On
Thursday 22 February, lecturers at most universities in the UK went on strike.
They also stayed on strike on Friday 23 February. They will continue to do so
for three days this week, four days the week afterwards, and five days the
week after that. In total, unless the dispute is settled in the meantime, 14
working days will be lost to industrial action in an industry that seldom sees
action of any kind. In this guest
post, Steven Parfitt reflects on the
underlying reasons and wider implications for Higher Education in the UK.
The European Commission published its
proposals for a Recast of the Drinking Water Directive, 1 February 2018. They
include amendments to guarantee vulnerable groups access to safe and affordable
water. The European Federation of Public
Service Unions (EPSU) has welcomed these suggestions as a step towards
realizing the Human Right to Water in the EU regretting that the
Commission stopped short of recognizing the UN right in EU legislation. This
guest post summarises the findings of a new study commissioned by EPSU,
which goes into more detail on what the European Commission can do to build
the frame in which the Human Right2Water can be realized (see PSIRU
2018). The main recommendation is that the Commission should cease all
actions that endanger this right.
