Quality public services

The impact on ordinary Australians of privatising essential public assets and services will be examined in a People’s Inquiry launched by Public Services International; hearings will start in Newcastle on 5 September and conclude in Canberra on 27 October.

PSI's General Secretary, who is Vice-Chair of the Trade Unions and Workers Constituent Group, addresses member states negotiating the New Urban Agenda at the 3rd plenary of the 3rd session of the Preparatory Committee.

Through the testimonies collected, it was found that these workers are not seen as victims, although they also lost their homes, clothes and food. In addition, they had to leave their families to meet their obligations in the public 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.

What can we celebrate on May Day if everywhere, to a greater or lesser extent, we face the precarization of employment, outsourcing, privatization, cuts, the increase of the age of retirement and the rise of pension contributions? When all that governments want is to make layoffs easier or take away our right to freedom of association and to strike?

Today (28 April) is the "World Day for Safety and Health at Work". In the following interview with ACTRAV/ILO, the General Secretary of Public Services International (PSI), Rosa Pavanelli, explains how workers in the public services are affected by stress.

Vice President Michel Temer has already pointed to business sectors that his government's agenda, if he ascends to the presidency, will be markedly neoliberal, with privatization, loss of labor rights and cuts in social programs.