Category: Activities

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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

Projects Hospeem

Strengthening social dialogue in the hospital sector in the Baltic countries

A project proposal under budget line 04.03.03.01

FULL TEXT: Project report |Riga Declaration

The project “Strengthening social dialogue in the hospital sector in the Baltic countries” has the following main objectives:

The goal of this project is to improve the dissemination of the priorities and outcomes of the European sectoral social dialogue in the hospital sector in the Baltic countries, to help share good practice on some of the core priority actions of the sectoral dialogue between EPSU and HOSPEEM, to help build the capacity of the hospital sector social partners in the Baltic countries and to assist in feeding national social dialogue interests from the “bottom up”.

Dissemination will specifically focus on the framework agreement reached at sectoral level in 2009 on needlestick injuries. Good practice sharing will relate to a priority of the work programme agreed by EPSU and HOSPEEM for 2010 and the activities of one of its working groups on skills development in the sector. Finally, the project will focus on involving employer and trade union organisations in the sector in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to help them develop their national sectoral dialogue in order to allow them to feed their own priorities, concerns and good practices to the European level.

Specific objectives

  1. To build on the activities and findings of a previous project completed in 2008 which focussed on strengthening social dialogue in the hospital sector in all new Member States. This project involved the identification of relevant social partner organisations and social dialogue processes in all EU countries, as well as providing capacity building to social partner organisations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. This new projects hopes to draw on the organisations and priorities identified in this report for the Baltic countries and provide similar capacity building measures in Latvia and Lithuania (where HOSPEEM currently has members) and to follow up contacts with relevant employers organisations in Estonia to establish if similar activities can be envisaged between the social partners in this country, which could ultimately boost the representativity of HOSPEEM in this country and to add value to the European social dialogue process.
  2. To contribute to the dissemination of the framework agreement on needlesticks by assessing its potential impact and implementation and organising a dissemination event in Latvia.
  3. To contribute to the proceedings of the working group on retention and skills development by gathering good practice examples to be discussed at a seminar in Latvia and shared at the final dissemination event.

Project context

General

A sectoral social dialogue Committee for the hospital sector involving EPSU and HOSPEEM was set up in 2006. Since then, this sectoral social dialogue has matured significantly and has already led to the agreement of a Code of Conduct on Ethical Recruitment, as well as, in 2009, to the negotiation of a framework agreement on needlestick injuries, which has now been transformed into an EU Directive for implementation at Member State level. In addition a number of joint text have been adopted, for example on the proposals for a Directive on Patient’s Rights in the EU. A number of working groups have also been active in recent years, which have exchanged information on mobility, retention, ageing and skills issues affecting the sector. EPSU and HOSPEEM are also part of a multi-sectoral initiative exploring the possibility of the development of a joint tool on tackling third party violence in a number of sectors.

The dissemination of social dialogue results such as the needlesticks agreement and the continuation of the exchange of information in the working group on retention and skills development are a priority of the sectoral social partners’ work programme for 2010.

In 2008, HOSPEEM and EPSU implemented a project on strengthening social dialogue in the new Member States. The goal of this project was twofold: to identify and chart social dialogue processes in the hospital sector in all Member States and to offer assistance with capacity building to trade union and employer organisations in the sector in the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

EPSU and HOSPEEM are now keen to build on this experience and to run a similar project aimed at further engaging social partner organisations in the Baltic countries. HOSPEEM currently has members in Latvia and Lithuania, with EPSU represented in all Baltic countries.

Consultations Hospeem

HOSPEEM – EPSU contribution to public consultation on 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 this consultation. It has to be read as complementary to the response sent by EPSU on the 15th of March 2011 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: EPSU-HOSPEEM joint reply to consultation on DRPQ

Consultations Hospeem

HOSPEEM response to the second-phase consultation “Reviewing the Working Time Directive” under Article 154 of the TFUE

FULL TEXT: HOSPEEM response 2nd phase consultation working time directive

HOSPEEM welcomes the second stage consultation[1] published by the European Commission and the report on the implementation by Member States of Directive 2003/88/EC[2]. The two documents provide a deep and interesting analysis on the implementation of the Directive and on the response of each Member State in complying with the Directive. The Consultation paper has pointed out the main issues of relevance and HOSPEEM is pleased to read from the consultation that the concerns raised with the response to the first consultation in May 2010 have been addressed by the European Commission.

As highlighted in HOSPEEM’s response to the first phase consultation, the interpretation given by the European Court of Justice to cases SIMAP (C-303/98), Jaeger (C-151/02) and Dellas (C-14/04) has challenged the ability of health service employers to properly organise healthcare services in the EU 27, especially hospital services delivering 24/7 patient care, some highly specialised services and small and remote units.

HOSPEEM made clear in the previous response that more flexibility is needed in order to provide hospital managers with the necessary resources, in terms of staff, to organise health services efficiently. As underlined on several occasions[3], the current and the future shortages of health professionals is one of the main issues of concern for our sector and it needs to be addressed in order to ensure that European healthcare services will be able to deliver high quality healthcare to an increasingly ageing European population.

HOSPEEM as a European Social partner is committed to develop strategies to encourage young people to undertake jobs in the health sector, in particular by enhancing the attractiveness of the health care sector as a place to work. This work needs to be supported by a European legislation that allows flexible and modern working patterns.


[1] COM (2010) 801 final Communication from the Commission to the Parliament, the Council and the Committee of the Regions Reviewing the Working Time Directive (Second-phase consultation of the social partners at European level under Article 154 TFEU)

[2] COM (2010) 802 final Report from the Commission to the Parliament, the Council and the Committee of the Regions on implementation by Member States of Directive 2003/88/EC (‘The Working Time Directive’).

[3] “Report on the open consultation on the Green Paper on the European Workforce for Health”, December 2009; “Council conclusions on investing in Europe’s health workforce of tomorrow: Scope for innovation and collaboration”, December 2010; “HOSPEEM and EPSU Framework of Action on Recruitment and Retention”, December 2010.

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