LRG/Municipal sector

The countdown for Habitat III - the UN conference that is expected to set out the new guidelines for urban policies - has begun. The ‘United Nations Conference on Housing and Sustainable Urban Development ’ – as it is officially called - will take place in Quito, Ecuador, 17 – 20 October 2016.

The Superior Court of Catalonia decided to invalidate the corporate manipulations used by Aguas de Barcelona to retain its monopoly concession for managing the water and sanitation services in the Metropolitan area of Barcelona.

Ten people (seven women and three men) representing the All-Japan Prefectural and Municipal Workers Union, the Japan Public Sector Union and All Japan Water Supply Workers Union participated in the lobbying activity. The move was part of the Women’s Committee’s activities relating to the 8th of March.

Workers from PSI affiliate Tamilnadu Government Officials Union (TGOU) put together a list of 35 demands to the government; the hunger strike took place in Chennai on the 8th of February.

Over the last two years, PSI has implemented a pilot project of gender neutral job evaluation and the construction of a map of health security risks in EPSEL, the public water enterprise of Lambayeque in the city of Chiclayo in the north of Peru.

On 14 October 2015, PSI General Secretary Rosa Pavanelli joined UCLG, ILO, UNDP, Caritas, Slowfood, and several local government and municipalities representatives in the opening panel of the 3rd Local Development Forum (LED) in Turin (Italy).

On 7 October 2015, the Portuguese Constitutional Court ruled the unconstitutionality of Portugal’s central government interference in the collective bargaining process between local government employers and trade unions and has ordered the public disclosure of the over 600 collective agreements negotiated at a municipal level over many years, which will now be accessible to all local government employees of Portugal.