Fair working conditions in childcare

With the expansion of multinational care companies across Europe, more rigorous European standards are needed to ensure decent working conditions and accessible, quality care for all.

This lunch policy webinar was part of a series building on the policy study ‘The European Strategy: A chance to ensure inclusive care for all?‘. The “Care4Care Policy Series” offered a set of short discussions which highlighted the persisting challenges related to care policy-making. The series especially focused on policy-oriented solutions and on their interaction with other policy fields.

To address staff shortages and improve recruitment and retention rates, there needs to be a fundamental revaluing of the care profession. The workers’ pay and conditions need to match their crucial role in our societies. In the policy webinar, we looked in particular at working conditions and training needs for carers.

Care being such a complex and multifaceted policy field, each discussion targets a different dimension relevant to understand how the Strategy can give itself the means to ensure that caregivers and -receivers do not fall short of the EU’s fundamental values and the fulfilment of social rights.

The European Care Strategy can be seen as the very start of the EU’s journey towards developing solid and encompassing policies acknowledging the centrality of care whilst protecting and valuing all those needing or providing it.

In the policy study, the authors feed and guide the discussion by critically assessing whether the European Care Strategy can be seized as an opportunity to trigger a new approach to care that is truly inclusive and fair for all. They explore whether the EU is sufficiently equipping itself to live up to the claims that European values “can only flourish in a caring society”. On the one hand, it offers an analysis of the positive developments welcomed by the key stakeholders. On the other hand, it also serves better to understand the remaining blind spots of the Strategy.

Among the speakers:

• Christian Morabito, International Researcher and Expert in the field of inequalities in ECEC
• Leena Kaasinen, Finnish Union of Practical Nurses, SuPer
• Heinrich Dorner, Member of the regional government of Burgenland (Austria), Member of the Committee of the Regions
• Rainer Winter, Head of the EU Liaison Office of Burgenland
• Laeticia Thissen, FEPS Policy Analyst on Gender Equality

Moderation by Paola Panzeri, Policy Staff on gender equality, local and regional governments, EPSU

Watch again the policy webinars:

• Monday 5 June – Fair working conditions in childcare
• Monday 19 June – The future of care: platform work & digitalisation
• Wednesday 6 September – Care as a driver of sustainable growth
• Tuesday 10 October – Enhancing sustainable long-term care

Ensuring universal access to childcare by Laeticia Thissen