In March 2023, the Global Deal is pleased to welcome the European Federation for Family Employment and Home Care (EFFE) and the European Federation for Services to Individuals (EFSI) as its latest partners.

EFFE is one of the main actors of the personal and household services (PHS) sector at the European Union (EU) level, representing members comprising national organisations of households who are employers, and of domestic workers. Their action is complemented by EFSI, which represents national trade-associations, employers’ organisations, PHS providers and companies involved in the development of the sector in the EU. 

The COVID-19 pandemic underlined the crucial role that domestic and home care workers play in supporting our economies and societies. However, the crisis has also revealed that the value of these essential workers is not reflected in their remuneration or conditions of work. Nearly 10 million PHS workers are active in Europe, but many remain invisible and vulnerable due to insufficient legal recognition, low wages, poor working conditions and undeclared work.  

EFFE and EFSI, as representative of PHS employers’ organisations at the EU level, are working to securing the recognition of domestic and home care workers through social dialogue. For example, EFFE has pledged to fight against undeclared work and improve access to training and professionalisation for PHS workers. As part of its Global Deal commitment, EFSI will strengthen the capacity of employers’ organisations in the PHS sector to effectively engage in social dialogue. 

“We are glad to have EFFE and EFSI on board to shed light on the pay and working conditions of domestic and home care workers, a topical issue in our ageing societies. They are proof that social dialogue can effectively address the paramount challenge of granting decent working conditions in households.” 
Alessandro Goglio, Acting Head of the Global Deal Support Unit

“We are very pleased to officially join the partnership. EFFE will clearly benefit from the Global deal partnership and the knowledge of its stakeholders. It will strongly contribute to the strengthening of social dialogue in the PHS sector and the creation of households employers representative organisations”.
Marie Béatrice Levaux, EFFE’s President.

“Joining the Global Deal partnership is a continuation of EFSI’s long-term commitment to pursue a structured and stronger social dialogue towards granting PHS workers and employers the support they deserve and bringing them out of the shadows. We are looking towards exchanging with the other partners as we believe that it will be of great use in our daily work, notably in the framework of the work conducted by European PHS social partners.”  
Herwig Muyldermans, EFSI’s President