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UNICARE Europe represents unions across Europe in the care and social insurance sector. We fully recognise that the private care sector is changing rapidly and therefore we coordinate care workers and their unions across Europe in order to build power and have a voice with decision makers, to ensure quality jobs and quality care for all.

We therefore welcome the recent political attention given to the quality of working conditions of carers and domestic workers in Europe. In particular, we appreciate the EESC opinion on the rights of live-in care workers recently discussed in the public hearing held on April 25th and took part in the discussions looking at the human and social rights of "live-in" care workers in the context of labour supply and mobility issues.

As the EESC states “The organisation and provision of long-term care (LTC) is a challenge many Member States are facing. The sector is low paid, highly feminised and employs often undocumented migrant workers. It suffers from workforce imbalances and skills shortages. Situations of undeclared work and poor working conditions affect mainly "live-in" care workers. Proactive measures to encourage the creation of quality, well-paid jobs in the sector with decent working conditions are needed to ensure an adequate labour supply for the LTC sector”.

Anna Harvey, Policy Officer responsible for UNI Europa’s Care sector says, “We particularly welcome the fact that this opinion calls attention to the working conditions of live-in carers who are part of a vulnerable work force and at risk of exploitation but equally importantly, it highlights the fact that live-in carers are not included in the serious policy discussions we are having in Europe.

At UNI Europa we recognise that this discussion cannot take place its own little corner – we must acknowledge the inter-links between this workforce and the wider realities of the care sector in Europe and indeed worldwide. It is within the wider framework that we should be making our decisions at the European level”.

UNI Europa is also happy to hear that the European Parliament has now adopted a report calling on the EU to recognise the employment and social rights of domestic workers and carers and we fully endorse the need to #MakeThemVisible.