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European Dialogue for the Social Services Sector – PESSIS+ Final Conference

PESSIS+ Final Conference at the European Social and Economic Committee

On 27th June 2019, the Social Employers and EPSU (the European Federation of Public Service Unions) hosted PESSIS+ Thematic Seminar and Final Conference European Social Dialogue for the Social Services Sector – state of play and ways forward in Brussels. The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) was the venue to mark the end of this 18 month’s long project that has brought together a wide range of shareholders, including representatives of employers and trade unions, European institutions and civil society organisations. PESSIS+ Final Conference was marked by the signing of a joint letter by both, Gregor Tomschizech, President of Social Employers and Jan Willem Goudriaan, EPSU General Secretary. The letter addressed to Marianne Thyssen, European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility reaffirms their commitment to further engage and promote and effective EU-level social dialogue for the social service sector and asks the European Commission to support a move in the next months into a test phase for such a dialogue.

>> PESSIS+ recommendations for the future:

  • Develop social dialogue at European level as a way to address social services issues.
  • More research is needed to understand how to better support development of social dialogue
  • Continue to support the creation of social dialogue pilots at national level to create effective dialogue between employers and employees.
  • National governments and other stakeholders should commission research to explore how social services delivery could be restructured using new technology and new forms of organization.

>> Read the report of the PESSIS+ Final Conference here.