As the EU prepares its post-2025 Gender Equality Strategy, the PHS Social Partners – EFFAT, EFFE, EFSI and UNI Europa – jointly urge policymakers to prioritise the formalisation, professionalisation, and accessibility of PHS to support both workers and service users.
The PHS sectors – which include care for children, the elderly and people with disabilities, domestic work and home-based services – employ over 10 million people across the EU, 91 per cent of whom are women. These services are essential for enabling women’s labour market participation, reducing the burden of unpaid care work, and fostering better work-life balance. Yet, the sectors remain undervalued, underregulated and dominated by undeclared work, leaving many female workers in precarious and unprotected conditions.
The unequal distribution of unpaid care – with women performing more than double the amount done by men – creates a significant barrier to gender equality. Strengthening PHS is key to unlocking women’s full economic potential, narrowing the gender pay gap and ensuring a more equitable division of care responsibilities.
The statement calls on the EU to implement bold measures, including access to quality PHS, regularisation of migrant care workers, investment in training and collective bargaining, and action against workplace sexual violence and harassment. These steps are essential to valuing care work and creating quality jobs, particularly for women.
The EU PHS Social Partners are committed to working with EU institutions to ensure the upcoming Gender Equality Strategy delivers concrete progress for women and PHS workers alike.
Read the full joint statement here.