Denmark
The FOA public services union is concerned about the growth of private childcare and the extent to which this poses a threat to levels of employment, training and quality of childcare. The union notes that large companies have made inroads into childcare provision in Norway and Sweden, often cutting costs by reducing the ratio of childcare workers to children.
Read more at > FOA (DK)
The FOA public service union has supported the initiative of childminders and workers in childcare centres to write to the education minister to call for an end to privatisation. There is mounting evidence of a trend towards more private care and the union argues that this fails to guarantee the quality standards required in municipally provided childcare. This is in terms of the training of staff, the quality of the environment in which children are looked after and the quality of the education being provided. [Read more at > FOA (DK)->http://www.foa.dk/Forbund/Presse?newsid={C460E89C-A8B5
(June 2017) Public services union ver.di has called on the minister for youth and families to launch a major national initiative to extend and improve training for childcare workers. The union argues that this is needed to ensure that enough well-trained staff are available to cope with the planned increase of 100000 kindergarten places. The union also wants to see national action in relation to staffing levels to address the problem that the availability and quality of early years education can vary significantly from region to region.
Public service union, younion has joined with private service unions GPA and vida as well as the ÖGB trade union confederation and Chamber of Labour to call on the government to take urgent steps to increase training in the childcare and after-school care sector. The unions point out that inadequate staffing levels were apparent before the pandemic but have become more acute and overburdened staff need the reassurance that newly trained staff will soon be recruited. They underline the fact that many workers in the sector are thinking about leaving and that a wave of retirements is also
