The joint letter of the of the Ferpa General Secretary Agostino Siciliano and Epsu General Secretary Jan Willem Goudriaan to the European Council and the European Commission<\/p>\n
Dear President of the European Council, dear Mr. Michel,
\nDear President of the European Commission dear Mrs Von der Leyen,<\/p>\n
Thursday the European Council will discuss the Recovery Plan for Europe. As European
\nFederations of the ETUC, EPSU for the workers in care and public services and FERPA for
\nretired workers and elderly people, we support the demand of the ETUC for an ambitions plan for
\nthe economy and to guarantee jobs as unemployment increases. We do want to express our
\nprofound deception that the Commission in its Recovery Plan, and the Council in its discussions,
\nhave paid little attention to how the pandemic has effected the elderly and the workers that take
\ncare. We ask you to address this and start investigations of what went wrong in the health
\nsystems and in particular in elderly care, so the necessary steps can be taken and not to repeat
\nmistakes. This needs to be done in consultation with the organisations concerned.
\nThe Recovery Plan for Europe has just one line devoted to long term care. There is no
\nrecognition that long term care facilities have been underfunded, in many countries because of
\npolicies of austerity. Nor is there acknowledgement that the workers in both elderly, residential
\nand home care, mostly women, have been serious effected by the pandemic and that their work
\nhas been undervalued and underpaid. They lack resources and staff. And the Recovery Plan has
\nno additional funding to assist long term, residential and home care. This is combined with a lack
\nof attention of the authorities for the elderly which are the most vulnerable people and the
\nworkers so dramatically symbolised by the lack of personal protective equipment and the high
\nmortality among the elderly and among elderly care workers.
\nDunja Mijatovi\u0107, the Human Rights Commissioner of the Council of Europe suspects that human
\nrights violations occurred and which could have been prevented, in her statement of 20 May. (\u2026)
\n\u201cIn many countries and individual institutions, management of the crisis appears to have been
\nfragmented and chaotic, with care personnel often being left to their own devices. Some have
\nmade heroic efforts to save residents, sometimes confining themselves in the facilities and
\navoiding contact with their own families; some countries, like Romania, even made it mandatory
\nfor staff to isolate themselves in long-term care facilities or specially designated places. In other<\/p>\n
cases, residents were left in absolute neglect or abandoned despite having been infected, as it
\nwas reported in Spain, for example. (\u2026)
\nShe went on \u201cThere is understandable outrage and frustration among family members who lost
\ntheir loved ones under very opaque circumstances. Many have made criminal complaints about
\nthe management in care homes, for example in France. In Spain, prosecutors opened criminal
\ninvestigations for a number of facilities for older persons, and similar investigations are also
\nongoing in Italy. In accordance with their obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention
\non Human Rights regarding the right to life, member states must shed light on all the deaths
\noccurring in these institutions, without exception.\u201d We want the Council to order these
\ninvestigations.
\nThe Human Rights Commissioner points out how Member States have probably violated various
\nconventions and not guaranteed the elderly, disabled and other vulnerable groups of people their
\nright to health and right to care, and including the Right to long term care as enshrined in the
\n2017 European Pillar of Social Rights (principles 16 and 18). Human rights violations have
\noccurred that need to be explored and addressed so they are not repeated in possible second
\nwave of this pandemic that has effected Europe so profoundly. The investigation will assist in
\ntaking the appropriate measures and prevent that in a second wave.
\nThe European Commission should include funding for long term- , residential and home care (like
\nit did for health care with the EU4Health programme) in its financial proposals. This is an urgent
\nneed. We ask you to support this.
\nDear Presidents, for workers and the people in the European Union action is needed now.
\nWe remain available for further discussion on how best to prevent that the elderly and others in
\ncare are not gain the victims of ill policies.<\/p>\n