Trade Council on Local and Regional Administration constitutes
2017-12-15 12:00
On December 5, CESI’s Trade Council on ‘Local and Regional Administration’ (LRA) held its constitutive meeting after CESI’s Congress in December last year. Following the elections of the presidency and vice-presidency for the term until 2020, the trade council, as CESI’s internal members’ committee for deliberation and positioning in the field of local and regional administration, discussed some of CESI’s most pressing European priorities that concern the employment conditions of local and regional administration employees in Europe.
Hans Freiler from the European Federation of Public Service Employees (Eurofedop) was elected as the President of the trade council. André Goretti from the French Autonomous Federation of Local and Regional Authorities (FA-FPT) and Marco Thomé from the Luxembourgish General Federation of Local Administration (FGFC) were elected as Vice-Presidents.
Hans Freiler, André Goretti and Marco Thomé to lead CESI’s Trade Council on Local and Regional Administration
CESI Secretary General Klaus Heeger said: “I am glad that we will have a very competent leadership to steer the re-instated Trade Council on Local and Regional Administration after CESI’s Congress last December. Hans Freiler as re-elected President as well as Andé Goretti and Marco Thomé have been involved in CESI for many years. They are excellently placed to continue carrying out successful work for better and fair employment conditions for local and regional administration staff across Europe.”
On the agenda: Impacts on privatisations, consequences of digitalisation, efforts of administrations in migrant integration
The topic of privatisation and its impacts on local and regional administration jobs was introduced with a presentation by Urs Stauffer, an affiliate of CESI’s Swiss member organisation ZV and former Vice-President of the Trade Council, who spoke on the increasing use of Public-Private-Partnerships (PPPs) in the field. During the discussion that followed his intervention, trade council members reported that privatisations, through PPPs or other means, remain a major concern for local and regional administration staff and their working conditions and employment relationships. The importance of best practice alternatives to PPPs was stressed.
The trade council also heard an intervention by Alla Aboukada from the Platform to close gaps between the labour market and refugees’ skills, a start-up which focuses on the integration of migrants in the labour market by developing an application and a set of algorithms breaching the gaps between the refugees’ skills and the labour market.
Paul Zenners, member of the cabinet of the Luxembourgish Deputy Prime Minister and the Minister of Economy, presented Luxembourg’s efforts to face the multifaceted impacts of digitalisation on its administrations and governmental system.
The members of the trade council also discussed the involvement of CESI members in the EU’s sectoral social dialogue committee for local and regional governments as well as the role of local and regional administrations in the implementation of the new European Pillar of Social Rights in the Member States.
The next meeting of the trade council will take place on September 25 2018 (tbc).
