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EDITORIAL
It is a pleasure and honour for me to have been elected as Vice-Secretary General by the HOSPEEM members for a three-year mandate period. Together with our membership, I look forward to continuing our joint efforts as a strong European employers’ organisation. In this edition of the newsletter, you will find more information about the recent HOSPEEM General Assembly and Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee meeting in May as well as news from Members, EU News, events and publications for hospital employers.
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This newsletter and the HOSPEEM website have been conceived as interactive tools to facilitate the flow of communication from the EU level, to support the exchange of information between our members and to give your organisation’s voice a broader diffusion across Europe. Therefore, you are invited to send us your contributions for future issues.
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Vice-Secretary General of HOSPEEM
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HOSPEEM NEWS
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At the General Assembly in Brussels on 16 May, the HOSPEEM Steering Committee and the Financial Advisory Committee were renewed, and two Vice-Secretary Generals were elected.
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The newly elected Steering Committee, with a 3-year mandate, is composed of Evelyn Kozak (VKA), Tjitte Alkema (NVZ), Marta Branca (ARAN), John Delamere (HSE) and Jevgenijs Kalejs (Latvian Hospital Association). Tjitte Alkema (NVZ) and Marta Branca (ARAN) were elected as Vice-Secretary Generals.
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The newly elected Financial Advisory Committee, with a 3-year mandate, is composed by Sigitas Griskonis (Lithuanian National Association of Healthcare Organizations), Laetitia Tibourtine (FEHAP) and Malene Vestergaard Sørensen (Danish Regions).
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HOSPEEM members participated in the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital Sector on 17 May in Brussels. The meeting was dedicated primarily to discussing the themes and sub-themes of the Work Programme for 2020-2022
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On 13 February 2019, during the first meeting of the Sectoral Social Dialogue Committee for the Hospital Sector, HOSPEEM and EPSU adopted the final report on the “Follow-up on the Directive 2010/32/EU on the prevention from sharps injuries in the hospital and healthcare sector” as part of the current HOSPEEM-EPSU Work Programme 2017 – 2019. The report provides information on the role and impact of the national social partners during relevant stages of the transposition and implementation of the Directive.
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On 9 May 2019, HOSPEEM visited its French member’s organisation, the Federation of private not for profit healthcare institutions and care services – FEHAP. HOSPEEM had a meeting with Mr. François Grimonprez, FEHAP Director for Networks and Institutional Services and had the chance to visit the Institut Mutualiste Montsouris, FEHAP member.
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On 28 March 2019, HOSPEEM, EPSU and the project partners, Sanitas (EPSU affiliate, Romania), ARAN (HOSPEEM member, Italy) and HSSMS-MT (EPSU affiliate, Croatia) hosted the kick-off meeting to their new joint project in the field of sectoral social dialogue capacity building: “Strengthening social dialogue in the hospital sector in the East, South and Central Europe”. The meeting was an occasion to discuss the capacity building needs of sectoral social partners in the hospital sector in the three targeted regions as well their involvement in the European agenda, including the European Semester. The morning session of the meeting was attended by external stakeholder such as Permanent Representations to the EU and European Commission, whereby the afternoon session was reserved for the members of the Advisory Committee.#EUSocDia
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The Committee also met with representatives from the European Commission having the opportunity to discuss Denmark in the European Semester and the importance of European Social Dialogue.
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This comprehensive guide for improving staff retention is aimed at employers in the NHS. It has been updated in Spring 2019 to include the latest learning and NHS case studies. NHS Employers has engaged with a large number of NHS organisations to help understand their retention challenges and equip them with tools and resources to implement effective workforce retention plans.
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EU NEWS
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A provisional agreement has been reached on the third proposal of the CMD. The text, which is to be endorsed by the Council entails wording that invites the European Commission to assess, by mid-2020, the possibility to widen the scope of the Directive to a list of hazardous medicines, including cytotoxic ones. HOSPEEM is closely monitoring the development as this widened scope is of particular importance for the health sector.
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On 14 May, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Member States must require employers to set up an objective, reliable and accessible system enabling the duration of daily working time to be measured. Detailed specificities are up to the Member State to implement.
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On 04 April, the European Parliament has voted in favour of the provisional agreement on Work-life balance for parents and carers. According to the provisional agreed text, Member States are encouraged, in accordance with a national practice, to promote a social dialogue with the social partners with a view to fostering the reconciliation of work and private life. In regard to payment or allowance, this “shall be defined by the Member State or the social partners”. It “shall be set in such a way as to facilitate the take-up of parental leave by both parents.”
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On 23 May, EPSU brought a claim against the European Commission for breaching rules on social dialogue (TFEU article 155.2). According to EPSU’s press release, the European social partner aims to annul the decision by the European institution to refuse to make a proposal to the Council, consequently hindering the potential implementation of the central government social partner agreement on information and consultation rights. The judgement is expected to take place before the end of the year.
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The Ministry of Social Affairs and Health published a new policy for the work environment and wellbeing at work until 2030. The policy sets out a strategy for ensuring safe and healthy workplaces, regardless of the form of employment. The policy defines better integration of occupational safety and health issues into the strategic management of the organisation.
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The European Commission published a call for proposals on improving expertise in the field of industrial relations (VP/2019/004). The deadline for submitting proposals is 11/06/2019.
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ATTENDED EVENTS
15/05/2019: Lunch debate with EU level social partners - Key dimensions of Industrial relations and capacity building, organised by Eurofound, Brussels. The lunch debate was hosted by Eurofound and gave insight into their published study ‘Measuring varieties of industrial relations’. Participants exchanged views to further Eurofound’s research contributing to social dialogue and identity mutual learning between organisations. Participants ranged from national and European (cross-) sectoral social partners as well as the European Commission and the European Economic Social Committee.
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07/05/2019: Reducing the Gender Pay Gap: Role, Costs and Benefits of Pay Transparency Initiatives, organised by the European Commission, Brussels. Representatives from SALAR, the Swedish member of HOSPEEM and the Secretariat attended the event, which brought together leading European experts and social partners in the context of the European Commission’s ‘EU Action Plan 2017-2019 - Tackling the gender pay gap’. The seminar aimed at enabling dialogue between the European institutions and the social partners on the further steps that could be taken to reduce the gender pay gap and share existing good practice.
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30/04/2019: Webinar Thematic Network on Healthcare in Cross-Border Regions, organised by EUREGHA and the EU Health Coalition, Brussels. In light of the thematic network, which aims to create a joint statement on health-related developments in cross-border regions, also in the backdrop of the European Commission exercise of mapping building cross-border and regional cooperation in healthcare, stakeholders met to discuss the first steps.
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10/04/2019: Towards a value-based healthcare system: from concept to implementation, organised by EUREGHA and the EU Health Coalition, Brussels. HOSPEEM attended the event which aimed to facilitate a debate on value-based healthcare by directly engaging with an audience made of representatives of the EU institutions, international organisations, regional and local health authorities, patient organisations, industry and European associations.
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09/04/2019: European Commission high-level conference on the "Future of Work”, Brussels. HOSPEEM’s Vice-Secretary General Marta Branca attended the event that brought together around 500 participants, among them Ministers, representatives from EU institutions and agencies, national governments, social partners, civil society and academia. Participants explored how to best utilise changes in the world of work for the benefit of workers, businesses, society and the economy alike.
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FUTURE EVENTS
- 16/12/2019: HOSPEEM Steering Committee/General Assembly, Brussels
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- 17/12/2019: SSDC-HS Plenary Meeting 2019
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- 02/07/2019: Seminar on capacity building organised by Eurofound, Riga
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PUBLICATIONS
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This study was requested by the European Parliament’s Employment Committee. HOSPEEM members provided input for this study as it focused on the health sector. The aim of the study was to analyse the impact on labour mobility and employment of the 2013 revision of the Professional Qualifications Directive as well as trends in mobility and recognition and four country case studies, among them Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.
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The paper outlines the opportunities and challenges of digitalisation in the social services sector from an employer's point of view. The paper is divided into four sections, among others giving an overview on opportunities, challenges and next steps. The employers’ organisation expressed interest in working together with EPSU to develop a joint declaration on how to support the sector in addressing opportunities and challenges in relation to digitalisation and develop guidelines on how to best respond to identified challenges and opportunities.
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The report studies the progress made of the 2016 Council Recommendation on the integration of the long-term unemployed into the labour market. Accompanying the report, the European Commission also published case studies from Finland, Germany, Ireland and Italy.
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This article is based on the evidence found in the 2nd European survey of enterprises on new and emerging risks (carried out in 2014) and explores the relation between psychosocial risk management in companies and their national context, focusing on the role of national culture. Within the context of contextual factors – company size and sectors, the article highlights that the healthcare sector put a relatively large amount of effort into managing psychosocial risks.
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The report aims to synthesise a typology of industrial relations systems, enabling a cross-country analysis of trends. The report builds on dimensions of industrial relations (industrial democracy, industrial competitiveness, social justice, and quality of work and employment) to measure EU Member States’ performance. Industrial democracy has been identified as the core dimension of industrial relations and the most desirable model of work and employment governance.
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New challenges for health and safety at work have emerged in light of new working patterns. This report highlights the link between work demands and work resources. This report also analyses factors that have direct implications for the working conditions and the well-being of professionals in the health sector.
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The draft opinion by the Expert Panel highlights the contribution of task shifting to patients’ health outcomes and the sustainability of the health system. It provides insights into the questions of identifying “tasks” suitable for a “task shifting” process and measuring the impact of “task shifting” in contributing to the effectiveness of a health system. The final opinion will be published after a public hearing on 5 June 2019.
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The report by the Expert Group on Health System Performance assessment provides an overview of current approaches and opportunities for improvement. Furthermore, the report outlines a countries’ assessment methodologies can be incrementally advanced to better support health policymakers and managers in their quest to deliver better-value care.
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On 14 December 2018, the joint tender ‘Support for the Health Workforce Planning and Forecasting Expert Network’ (SEPEN) organised its third webinar for the expert network. This edition focused on ‘Ethical recruitment of health professionals – where do we stand in 2018?’. HOSPEEM and WHO-Europe presented a comprehensive overview of the policy framework for ethical recruitment and its implementation.
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The study examines issues related to access of vulnerable social groups to maternal health care services and midwifery in the EU. According to the study, access is affected by the interplay of health systems, law, policies, socio-economic factors and attitudes of health professionals and users which leads to barriers to access and consequently to worse health outcomes for those women, as the evidence demonstrates. The report makes policy recommendations, aiming at improving the situation for vulnerable women and contributing to the reduction of health inequalities.
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European Commission publishes multiple fact sheets
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This working paper summarises the international healthcare labour market and discusses policy options to respond to a growing need for health workers. Further, NHS England, Germany and Wales have been referred to as examples in the document
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Ahead of the World Day for Safety and Health at Work on 28 April 2019, the ILO has published a new report on Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) reviewing the ILO’s 100 years of achievements, revealing some of the emerging challenges and opportunities in creating better working environments.
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