Austria
The BFW employers’ organization has joined the trade unions’ call for increased funding for the care sector and improved pay and conditions for care workers. The GPA-DJP and VIDA trade unions argue that employees are underpaid and work excessive hours and that the quality of care will suffer unless something is done to increase employment in the sector and improve the attractiveness of the caring professions.
Read more at > GPA-DJP (DE)
And at > VIDA (DE)
The vida trade union is demanding an improved pay offer for the 15,000 employees in private and non-profit health institutions. The union says that the current offer of 0.9% does not recognise the contribution made by employees but vida also wants to see improvements to employment conditions. It says that employers make excessive demands on employees both at work and being on-call and that there needs to be a much firmer arrangements for employees’ working time and time off. [Read more at > vida (DE)->http://www.vida.at/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=S03/Page/Index&n=S03_0.a&cid=1261480613105]
The industrial relations observatory EIRO reports that police, firefighters and border guards organised a demonstration in the capital Riga last month in protest at the low rates of pay for workers in such responsible and stressful occupations. Read more at > EIRO
On 28 and 29 April, the ver.di union, representing health and care workers, organised a photo action, projecting photos of care workers on key buildings including the ministry of health and parliament. The union was drawing attention to the work being done by hundreds of thousands of workers across health and social care despite the risks and often without adequate personal protective equipment. According to the union at least 42 health and care staff have died as a result of COVID-19. While welcoming the EUR 1500 bonus paid to staff in elder care, the union points out that not only have many
