Early Childhood Education and Care, Tax justice
Fighting for tax justice
A fair, progressive, transparent and effective tax system is crucial for sound public finances, quality public services and redistribution of wealth and income. This is why EPSU has been campaigning hard to tackle tax evasion and avoidance by large companies and wealthy individuals and in support of measures to create fairer tax systems. This briefing for EPSU's last Congress sets out the work done over the previous Congress period and highlights current priorities. The impact of austerity on tax collection is the latest update on the state of tax administrations across Europe, underlining the need to invest in staff and resources to improve tax collection and fight tax fraud.
Union mobilises private and non-profit workers to support public sector negotiations
Public services union ver.di organised a nationwide day of action on 6 April for employees in day-care centres, and workers providing child, youth and disability care in non-profit organisations, including churches and private employers. Various initiatives were taken including lunchtime demonstrations and photo campaigns. The aim was to underline the importance of securing better pay and conditions for workers across the sector, making work more attractive and tackling staff shortages. While the current negotiations concern the 330,000 workers directly employed by the public sector, the
Unions call for better pay for early years education workers
The GPA and vida private service trade unions organised an action in Vienna on 29 March as part of their campaign to win better pay and conditions for workers in early years education. Along with better pay to help attract new staff the unions want action to reduce workloads, improve staff:child ratios and major investment in training. GPA and vida underline the need for national initiatives on pay structure and funding to reduce the different approaches from region to region.
National action in early years education
Younion, representing staff in early years education and care (ECEC) in the public sector is organising protests across the country on 21 March in its continuing campaign to win improvements to the pay and conditions of workers in the sector. The union wants to see administrative tasks reduced and more support staff recruited to give workers more time with the children in their care. The other key demands cover increased recruitment overall, improved training, proper recognition of work in the sector, recognition of COVID-19 as an occupational disease and better representation of workers and
No offer from employers in childcare negotiations
Negotiations between the ver.di service union and the VKA local government employers’ association took place on 25 February but were suspended with no proposals from the employers on how to improve pay and conditions for workers involved in early years education and social services. The union is concerned that urgent action is needed to deal with the shortage of 173,000 skilled workers in day-care centres alone but the VKA has rejected union proposals to reduce workloads. Ver.di believes that there was a constructive atmosphere in the negotiations but there were no concessions from the
Negotiations in social care and early years education to resume
Service union ver.di is highlighting the essential role played by social care and early years education in the lead up to the resumption of negotiations that were suspended in March 2020. The union argues that workers in the sector were indispensable during the pandemic and their contribution needs to be recognised in relation to pay and working conditions. Ver.di underlines that the predominantly female workforce faces low recognition of their skills and competences, poor working conditions, low salaries, fixed-term contracts and part-time work. The challenges facing the sector are made worse
Unions in joint call for action on childcare staffing
The public and private sectors unions representing staff in early years education (younion, vida and GPA) have come together to demand action at national level on staffing and safety in childcare institutions. The unions want to see unified, national regulations applied on issues like COVID-19 and increased staffing to ensure that childcare institutions can maintain safety for both workers and children. The pandemic is still having an impact and with staff falling ill or having to quarantine, the pressure of work continues to increase for an already overburdened group of workers.
Pay rise for childcare workers as health and social care staff get 37-hour week
Childcare workers in the private sector who are covered by pay regulations rather than a collective agreement are getting a 3.2% pay increase following negotiations led by the GPA and vida trade unions. Meanwhile, full-time workers in private health and social care are now entitled to a 37-hour week as of 1 January. This was the result of earlier negotiations by the GPA and vida unions and reflects their long-running campaign to tackle overwork in the sectors. The unions are also determined to continue their efforts to reduce working time with a target of a 35-hour week.
Union survey reveals extent of staffing problem in childcare
A survey of childcare staff by the JHL public services reveals worrying levels of exhaustion among workers with more than half saying they experience it least weekly and more than 60% experiencing exhaustion every month. Some 70% of the more than 2200 respondents had been in the sector for more than 10 years. The union says the results are alarming and underline the urgent need for more staff to prevent a full-blown crisis. JHL also says that problems are caused by lack of support staff and inadequate cover when childcare staff are involved in planning. Furthermore, staff to child ratios that
Union says childcare staffing crisis driven by low pay not lack of qualified staff
The SIPTU trade union says that figures released by the Department of Further and Higher Education confirm that the staffing crisis in childcare in not driven by a lack of qualified educators but by pay levels that are so low that many workers have to leave their chosen profession. Around 6000 workers get childcare qualifications each year and the union argues that this should be enough to provide suitable staff for the 26000 posts that require a qualification. However, SIPTU highlights the fact that early years educators earn on average just €11.91 per hour, 99 cents below the living wage of
UK’s largest care home operator shifts cash to tax havens: new report
A new report published by CICTAR in conjunction with Panorama has revealed the details of how the UK’s largest care home operator has been funnelling profits offshore through the Caymen Islands while reporting artificial losses.