation was to gather the HIC’s contributions for the upcoming 3rd WHO Global Forum on Human Resources for Health.

In his speech Mr Alkema highlighted the importance of the HOSPEEM-EPSU Code of Conduct on Ethical Cross-Border Recruitment and Retention in the Hospital Sector signed in 2008, two years ahead of the WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel and the key social partners’ role in that successful initiative. As another example of effective cooperation on healthcare workforce issues between all crucial stakeholders in the sector, including employers’ associations and the government, Mr Alkema indicated current forecasting of the resources demand in the Netherlands. ʽʽIt often seems that WHO and national governments do not easily connect with social partners. For the effective approach to the dilemmas in the field of cross-border ethical recruitment calls for close cooperation with all relevant stakeholders.’’ – said Mr Alkema.

Finally, Mr Alkema stated that ethical cross-border recruitment and retention in the sector requires a broader perspective. This includes providing employees with good working conditions and proper wages that due to austerity programms are at the moment under pressure by government interventions. He also emphasised that delivery of health services in HIC becomes not only a matter of respecting basic human rights. Nowadays we can observe a trend of “consuming” health services which has taken the form of delivering “scarce luxury goods”. In solving the problem of sufficient health care professionals we should consider how far we want to go in fulfilling all the needs in health care demand that do not necessarily align with good quality of life.

Read more about the consultation

Consultations, News Hospeem

HOSPEEM replies to the EC public consultation on occupational health & safety

HOSPEEM has replied to the public consultation launched by the European Commission further to the results of the evaluation of the European Strategy on Safety and Health at Work 2007-2012 (http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?langId=en&catId=699&consultId=13&furtherConsult=yes).

The aim of the consultation is to identify current and future challenges in the occupational safety and health area and instruments to tackle these challenges.

In its reply HOSPEEM supported the approach to define common general objectives for the future health and safety policies at European level. However, the organisation stated that actions in this field have to be targeted on each national situation, legislation, organisation and practice. HOSPEEM emphasised also the importance of social partners’ involvement in the future health and safety-related initiatives.

HOSPEEM_reply_EC_public consultation_on_OSH

Activities, Projects Hospeem

Final HOSPEEM-EPSU Conference on sharp injuries – Barcelona, 20 June 2013

The joint HOSPEEM-EPSU project “Promotion and support of the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector” has come to an end after a successful final conference in Barcelona. 

The final conference saw the participation of around 100 stakeholders from the 27 EU countries and high level speakers, including the European Commission. This was the occasion for HOSPEEM and EPSU to take stock of the outcomes of the regional seminars held in Dublin (31 January), Rome (7 March) and Vienna (16 April) under the project and to discuss the future steps of social partners to make the provisions of the Directive reality at the workplaces in the health care sector and thereby significantly improve the safety and security of health care staff and the patients.

Speaking at the conference, Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of EPSU emphasised that the Sharps Directive clearly shows how the EU Social Dialogue can deliver results which have significant impact not only at European, but also at national level. Social dialogue is an essential instrument of democracy and legitimacy for the EU social partners should not allow the current economic crisis and austerity measures to jeopardise it. Speaking about the HOSPEEM-EPSU Directive, Ms Fischbach-Pyttel highlighted that investment in healthcare is well-spent money. The quality of services and the security and safety of health care workers and patients are paramount not only for the sustainability of the EU healthcare systems but also for the competitiveness of all the European countries and their economies.

Tjitte Alkema, Secretary General of HOSPEEM, highlighted the benefits of working in partnership which lead to negotiate on a very complex subject in a short period, in spite of strong oppositions. This was only possible because of the understanding between the two Social Partners HOSPEEM and EPSU. Mr Alkema stressed that even though the deadline for transposition of the Directive into national legislation has passed, the actual work of social partners for the implementation at the workplace has just begun. A strong commitment from both sides will be essential to achieve the objectives set out in the Directive. In times when the Social Dialogue is challenged both at European and national level, HOSPEEM and EPSU need to show that social partners together can deliver in a time and cost efficient way.

The European Commission represented by François Ziegler and Francisco Jesús Alvarez Hidalgo highlighted that due to the different strains facing the EU Social Dialogue, social partners cannot afford to fail and need to show that they can deliver and implement viable solutions in an effective way. The ownership of the Directive is shared between the sectoral social partners and the European Commission and the EC will do everything possible to support their work and to monitor the effective implementation of the provisions of the directive.

The findings gathered during the conference, together with the results on the implementation progress in the EU Members states, will feed into the final report from the project that will be presented to the European Commission and disseminated soon.

 

Press release

 

Events, News, Social Dialogue Hospeem

Healthcare employers & employees share their experience on implementation of the Sharps directive

The European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association (HOSPEEM) and the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) organised the first regional seminar to promote and support the implementation of Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention of sharps injuries in the hospital and health care sector. This project is funded by the European Commission.

The seminar took place on 31 January in Dublin and was hosted by the Health Service Executive (HSE) representing the Irish health employers and IMPACT, the Irish Trade Union. The seminar was attended by 90 representatives of employers, employees, national authorities and other stakeholders from 10 countries.

During the seminar a presentation by ICF GHK was made to outline the first result of the survey on the progress so far in the implementation of the directive.

There were also presentations about the transposition of the directive in Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom from practitioners and academia representatives. The speakers underlined the importance of continued work on the issue, investment in protective safety equipment, better training and reporting, and the role social partners should play at local, national and European level to prevent sharps injuries.

The presentations were followed by working groups who discussed how best to implement the directive. The groups comprised of employers and employees’ representatives from Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom.

The findings gathered at the seminar will be published in the event report in mid-February on the webpage devoted to the project.

Further seminars in the framework of the project will take place on 7 March in Rome and on 16 April in Vienna. The final conference will be held on 20 June in Barcelona.
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For further information, please contact:

HOSPEEM:
Elisa Benedetti +32 2 229 21 58
Ewelina Pysklo +32 2 229 21 57
E-mail: hospeem@hospeem.eu

EPSU:
Mathias Maucher +32 2 250 10 93
E-mail: mmaucher@epsu.org

HOSPEEM is the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers Association. It regroups at European level national , regional and local employers’ associations operating in the hospital and health care sector and delivering services of general interest, in order to co-ordinate their views and actions with regard to a sector and a market in constant evolution. HOSPEEM is an individual member of CEEP.

EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions and the second largest federation of the ETUC, with 8 million public service workers from over 200 trade unions in 45 countries. They organise workers in the energy, water and waste sectors, health and social services and local and national administration. In health and social services EPSU members affiliate about 3.5 million workers.

This project is supported with funds from the European Commission

Social Dialogue Hospeem

Negotiation, consultation and autonomy of EU Social Partners – 20 years of the Social Partners' Agreement

The European Commission held a major conference on Social Dialogue in Warsaw on 24-25 November 2011 to commemorate 20 years of the social partners’ agreement.

The aim of this conference was to recall the process from the adoption of the European Social Partners’ Agreement of 1991 to the integration of the Maastricht Social Protocol into the Amsterdam Treaty (currently Arts 154 and 155) and to place it into the current context, assessing what changes it brought about both in EU primary and secondary law, how the consultation and negotiation process between EU social partners evolved, what concrete results it has led to, and an evaluation of the current state of social dialogue.

HOSPEEM and EPSU as representatives of the sectoral social dialogue committee participated in the session on “Implementation of agreements by Directive – Social Partners’ experience,” to speak about sharps. The session was then followed by a DVD on Sharps injuries produced by the European Commission.

European Commission video on Sharps injuries

  • To download the video click here

HOSPEEM Presentation – Agreement on Sharp Injuries – Godfrey PERERA

EPSU Presentation – EC 20 years ESD Directive – Mathias MAUCHER

Conference Programme

 

For more information contact

HOSPEEM: Elisa Benedetti hospeem@hospeem.eu
EPSU: Mathias Maucher mmaucher@epsu.org

 


Activities, Projects, Social Dialogue Hospeem

Implementation of multi-sectoral guidance on third party violence in the workplace

Introduction

This document provides a summary report of the discussions at the three regional workshops held as part of the project on the Implementation of the multi-sectoral guidance on third party violence in the workplace, in London on 9th May, in Rome on 14th June and in and in in Prague on 6 September 2011.

Background of the project

On 16 July 2010, EPSU, UNIEuropa, ETUCE, HOSPEEM, CEMR, EFEE, EUROCOMMERCE, COESS, representing the social partners of the commerce, private security, local governments, education and hospital sectors have reached an agreement on multi-sectoral guidelines aimed to tackle third-party violence and harassment at work.

These Guidelines have been developed following two major conferences organised with the support of the Commission in March 2008 and October 2009 at which the outcomes of a research on third-party violence were presented along with case studies and joint conclusions . Therefore, these Guidelines build on these initiatives and complement the cross-sectoral Framework Agreement on Harassment and Violence at Work of 26 April 2007.

The organisation which were party to the multi-sectoral guidelines subsequently decided to disseminate the guidelines and obtained funding from the European Commission for a project to assist with the translation of the guidance into all EU languages, for three regional seminars and a final conference to be held with the goal making the guidelines more widely known, sharing good practices in tackling third party violence in the workplace and encouraging national member organisations to think about how the guidelines will be implemented in each Member State. GHK Consulting was commissioned to assist in the moderation of these events and in the preparation of reports.

The social partners from Central Government Administration (Trade Union’s National and European Delegation and European Public Administration Employers) added their signatures to the Multisectoral Guidelines on 17 December 2018, at the Liaison Forum in Brussels. Find the press release here

FULL TEXT: Summary report regional workshops | Multisectoral Guidelines Signed (guidelines also available in FR/DE/BG/CZ/DK/EE/EL/ES/FI/HU/IT/LT/NL/PL/PT/RO/RU/SK/SL)

Consultations Hospeem

EPSU-HOSPEEM Response to the European Commission’s Green Paper on Reviewing the Directive on the Recognition of Professional Qualifications 2005/36/EC

HOSPEEM, the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers’ Association, and EPSU, the European Public Service Union, have decided to submit a joint response to the Green Paper.
It has to be read as complementary to the response sent by EPSU on 20 September and to replies of individual EPSU or HOSPEEM members.
This joint reply reflects the issues, concerns and proposals on which full or broad consensus between the European social partners for the hospital and health care sector could be reached.

FULL TEXT: Professional Qualification Directive joint EPSU HOSPEEM response to the green paper

Social Dialogue Hospeem

European Social Partners in the Hospital Sector met Health Commissioner John Dalli

Godfrey Perera, Secretary General of HOSPEEM and Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of EPSU met yesterday Commissioner John Dalli to discuss cooperation between DG SANCO and the recognised European Social Partners in the hospital and healthcare sector.

The meeting built the foundation for co-operation with the social partners in the hospital and health care sector. Commissioner Dalli stressed the importance of involving the social partners in the European health policy debate, underlining that the social partners can make a crucial contribution to discussions based on their practical expertise.

Both HOSPEEM and EPSU underlined their keen interest of becoming involved in planning, implementation and follow-up to the Joint Action on EU Health Workforce Planning, as a first common priority. In this context, the social partner representatives referred to the Framework of Action “Recruitment and Retention”, signed on 17 December 2010, constituting the key reference document to develop concrete action to tackle staff shortages and qualification needs now and in the future. In the meeting with Commissioner Dalli, EPSU and HOSPEEM also presented the Code of Conduct on Ethical Cross-Border Recruitment and Retention in the Hospital Sector, adopted on 7 April 2008, and explored how this social-partner-based document could be better promoted at European level, in parallel to the complementary WHO Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel, adopted in May 2010.

“We need a balanced approach to mobility of health care staff” said Godfrey Perera, HOSPEEM Secretary General. “We cannot sustain a situation where the more affluent countries in the EU benefit to the detriment of the exporting countries, such as Latvia or Romania.” Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, General Secretary of EPSU, concurred in saying: ”Investing in health care is investing in the future of a country. The health status of a nation determines its economic performance. Health care staff are extremely motivated to do a good job. This motivation should be built upon to enhance the employment of both younger and older staff now and in the future.“

Commissioner Dalli concluded the meeting by stating that he looked forward to working closely with the Social Partners in the future.

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The Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital Sector was set up in 2006. EPSU and HOSPEEM have agreed on a number of joint texts and are involved in projects to promote a properly functioning social dialogue across Europe. The most prominent example of successful negotiations is the Framework Agreement on the prevention of sharps’ injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector concluded by HOSPEEM and EPSU on 17 July 2009, later incorporated in Directive 2010/32/EU of 11 May 2010, currently transposed into national legislation. For EPSU and HOSPEEM European integration is very much linked to universal access to health care for all, based on solidarity and equity.

HOSPEEM is the European Hospital and Healthcare Employers Association. It regroups at European level national , regional and local employers’ associations operating in the hospital and health care sector and delivering services of general interest, in order to co-ordinate their views and actions with regard to a sector and a market in constant evolution. HOSPEEM is an individual member of CEEP.

EPSU is the European Federation of Public Service Unions. It is the largest federation of the ETUC with 8 million public service workers from over 200 trade unions are members. They organise workers in the energy, water and waste sectors, health and social services and local and national administration

Activities, Social Dialogue Hospeem

Social Partners' Joint Work Programme 2011-2013

European Sectoral Social Dialogue in the Hospital Sector

EPSU-HOSPEEM Joint Work Programme 2011-2013

In the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital Sector on both 18 December 2010 (Plenary Meeting) and 31 January 2011 (Working Group) EPSU and HOSPEEM reaffirmed their commitment to continue their work and partnership approach as developed in the context of their first two joint work programmes 2006-2007 and 2008-2010.

The main general tasks for HOSPEEM and EPSU will remain in the coming three years to strengthen the social dialogue in the hospital sector at European, national, regional and local level and to take up our responsibilities as the recognised social partner European organisations for employers and workers in the hospital sector.

The third joint work programme covers the period from 2011 to 2013. There is ample evidence from the second period 2008-2010 that a three years work programme is instrumental for the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee to discuss, plan, implement, complete and follow up on agreed priorities. Halfway through this period, in autumn 2012, the Committee will take stock of the work accomplished by then and assess its outcomes in order to – where appropriate – adapt planned activities and/or update priorities. The EPSU-HOSPEEM Work Programme 2011-2013 sketches out planned activities and projects under the European Sectoral Social Dialogue in the Hospital Sector.

HOSPEEM-EPSU-Work-Prog-2011-2013-Overview | HOSPEEM-EPSU-Work-Prog 2011-2013-Annex-1 | HOSPEEM-EPSU-Work-Prog 2011-2013-Annex-1

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