On 24^th March, EFFE and EFSI organised the first webinar of the PHS Network on “Delivering Quality Jobs in Europe: The Expanding Role of Collective Bargaining”.

The PHS Network brings together organisations active in domestic work, home care, disability support, long-term care and early childhood education and care. It offers a space where organisations with the potential to represent employers in the PHS sector can learn from each other and build a stronger, collective voice to tackle shared challenges such as undeclared work, administrative burdens and skills development.

This session focused on a report from December 2025, authored by Mária Sedláková, Research officer at the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound). Entitled “Collective bargaining beyond pay: An analysis of collective agreements in selected low-paid sectors”, this study analyses and compares the content of 94 collective agreements in three low-paid sectors – manufacture of food, leather, textiles and clothes, retail, and residential and social care (from which 25 agreement were analysed). It covers 11 EU Member States (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Czechia, Finland, France, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain) and Norway.

The report examines how collective bargaining has shaped working conditions beyond wages between 2015 and 2022, with a focus on new themes, such as work-life balance, compensation for overtime work, reward additional tasks, and flexible working arrangements. In the care sector, the most frequent topics in  collective agreements include working time, rewards for quality of care, lifelong training or structured career paths, and additional tasks.

 Mária Sedláková emphasised that collective agreements reinforce legislation by defining the obligations of employers and workers. She also highlighted the need to recognise collective bargaining as a key tool for improving working conditions. Policymakers should strengthen social partners’ capacity and address emerging labour market challenges such as digitalisation, and workers’ psychosocial health. Regarding the PHS sector, it was concluded that stronger representation is needed, and that collective bargaining agreement should focus on better pay through structured allowances and bonuses, working-time rights and predictability, improve health & safety protections, ensure access to training and professionalisation, and enhance leave provisions.

In light of these findings, members of EFSI and EFFE highlighted national practices in Italy and France regarding collective bargaining in the PHS sector.

Lorenzo Gasparrini, General Secretary at Domina, the National Association of Families Employing Domestic Staff (Associazione Nazionale Famiglie Datori di Lavoro Domestico), outlined the key aspects of the last collective agreement for domestic work in Italy signed in October 2025. A classification of workers levels determines the average wage per each category. Social dialogue made significant contributions, especially regarding working hours, vocational training leave, 13^th month’s salary, annual leave, and the creation of Ebincolf, a certification body for the training and professional qualification of the workers.  Lorenzo Gasparrini also highlighted DOMINA’s proposal to the Italian government to introduce tax deductions on the annual cost of domestic work and increase reimbursements for social security contributions, with the aim of reducing undeclared work.

Katia Passelègue, Legal Expert at the French Federation of Household Employers (Fédération des Particuliers Employeurs de France – Fepem), presented the key milestones in the structuring of PHS sector in France. In 2022, a new national collective agreement for the household employers and domestic workers  was established through the merger of two previous agreements. This new framework simplified procedures for household employers, notably through the mandate of the APNI, a paritarian organisation acting as a “proxy employer” to facilitate processes related to pensions and occupational health and safety. The same year also marked the creation of the national occupational health and safety service (SPSTN), which enables user-employers to meet their legal obligations more easily, while ensuring effective health monitoring for workers.

In a context where European policy frameworks highlight social dialogue and collective bargaining as key elements of the European social model, this webinar provided a useful opportunity to compare how social dialogue operates across different sectors and to draw inspiration for tailored solutions for the PHS sector.

EFFE and EFSI would like to thank the speakers for their insightful interventions and the participants for their willingness to advance collective bargaining and the structuration of the PHS sector at European and national levels.