Periodic Reporting for period 1 - CARE4CARE (We care for those who care)
Reporting period: 2023-01-01 to 2024-03-31
Care workers are mainly women and migrants, which make the care sector an interesting field to verify the dynamics of segregation and exclusion that affect the labour market. At the same time, it is a challenging testing ground, which allows to design and verify new measures to counteract discrimination and promote social inclusion.
The Care4care project aims at investigating in a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective the working conditions of care workers and their perception of their working environment and dynamics in six EU Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden) in order to develop suitable tools to improve job quality and counteract discrimination in the sector, such as: elaborating policy strategies to tackle the undervaluation of care work, with particular attention to the key role that trade unions, employers’ associations as well as equality and monitoring bodies can play both at national and EU level; designing training programs to empower trade unions, families’ and employers’ associations to improve job quality in the sector; setting up of a network on care work, which will implement a web platform accessible to care workers, in order to improve their rights’ awareness.
More precisely, the project aims at highlighting the risks and conditions of vulnerability of the target, with a specific focus on discrimination and socio-economic undervaluation.
The ambition of the Consortium is, then, to create a model of analysis and regulation of the care sector that can be replicated in other European countries and can bring out new relevant strategies for intervention in order to elaborate legislative and policy proposals at the national and the EU level.
The project aims at giving voice to care workers and to their representatives in the design and delivery of policies and measures that affect their lives. To this end, it is necessary to raise awareness and consciousness among care workers and trade unions by making rights clear and usable for workers and enhancing collective bargaining strategies.
Lastly, target of the project are workers employed in the public and private sector, caring for people with disabilities, the elderly and sick people: home caregivers, basic care workers, social and care workers, health professionals with at most a Bachelor’s degree such as nurse.
The Care4care project aims at investigating in a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective the working conditions of care workers and their perception of their working environment and dynamics in six EU Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden) in order to develop suitable tools to improve job quality and counteract discrimination in the sector, such as: elaborating policy strategies to tackle the undervaluation of care work, with particular attention to the key role that trade unions, employers’ associations as well as equality and monitoring bodies can play both at national and EU level; designing training programs to empower trade unions, families’ and employers’ associations to improve job quality in the sector; setting up of a network on care work, which will implement a web platform accessible to care workers, in order to improve their rights’ awareness.
More precisely, the project aims at highlighting the risks and conditions of vulnerability of the target, with a specific focus on discrimination and socio-economic undervaluation.
The ambition of the Consortium is, then, to create a model of analysis and regulation of the care sector that can be replicated in other European countries and can bring out new relevant strategies for intervention in order to elaborate legislative and policy proposals at the national and the EU level.
The project aims at giving voice to care workers and to their representatives in the design and delivery of policies and measures that affect their lives. To this end, it is necessary to raise awareness and consciousness among care workers and trade unions by making rights clear and usable for workers and enhancing collective bargaining strategies.
Lastly, target of the project are workers employed in the public and private sector, caring for people with disabilities, the elderly and sick people: home caregivers, basic care workers, social and care workers, health professionals with at most a Bachelor’s degree such as nurse.
Regarding the research outputs, firstly, the research comparatively analyses the working conditions in the care sector; secondly, the research assesses the direct perception of working conditions and well-being at work, as well as awareness of rights; thirdly, the project investigates strategies and techniques of regulation of working conditions in the sector.
Moreover, the CARE4CARE project designs and delivers training programmes to empower trade unions, employers and the representatives of families associations who are the target group of the training.
The aim is to improve knowledge and skills to recognise vulnerabilities of care workers to improve job quality and counteract discrimination in the care sector.
Lastly, the CARE4CARE project realises a web platform optimised for smartphones and tablets providing user-friendly information on relevant national and European legislation.
Moreover, the CARE4CARE project designs and delivers training programmes to empower trade unions, employers and the representatives of families associations who are the target group of the training.
The aim is to improve knowledge and skills to recognise vulnerabilities of care workers to improve job quality and counteract discrimination in the care sector.
Lastly, the CARE4CARE project realises a web platform optimised for smartphones and tablets providing user-friendly information on relevant national and European legislation.
The different project activities will significantly impact both at academic and at societal level.
CARE4CARE research is first of all applied research aimed at finding practical and specific solutions. Its objective is not only the advancement of scientific theoretical knowledge, which would be in itself a value, but also the use of theoretical ideas to develop strategies of intervention with concrete and measurable effects in terms of greater social inclusion and an effective fight against discrimination.
Several stakeholders will benefit from the outcomes and deliverables of the project, beyond the working population in the care sector target of the research.
A precious asset of the project is the engagement of the representatives of families associations (given that families are employers in domestic care work). In the care sector families are in a special position: on the one hand, they determine the working conditions applied, which, as said, have a great impact on the quality of work; on the other, they benefit from care work in terms of personal or family assistance and are therefore interested in maintaining the quality of the work provided.
Trade unions are also the target of the project. They are the recipients of the training courses that the project will develop and experience, as they need to acquire knowledge and skills to conduct effective collective bargaining to counteract inequalities present in the sector and to establish decent working conditions starting from wages and health and safety conditions.
Policy makers and regulators will benefit from the project in terms of knowledge acquired and guidelines to realise effective regulation that guarantees social inclusion.
CARE4CARE research is first of all applied research aimed at finding practical and specific solutions. Its objective is not only the advancement of scientific theoretical knowledge, which would be in itself a value, but also the use of theoretical ideas to develop strategies of intervention with concrete and measurable effects in terms of greater social inclusion and an effective fight against discrimination.
Several stakeholders will benefit from the outcomes and deliverables of the project, beyond the working population in the care sector target of the research.
A precious asset of the project is the engagement of the representatives of families associations (given that families are employers in domestic care work). In the care sector families are in a special position: on the one hand, they determine the working conditions applied, which, as said, have a great impact on the quality of work; on the other, they benefit from care work in terms of personal or family assistance and are therefore interested in maintaining the quality of the work provided.
Trade unions are also the target of the project. They are the recipients of the training courses that the project will develop and experience, as they need to acquire knowledge and skills to conduct effective collective bargaining to counteract inequalities present in the sector and to establish decent working conditions starting from wages and health and safety conditions.
Policy makers and regulators will benefit from the project in terms of knowledge acquired and guidelines to realise effective regulation that guarantees social inclusion.
