On 18 April, PSI Deputy General Secretary David Boys took part in the Forum on Financing for Development at the United Nations in New York, where he spoke on behalf of the CSO FFD group. Watch his intervention here.
Health is a human right. The 2019 World Health Day (WHD) is an opportunity to advocate for every woman, man and child to have access to quality public health.
The Korean Health and Medical Union (KHMU) will organise a series of campaigns this year to defend the right to quality public healthcare and for workers’ rights in the sector. At its 21st anniversary ceremony and regular congress which took place on 27-28 February, the union decided to include all-out mobilisation against the expansion of for-profit hospitals and against precarious work.
The Community Health Workers programme in Pakistan, commonly known as Lady Health Workers, LHWs programme was started in 1994 with a staff of nearly 30,000 women. Over the years, the programme has expanded to more than 125,000 employees deployed in all districts of the country. They serve as the cadre that links first-level care facilities to communities.
Every year, around 55 million Indians are pushed into poverty due to catastrophic healthcare expenditures. And this is only one of the symptoms of a broken system that is also entrenched in ethical issues over inappropriate treatment in private facilities, overcrowded and underfunded public facilities and deteriorating work conditions.
As we celebrate World Water Day one week after the successful global students strike for climate, similarities between the two events find an echo in the frustration with political systems which refuse to address obvious and urgent needs of the people.
The South Korean government has announced today a series of measures in response to the tragic death of 24-year-old power plant worker, killed in an industrial accident resulting from the “outsourcing of danger” and lack of safety measures at Taean Power Plant.
Join the campaign to convince governments to support an ILO Convention and Recommendation on “Ending violence and harassment in the world of work”. An ILO Convention and Recommendation will send a strong message that violence is NOT part of the job. The standard and guidelines will also strengthen workers’ voices as they stand up against gender-based violence, and negotiate collective agreements that address GBV. #StopGBVatWork
On UN World Cities Day 2018, PSI calls the United Nations, governments and mayors to halt the widespread use of precarious work in local and regional government services that hurts local communities, undermines the quality and accessibility of local public services, and stands in the way of achieving sustainable, inclusive and resilient cities (SDG11).
For International Youth Day 2018 on 12 August, Public Services International (PSI) is calling on all affiliates and young workers to send a strong message that “Violence is NOT part of the job”.
Saturday 7 April is the 2018 World Health Day (WHD). This date was chosen to draw global attention to international health every year with a dedicated theme, when the World Health Organization was formed seventy years ago.
On March 8, PSI stands with women around the world demanding an end to gender-based discrimination at work and calling for the transformation of the division of labour.
PSI is calling on all affiliates to join the renewed joint ITUC and GUF international campaign calling for the release of Han Sang-gyun and the withdrawal of the charges against Lee Young-joo, respectively former President and General Secretary of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU).
Send a letter of protest to President Moon and join the Day of Action on 9 February 2018.
PSI has chosen 31 October – UN “World Cities Day” - to launch a global visual campaign aimed at raising awareness about the work of municipal public service professionals with a view to increasing their visibility and presenting a positive perception of the many essential public services they deliver every day to cities and metropolitan areas.
A new campaign aimed at reversing the dangerous rush to promote expensive and high-risk public-private partnerships (PPPs) was launched yesterday by Public Services International and by 151 civil society organisations from all over the globe.
For the last nine years, public administration employees working abroad for the Spanish state have suffered an unjust and arbitrary wage freeze. Precarious working conditions and, in many countries, rampant inflation and strong fluctuations of local currencies have further compounded the issue.
Civil society call on investors to cease support to Bridge International Academies - Growing evidence and analysis published in the last two years that raise grave concerns regarding Bridge’s transparency, relationship with governments, labour conditions, and breach of educational standards.
The final week of the #TaxJustice for Women's Rights Global Days of Action has been extremely busy. These have been truly global days of action, as you will see from the photos, events and actions from around the world.
Join the PSI campaign to abolish the practice of charging recruitment fees on migrant workers. Sign on to the Manifesto and use it to shift policy and practice towards fair and ethical recruitment. #NoRecruitmentFees
Trade unions in Korea are campaigning for the Park Geun-hye government’s proposed legislation for a discriminatory performance-related pay and termination system for public sector workers to be cancelled. They held a huge general strike and rally on 27 September and are now asking for international solidarity support.
Health is a human right. The 2019 World Health Day (WHD) is an opportunity to advocate for every woman, man and child to have access to quality public health.
As we celebrate World Water Day one week after the successful global students strike for climate, similarities between the two events find an echo in the frustration with political systems which refuse to address obvious and urgent needs of the people.
Women’s Day is not a moment to celebrate the feminine. It is a day for political upheaval. Only by placing women’s struggles at the heart of labour action can we achieve the meaningful progress which generations of women have fought for. Read the PSI statement here.
This Expert paper by PSI proposes that the UNCSW adopt the framework of Gender Responsive Quality Public Services (GRQPS) and in doing so address the primary barriers to the delivery of GRQPS and the enablers of GRQPS and women’s human rights, including labour rights of those workers who are strategic in front line-public services.
PSI developed this toolkit to support affiliates and allies in campaigning for a broad and ambitious ILO Convention and Recommendation on “Ending violence and harassment in the world of work” and paid domestic violence leave for all workers.
Together with a wide range of organisations under the umbrella of the Feminists for a Binding Treaty coalition, PSI has participated in the production of this briefing that highlights the importance of a binding gender-just international accountability framework for Transnational Corporations (TNCs).
With “trade unions in transformation«, the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) contributes to shifting the narrative about trade unions. Moving away from the standard depiction of unions as victims of globalization, this project highlights that unions do have agency and power. The stories of successful trade union action told in this brochure demonstrate how labour can and already does shape globalization.
The ambition and breadth of the UN's Sustainable Development Agenda has been the object of both praise and ridicule. This report examines the challenges facing the implementation of SDG6, water and sanitation, and the bold strategies required to overcome them.
PSI is a partner of the Reflection Group on the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and together with other civil society organizations and networks has produced the annual Spotlight Report assessing the implementation of the 2030 Agenda and the structural obstacles in its realization.
Extract from the Civil Society Report "Spotlight on Sustainable Development 2018" - the new global report assesses obstacles and contradictions in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda.
PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, gave a speech at PSI Japan Council's (PSI-JC) 30th anniversary which took place in Tokyo on 22 June 2018. This was part of a three-day visit, invited by PSI-JC, the National Coordinating Committee of PSI affiliates in Japan.
On 29 May 2018 PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli, IndustriAll General Secretary Valter Sanchez and EDF Group CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy signed a renewed Global Framework Agreement on Corporate Social Responsibility covering human and labour rights in the presence of the International Labour Organization Director General Guy Ryder, during the 107th session of the International Labour Conference with the participation of French trade unions .
FOCUS on tax justice is Volume 25 Issue 1 2018 of the journal of International Union Rights. The journal is published four times a year in English and has earned a reputation as the leading independent forum for global trade union debate, winning a readership in more than 100 countries worldwide. The editorial "Corporate tax dodging is stealing from workers and must be stopped" in this issue was written by PSI.
On 17 March, previous to the five-day ILGA world conference, a meeting titled "World of Work" will be held on the role of trade unions defending LGBTI rights. Both events will take place in Te Whanganui-a-Tara Wellington, Aotearoa New Zealand.
This workshop on “Building union strategies to bring public services back in-house” is open to PSI trade union representatives with a direct experience of remunicipalising public services and/or with an interest in peer learning about these processes with a view to engage and drive remunicipalisation processes in the future.
PSI is participating in an Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) Pledging Event. The main objective of the event is to build a consortium of committed partners to accelerate the pace in closing the gender pay gap and achieving equal pay, in line with target 8.5 of the SDGs.
The Forum will examine employment terms and conditions, professional rights and social dialogue mechanisms, including collective bargaining and collegial governance in tertiary education, with the aim of adopting points of consensus, including recommendations for future action by the International Labour Organization and its Members.
On 20-24 July in Bangkok, on the sidelines of the 23rd round of negotiation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), social movements, trade unions and civil society organisations will come together to organise a series of meetings on free trade and RCEP and its implications on employment, environment, access to essential services and medicines, and policy space.
PSI is participating for the first time in the Conference of State Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) held in New York from 12-14 June. PSI is also jointly organising a side event on 13 June, to identify how Social Dialogue is, or could be, used to ensure the implementation of the CRPD.
This workshop, held in Bengaluru (India) from 17-18 April, aims at discussing the impact of trade policy as well as specific agreements on key sectors in manufacturing and services from the perspective of the workers engaged in these sectors. Through sharing of experience and knowledge we aim to understand the full impacts of trade and investment policies and identify strategies to tackle the challenges they pose. The workshop is organised by PSI, the Forum against Free Trade Agreements, Third World Network and the Transnational Institute.
PSI and Building and Woodworkers International (BWI) will be holding an Asia Pacific Regional Strategy Meeting on Trade Justice, from 3-4 May 2018 in Singapore that will bring together key trade unions in the region with an interest in trade, Global Union Federations (GUFs), experts and civil society representatives. The meeting, supported by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation (FES), will explore the option of creating a regional union network on trade and use participatory methods to create a shared regional strategy.
During the 9th session of the World Urban Forum, PSI together with UCLG, ILO, BWI, Action Aid and WIEGO will be holding a stakeholders’ roundtable on Trade unions and workers. This UNHabitat event will take place on 11 February from 14h30 to 16h30.
Public Services International, Focus on the Global South, Indonesia for Global Justice (IGJ), NAGKAISA Labor Coalition and Transnational Institute (TNI) organised a two-day regional workshop “RCEP, LABOUR & PUBLIC SERVICES” that aimed to demystify the RCEP and trade agreements from the viewpoint of public services and implications for workers. The workshop took place on 6-7 September in Manila, Philippines.
Authors of the recently launched Spotlight Report will present key findings and recommendations to participants for discussion. The 2017 edition focuses on privatization, partnerships, corporate capture and the impact they have on sustainability and inequality.
PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, will be speaking on 17 July at the UNSG’s High-Level Panel (HLP) on Women’s Economic Empowerment. The HLP is a side event at the High Level Political Forum (HLPF), currently taking place in New York.
Join PSI and global trade union leaders on 9 June for the “Route of Shame” bicycle ride, calling for social justice at target embassies and missions in Geneva.
Ending violence against women is a top-priority for PSI. PSI fully supports the ITUC campaignfor this new international labour standard and invites all affiliated unions to join the campaign. Your mobilising, organising and lobbying is critical to build and ensure governments’ support for an ILO Convention and a Recommendation at the ILO Conference in June 2018.
RadioLabour interviews PSI General-Secretary Rosa Pavanelli on PSI's recently launched campaign for the Human Right to Health aimed at promoting universal public health coverage for all.
Over 60 Municipal trade unionists from all over the world gathered in Brussels on 19 September 2016 for the PSI Global Local and Regional Government (Municipal) Workers Union Network gathered to identify joint priorities and develop global strategies for the municipal work ahead of the PSI Congress next year. An exciting, promising start for a strong global PSI Municipal sector.
Statement of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants, addressing the PSI - EPSU - ETUI seminar “Public Services Welcoming Migrants: Strengthening the role of public service trade unions in the protection of human rights and delivery of public services to migrants, asylum seekers and refugees” in Brussels, Belgium on 15 March.
Geneviève Gencianos, Public Services International (PSI) Migration Programme Coordinator, participating in the 4th meeting of the 14th Coordination Meeting on International Migration, organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) at the United Nations in New York, 25-26 February 2016.
Geneviève Gencianos, Public Services International (PSI) Migration Programme Coordinator, participating in the 2nd meeting of the 14th Coordination Meeting on International Migration, organized by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) at the United Nations in New York, 25-26 February 2016.
Anabella Rosemberg, ITUC, giving an update from the Paris climate summit on 5 December on the negotiations that risk removing a commitment to human rights and “Just Transition” to a low carbon future.
José Antonio Ocampo, Former UN Undersecretary-General, Former Minister of Finance of Colombia and currently Professor, Colombia University, at the ICRICT panel in Trento on 2 June, explains to us the main points of the ICRICT report.
Representatives of PSI affiliates met in Geneva on 25-26 May 2015 for the PSI World Women’s Committee. In this interview, Bohee Choi, Vice President of the KCTU Korean Public Service and Transport Workers’ Union (KPTU), talks about the precarious work situation of education support workers in Korea.
Radio Labour reports from the Interntional Labour Conference 2015 with the speeches by trade union leaders Rosa Pavanelli, PSI General Secretary and Sharan Burrow, ITUC General Secretary.
