On 22 May 2025, the Personal and Household Services (PHS) Social Partners – EFFAT, EFFE, EFSI, and Uni Europa – convened with their members for the second plenary meeting of the EU-funded PHSDialogue Project, held both online and in person in Brussels. The event aimed to reinforce the foundations of social dialogue in the PHS sector and to officially launch the ScaleUp Project (more information coming soon on this space). The day was structured around two main sessions: preparatory meetings for Employers and Trade Unions, followed by a joint plenary session bringing all participants together.

Preparatory Meeting Employers

The European Federation for Family Employment and Home Care (EFFE) and the European Federation for Services to Individuals (EFSI) gathered their members to discuss some key issues related to migration in the PHS sector. The first part of the meeting was dedicated to an open discussion on the current challenges of migrant and mobile workers, and the second part saw exchanges of views on strategies to tackle challenges related to migrant workers in the sector.

With 30+ participants from 15 organisations around the table, the exchanges were both insightful and highlighted some common issues. Indeed, even if the political context is different from one country to another, the problematics raised were very much similar: the overuse of undeclared work, illegal migration, workforce shortage.

In the Member States represented, most domestic workers are from a migrant background, raising issues like language barrier and complexity of visa (with migrant worker sometimes ending up illegally in the country because they don’t have the proper visa). These challenges are key factors in the rise of undeclared work.

Following the discussion on key issues, the conversation shifted o potential solutions and examples of promising practices. For example:

• In France, the PHS sector is recognised as “Under tension” facilitating the different support’s procedures.
• In Spain, a new reform passed supporting the regularisation of more than half a million immigrants who have lived undeclared in Spain for several years.
• In Italy, a new law (Law No.187/2024) on immigration has entered into force to tackle labour exploitation of migrant workers.

When discussing potential solutions, and best practices regarding these issues, the topic of digital tools was mentioned. While the participants agreed on the benefits of digital tools for the regularisation of the sector and the easiness of (legal) recruitment of migrant workers, a specific emphasis was made on the question of Artificial Intelligence.  It can be a powerful tool to work on the attraction, retention of migrant workers, but also for their skilling and reskilling.

PHSDialogue Project Plenary Session

The second part of the day served as a platform for the PHS Social Partners to share highly relevant information and provide updates on key activities organised throughout the past 12 months to their members and affiliates.

These included an overview of the most recent EU Policy updates and specifically:

• The European Care strategy presented by Jiri Svojse, Seconded National Expert, DG Employment (European Commission);
• The latest developments on EU social dialogue and the upcoming Quality Jobs Roadmap presented by Diana Crumpana, Team leader Sectoral Social Dialogue, DG Employment (European Commission);
• The revision of the Public Procurement Directive presented by Mark Bergfeld, Director Uni Europa.

The emphasis then shifted to key activities organised by the PHS Social Partners:

• A focus was made on the Joint Statement on Gender Equality, and the one on Labour Shortage. With a special focus on the positive political outcomes which lead to meetings with Ms. Eva Shultz from Minzatu’s Cabinet and with Ms. Katarina Ivankovic Knezevic from DG EMPL;
• The most recent webinar organised was highlighted not only for the high quality of discussion but mostly for the high-level participants it brought together;
• The launch of the Spanish Observatory on PHS was presented by EFSI’s members Ana Garrido López, President of AESPD and sparked interest among the participants;
• The upcoming PHS Employers’ toolkit developed jointly by EFFE and EFSI was presented as a key document for PHS Employers to further developed their activities;
• EFFE presented their Dom&Care Value Tool, an innovative economic impact simulator that is set to be a game-changer for the PHS sector.

Wrapping up the whole day of meeting, the PHS Social Partners presented their New Work Programme for the coming years. This work programme focuses on key topics, including (but not only):

• EU Projects, specifically the conclusion of the PHSDialogue Project and the launch of the ScaleUp Project;
• Building Social Partners capacity to support the development of Employers and Trade Unions organisations;
• Tackling Undeclared work by enhancing cooperation in the prevention and deterrence of undeclared work in the PHS sector;
• Advancing Gender equality by integrating the PHS sector in key EU initiatives.

EFSI wishes to extend its thanks to all the participants who joined the meeting and shared their points of view throughout the day.