PESSIS | socialserviceseurope

PESSIS - Promoting employers' social services in social dialogue

Description of the project

PESSIS is an European project funded by the European Commission Programme Industrial relations and Social dialogue.The project, running from January to September 2012, is supported by a broad partnership of European and national organisations (see section Project partners) representing social and health services providers in close cooperation with the European Trade Union Conferederation (ETUC).

The aim is to remedy the lack of qualitative and quantitative data on labour issues in the non profit social services sector from the perspective of employers. This marks the first step in a long term process to establish a representative platform at European level for employers in the social services sector and to create a sectoral social dialogue committee at European level.

The starting point of the project is an in-depth mapping of the situation in 11 countries. The national partners, supported by a team of researchers, have collected information on the existence, the functioning and organisation of social dialogue and the involvement of the social services sector in 11 countries (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Finland, France, Ireland,the Netherlands, Slovenia, Spain, UK).

National stakeholders meetings, organised in March - April 2012, have been a fruitful moment to meet with all key players in the country. Starting from the subsectors well covered by the PESSIS partnership, including elderly care, long-term care, services for people with disabilities and rehabilitation, this mapping exercise is meant to cover the bulk of all personal social services, including, e.g., the child care sector.

Information gathered during the project through the national reports will be then compiled and validated by specialist in the field, resulting in a short European summary report presenting the main findings and recommendations for action. The final conference on 21 June in Brussels will be the forum to present and discuss the findings of this major research effort. The conclusions and the recommendations of the project and all relevant additional information received during the final conference will feed into the Final European Report.

Project Partners

Coordinator European partners National partners

Observers

Centre de la Gabrielle-France