On Friday, January 3, CESI’s Programme Commission met to discuss CESI’s work priorities and main activities for the year 2017.

In line with the motions adopted by the last CESI Congress in December 2016, the overarching topics to guide the work of the General Secretariat will be:

• The future of Europe – Investing in people;
• Public services – Delivering results; and
• Digitalisation – Finding the balance.

Action points of the individual Trade Councils and Commissions, CESI’s specialised internal forums of debate for member organisations, include:

• Employment and Social Affairs (SOC) Commission
  Implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights (esp. regarding access to social protection, the implementation and application of the EU working time directive, and the role of public social investment for economic growth nd social cohesion)
  Working for higher youth employment rates (esp. in the context of necessary skills and a facilitated voluntary mobility of apprentices) – jointly with the Education Trade Council
• Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) Commission
  Reducing gender pay and pensions gaps
  Combating violence against women, including moral abuse (esp. at work)
  Working towards better work-life balance for employees, especially in the field of caring responsibilities
• Central Administration and Finances (ACF) Trade Council
  Highlighting the dangers of austerity politics for the functioning of public services
  Reducing in-work poverty
  Digitalisation (esp. its contribution to quality public services)
  Progressing on social dialogue (esp. concerning a follow-up to the agreement on the rights to information and consultation of workers of central administrations signed on 21 December 2015)
  Raising awareness about the role of tax administrations in fighting tax fraud and tax evasion
  Implementing worker-friendly telework schemes
  Working towards fair advancement and promotion schemes in the civil service
  Achieving an effective protection of public services in free trade and investment agreements
  Highlighting the role of public services in the intetration of migrants of refugees
  Combating violence against public service employees
• Local and Regional Administration (LRA) Trade Council
  Integrating migrants (esp. with regards costs and consequences for administrations and challenges faced by employees)
  Impacts of digitalisation on local and regional administrations
  Equipping local and regional administration workers in terms of impacts of digitalisation on working conditions and employment relationships
  Implementing the European Pillar of Social Rights for staff in local and regional administrations
  Addressing the phenomenon of freeman (i.e. criminal law responses to people refusing to recognise the state monopoly and structure while benefitting from it)
• Health (SAN) Trade Council
  Following-up on the EU Green Paper on Health
  Dealing with shortages of human resources in the health sector
  Implications of Brexit on health personnel
  Collaborating for the benefit of mobile workers in the health care sector
  Achieving a sustainable recruitment of carers
•  Education, Training, Research (EDUC) Trade Council
  Addressing migration-related challenges for public schools
  Achieving better professional training and dual education systems
  Improving the image of teachers
  Achieving more moral and material support for the education system and education staff
  Working for higher youth employment rates (esp. in the context of necessary skills and a facilitated voluntary mobility of apprentices) – jointly with the Employment and Social Affairs (SOC) Commission
• Post and Telecoms (P&T) Trade Council
  Working towards an operational ‘Committee to assess economic regulation in the telecommunications sector’ (CEREST)
  Addressing impacts of digitalisation in the post and telecom sectors
  Achieving better flexible working time organisation schemes for workers in the post and telecoms sectors
  Creating more age-appropriate working places
  Fighting social dumping in the post and telecoms sectors
  Raising awareness about problems related to liberalisations in the post and telecoms sectors
• Security (SEC) Trade Council
  Improving counter-terrorism systems and external border controls/related data exchanges
  Raising awareness about the role and work of employees in the security sector
  Coming forward with a proposal on a fund to security sector employees going through a trauma
•  Justice Trade Council
  Addressing challenges linked to privatisations in the justice sector and especially of prisons
  Highlighting the right of association and industrial action for justice sector employees
  Working towards a better training and equipment and a better prevention of violence against employees in the justice sector
  Assessing the impacts of the migration on the penitentiary system
  Preventing violence against justice employees and achieving better work-life balance for them
  Addressing challenges linked to data exchange and data surveillance
•  Defence (DEF) Trade Council
  Pooling and legitimising security measures in Europe (esp. in the context of the European defence union and the EU Defence action plan)
  Raising awareness about implications of cuts in the defence budgets
  Improving working conditions and rights of civil and military employees of the defence sector
  More information about the individual Trade Councils and Commissions can be accessed here. The meeting dates of the individual trade councils and commissions for the year 2017 will be set shortly.