C*LLaS

Research project within the framework of the Horizon Europe 2022 grant.

Funding period: January 2023 – December 2025

Website des Care4Care Consortiums

European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Research Unit

Project Leadership

Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher, EUV, Juristische Fakultät, Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (C*LLaS)

Research Team

Dr. Ziga Podgornik Jakil, EUV, Juristische Fakultät, Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (C*LLaS)
Dominic Andres, Juristische Fakultät, Center for Interdisciplinary Labour Law Studies (C*LLaS)

Project Objectives

With the ageing population and the increasing number of people needing personal assistance, the care sector is becoming vital to the future of the European Union (EU). However, the care sector in the EU suffers from chronic labour shortages and care workers frequently report low wages, precarious working conditions, high physical workloads, and discrimination in the workplace. In addition, women, who make up the majority of care workers, and migrants, who are increasingly being recruited to fill labour shortages in the care sector, especially as “live-in” domestic workers, are particularly affected by exploitation and discrimination. To address these issues effectively, the existing legal framework for regulating the care sector and care workers' access to the right legal instruments at EU level need to be improved.

The Care4Care project aims to examine, in a comparative and multidisciplinary perspective, the working conditions of care workers and the factors that increase the risk of their discrimination and social exclusion in six EU Member States (France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Spain and Sweden). The study consists of a socio-legal analysis and an empirical investigation of the workplace experiences of care workers in each country. The units of analysis include paid care workers providing health and personal care in institutions or in home care, including nurses in hospitals, geriatric and paediatric care workers, and care workers caring for people with disabilities.

The main objective of the project is to develop appropriate tools to improve job quality and combat discrimination in the care sector. It aims to create a model for the analysis and regulation that can be replicated in different EU countries and generate new relevant intervention strategies for the European institutions. In concrete terms, this will be implemented in three project deliverables: a policy paper, a training program for care workers' representatives, and a web platform for care workers.

An important goal is to give care workers and their representatives a say in the design and implementation of policies and instruments that affect their lives. For this reason, the project partners will work with various stakeholders, including trade unions, family and employer organizations, equality and monitoring bodies, policy makers and care workers themselves. The vision is that improving the working conditions and representation of care workers will lead to an improved quality of care services provided.

The Care4Care Consortium is coordinated by a team at University of Florence (Italy) and involves 10 partners: Lunds Universitet (Sweden), Universidad de Girona (Spain), Universidad de Sevilla (Spain), Europa - Universität Viadrina (Germany), Uniwersytet Rzeszowski (Poland), Tuscan Organisation of Universities and Research 4 Europe (Belgium), Université de Bordeaux (France), European Federation for Family Employment & Home Care (EFFE) (Belgium) and European Federation for Services to Individuals (Belgium).
The focus in Germany is carried out with a research unit headed by Prof. Dr. Eva Kocher at the European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). The main objective of the German research unit is to develop proposals for policy measures needed to improve working conditions and reduce inequalities in the care sector at EU level.

Publications:

Workpackage 2 - Care Workers, Job Quality, and Inclusive Working Conditions (Germany)
Workpackage 3 - ‘Discrimination Map’ and inequalities in care sectors (German)
Workpackage 5 - CARE4CARE Policy Paper

Partner Work Packages in progress.

Labour Law Research Network Conference (LLRN6)

When and where: 25-27 June 2023, University of Warsaw (Poland), 

Session: The role of intermediaries in shaping domestic and care work in Europe, Latin America and South Africa

Presenters: Eva Kocher (Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)): Posting agencies in transnational live-in-care; Lorena Poblete (Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina; Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) - Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung): Within and without the margins of labor law. Digital intermediaries on domestic work in Argentina, Chile, Brazil, and Mexico

 

8th Regulating for Decent Work Conference: Ensuring decent work in times of uncertainty

When and where: 10-12 July 2023, International Labour Organization (Geneva, Switzerland)

Session: Formalising Paid Domestic Work (I): New Regulations and Policies to Enforce Workers’ Rights

Presenter: Eva Kocher (European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)): Formality and Informality in the German Discourse on “Legal Certainty” for Live-in Work 

 42. International Labour Process Conference  (ILPC) in Göttingen: Coercion, Consent and  Conflict in the Labour Process and Beyond

When and where: 3-5 April 2024, University of Göttingen

Symposia: Gendered Notions of Care Work: Consent, Conflict and Labour Law

Organisers of the Symposia (with presentation titles): Eva Kocher (European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)): Gendered Narratives about Conflict and Care in German and EU Labour Law; Helma Lutz (Goethe University Frankfurt/Main): The gendered commercialization of migrant care-work in current European senior care; Lorena Poblete (CONICET-UNSAM, Buenos Aires): How to make the law available for migrant care workers? Legal counselling through social media in Germany; Ziga Podgornik Jakil (European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)): Understanding the Emotional-Relational Dimension of Nurses' Work Life.

 4th Annual Conference and Meeting of the Labour Law Community (LLC)

When and where: 15 - 16 November 2024 Università degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro (Bari, Italy)

Session: Improving Working Conditions and Fighting Discrimination in the Care Sector: A Comparative Legal and Psychosocial AnalysisPresenter: Ziga Podgornik Jakil (European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)): National Report about the Working Conditions and Discrimination in the German Care Sector