Unions protest over exclusion from childcare advisory council

Austria

Public services union younion joined with the GPA-djp and vida private services unions in a protest outside a meeting of the advisory council on early years education. Supported by the ÖGB confederation and Chamber of Labour, the unions expressed their disappointment that they weren't involved in the council which was set to make important recommendations that would affect the 61500 workers in the sector. The unions argue that the COVID-19 pandemic has underlined the importance of the sector and are calling for national quality standards, including staffing levels, to be introduced to end the fragmentation of the sector where rules can vary from region to region and municipality to municipality. They also want to see spending increased so that it reaches the EU average of 1% of GDP (economic output), up from the current 0.67%.

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