The pandemic one year on—revaluing our public services
by Mette Nord and
Jan Willem Goudriaan on 11th March 2021 @EPSUnions
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Covid-19 hit societies in Europe already rendered frail by austerity.
Investment in public services and their workers is essential if they are to
recover and thrive.
It has been a year since the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 a
global pandemic. As Europe and the rest of the world still battle against the
coronavirus, this has changed almost every aspect of daily lives. Terms such as
‘social distancing’, which seemed novel in March 2020, are now familiar. Twelve
months on from the first lockdowns, the International Labour Organization estimates that 93 per cent of the world’s
workers are living in countries with some form of workplace closure measures.
As in any crisis, the pandemic has magnified the strengths and weaknesses
of our societies. In Europe, it has exposed the fragility of public-health
systems and their lack of capacity to respond to such a shock. This should not
come as a surprise.
Inevitably overwhelmed
Public services in Europe have been severely weakened by a decade of
austerity and budget cuts. Staff shortages, underfunding and inadequate
resources meant that, long before the outbreak, public health and long-term
care were stretched thin. When the first wave hit, health systems and care homes were inevitably overwhelmed
and many preventable deaths occurred.
That it should take such a global watershed to make the case for
well-funded public services is a sad reflection on our neoliberal era. But the
last year has done exactly that: this critical moment in history has made our
total reliance on public services, and the workers who deliver them, an
undeniable fact. The drawbacks of privatisation and cuts have been revealed and
the need to revalue the public sector broadly recognised. If one thing is
clear, it is that we cannot go back to the pre-pandemic world: we must build
back better.
Over the last year, substantial—in some cases unprecedented—initiatives
have been taken to tackle the economic and social side-effects of the crisis.
The fact that such policies have been adopted and implemented, at short notice,
shows what is possible if governments are willing to take radical action. To
build back better, these short-term initiatives must however be converted into
long-term policy changes, which transform the funding and provision of public
services, end inequality and exploitation, and ensure a just transition to tackle climate change.
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Impossible decisions
The priority should of course be to strengthen public-health systems and
care facilities. Despite the development of vaccines and widespread social
restrictions, Europe’s health systems remain under acute pressure, due to the
relentless pressure of cases and the emergence of new variants. This is hardest
felt by those working in intensive care units, who in many cases have had to
make unenviable decisions about which patients have the best chance of
survival.
Most health and care workers had not imagined signing up for this and the
impact on their own mental as well as physical health has been severe. Across
Europe, several thousand have died from the virus, with many more infected. On
top, some are already being treated for post-traumatic stress and this will
only become more prevalent. Many have warned of a secondary ‘epidemic’ of
trauma among health and care workers, which could last for decades.
Stronger public-health systems are needed to cope not only with the
continuing high incidence of Covid-19 cases and burnout amongst staff but also
the huge backlog of other patients not treated over the last year. Pay rises,
better working conditions, increased staffing and enhanced support for health
and care workers will all be needed, including to catch up with postponed
treatments.
Collective bargaining and full involvement of public-service trade unions
will be key to improving conditions in health and social care. In the short
term this may involve special bonuses for long hours in high-risk environments.
But in a longer-term perspective a fundamental revaluation of jobs is needed
across the sectors, especially for the mostly female and often precarious
workers in care.
The pandemic has made clear the dangers of commodifying health and care. A
recent report from the Corporate Europe Observatory shows how outsourcing and private
provision of healthcare significantly degraded EU member states’ capacity to
deal effectively with Covid-19. A cross-country analysis by the United Nations
Development Programme on the effect of healthcare privatisation on
Covid-19 also found that a ‘10% increase in
private health expenditure relates to a 4.3% increase in Covid-19 cases and a
4.9% increase in Covid-19 related mortality’. Strengthening public-health
systems thus also means putting a stop to privatisation in health and social
care.
Others on the frontline
Let us not however forget that other public services have also been on the
frontline. Energy workers have kept hospitals and other important
infrastructure operating, despite the limited capacity and lack of
co-ordination of energy systems caused by their marketisation. In many
countries, childcare workers have continued to look after the children of
hospital workers, so that they can save lives. From waste and water to social
security and employment, public-service workers have been crucial in the
continued functioning of our societies and in dealing with the socio-economic
fallout from lockdown measures.
Their roles will only become more important as we recover from the economic
crisis. More investment is essential to guarantee the availability of
services—access to welfare, housing, water, energy and education—as well as
their quality and to shore up the finances of the cities and other
municipalities which often supply them. It will also be needed to satisfy the
unique role the public sector has to play in rebuilding more resilient
societies, from the circular economy to green transport
systems to clean public infrastructure.
In many countries, these services and the workers who provide them were
significantly affected by the austerity that followed the 2008 financial
crisis, and their contribution to society has been undervalued for many years.
These mistakes cannot be repeated.
Europe’s public-service unions will continue to oppose such frugality,
which undermines the realisation of human rights. As with health and social
care, the priority should be proper public funding for quality services and
quality jobs, rather than budget squeezes, privatisation or reliance on
public-private partnerships—which, as a growing body of research shows, do not deliver better services.
Reacquiring control
This unprecedented health crisis shows that the European Union must
consider (re)acquiring control over certain sectors which guarantee European
citizens’ security, such as pharmaceuticals or the production of personal
protective equipment. It should also reconsider establishing European
competences in health, beyond those of member states, to respond to pandemics
in the EU and in third countries. The shortcomings revealed during the crisis
underline that a large part of the EU recovery fund must be allocated to
investment in public services, which represent the universal values underpinning the union.
As European public-service union leaders, we shall be fighting with many
others for labour-market equality, better working conditions and more public
investment. Along with a growing movement, we stand for tax justice, to ensure corporations pay their fair share and to reverse
growing inequality. It is crucial that in the recovery from what is set to be
the worst ever global economic shock, workers, communities and our planet come
first—not the profits of the few.
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Home ・ Society ・ The pandemic one year on—revaluing
our public services
Filed Under: Society
About Mette Nord and Jan Willem Goudriaan
Mette Nord is president of the Norwegian trade union Fagforbundet and
president of the European Federation of Public Service Unions. Jan Willem
Goudriaan has been general secretary of the EPSU since 2014.
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