Project "PERHOUSE - Personal and household services in Central and Eastern European Countries: Improving working conditions and services through industrial relations"

Project number: 101052340

Project periood: 01.08.2022 - 31.07.2024

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The PERHOUSE project seeks to analyse the current characteristics and challenges related to service provision and working conditions in the personal and household services (PHS) sectors in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries.

Demand for PHS has been increasing within the broader trend of de-institutionalising the care sector and due to the lack of available services in integrated care and non-care services. Understanding and strengthening the role of industrial relations would not only improve the working conditions in the PHS sector in CEE countries. It would also help systematise the workplace's fundamental definitions, set benchmarks for the quality of services, working conditions, and access to care and non-care services provided in home settings. In turn, regularisation of the sector would facilitate integration into broader industrial relations structures for seeking multiplier effects on the provision of care and non-care-oriented services by public and private providers, would contribute to tackling the high share of undeclared work in the sector and to providing decent working conditions to PHS workers. These aims are fully aligned with EU-level priorities of the European Commission and the European Labour Authority as well as EU-level social partners (e.g., UNI Europa, EFFAT, EFSI, EPSU, EASPD) to strengthen EU-level social dialogue in the PHS sector.

The project will be carried out at the EU level and in 12 countries (Poland, Estonia, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, North Macedonia, Romania, Croatia, Lithuania, Latvia, Slovenia and Bulgaria). Data will be collected via surveys and qualitative interviews both at the national and EU levels, processed in the form of research reports and policy briefs, and innovative dissemination materials, including audio-visual tools and exchanges among social partners and other EU-level and EU-level national-level stakeholders via project meetings and workshops.

The general objective is to explore industrial relations to improve the working conditions and services in the PHS sector of CEE countries.

Aims:

1. Address the challenges of working conditions and services in the PHS sector of CEE countries.
2. Deepen the analysis of industrial relations and the potential of social dialogue in the PHS of CEE countries.
3. Provide a comparative analysis of national experiences in IR and working relations in PHS and explore the link to EU-level social dialogue structures.
4. Promote awareness of the industrial relations practices related to the PHS sector.

The project will respond to the following research questions:

RQ1) What is the current state and structure of service provision of PHS in CEE and what are the working conditions in the PHS sector?

RQ2) What is the role of social dialogue in regulating and improving the work patterns in the personal and household services (PHS) sector of domestic workers in Central and Eastern European countries (CEE)?

Leading partner:

Central European Labour Studies Institute (CELSI), Slovakia

Partners:

• University of Tartu, Estonia
• Macedonia2025, North Macedonia
• Univerza v Ljubljani, Slovenia
• Maria Curie‑Skłodowska University (UMCS), Poland
• European Association of Service Providers for Persons with Disabilities (EASPD, EU level), Belgium
• Univerzita Karlova, Czechia

The University of Tartu team of the PERHOUSE project is made up of the following people from the School of Economics and Business Administration:

• Jaan Masso (role in the project: head of the local team, senior researcher). jaan.masso@ut.ee
• Liis Roosaar (researcher), liis.roosaar@ut.ee
• Kadri Karma (researcher), kadri.karma@ut.ee
• Ülle Maidla (accountant and administrative support), ulle.maidla@ut.ee

See project information on the Estonian Research Information System Page here.

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