The Covid-19 pandemic has emphasized the centrality of care work in modern societies, but it also notably highlighted many critical issues affecting the working conditions of care workers. Therefore, in September 2021, during her State of the Union speech, President von der Leyen pointed out the need for decent working conditions for all workers in the care sector and announced a European Care Strategy.
In this crucial context, the EU funded project Care4Care has been launched on 1st January 2023 with the objective to investigate 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.
The Project has been awarded a Horizon Europe grant of 2,739,012 euros for a three years lifespan to study the risks and conditions of vulnerability of care workers, to raise awareness and rights consciousness among them and their trade unions and to support the elaboration of legislative and policy proposals at the national and the EU level.
Coordinated by an experienced team at University of Florence (Italy), the Care4Care Consortium 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 Consortium can rely on the support of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
The ambition of the Consortium is firstly, 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 for European institutions and, secondly, to give voice to care workers and to their representatives in the design and delivery of policies and measures that affect their lives, thirdly to develop a web platform providing accessible information on working conditions for care workers in the Countries concerned.
For more information, please contact
Prof. Maria Luisa Vallauri (Project Coordinator – Associated professor of Labour Law Department of legal sciences, University of Florence, E-mail: marialuisa.vallauri@unifi.it)
Ms. Valeria Piantedosi (Communication team at TOUR4EU, E-mail: info@tour4eu.eu)
