Five months of talks lead to a result. From March to August, Deputy Governor Christine Haberlander (VP) met educators, trade union representatives, but also the association of cities and municipalities during her dialogue tour. A package worth six million euros is the result, the measures contained in it “can be implemented immediately,” said Haberlander yesterday. And action must be taken quickly, because there are no offspring. 10,774 employees work in Upper Austria, around 300 supervisor positions are vacant according to the state. One can only estimate how big the shortage really is, because the employers are the municipalities, not the state.
In the short term, the urgently needed new staff cannot be found. The package of measures presented yesterday therefore focuses on two other areas: “On the one hand, existing employees should be relieved,” says Haberlander. “On the other hand, investments are to be made in the training of new employees.”
A key that no longer fits
On average, 23 children have to be looked after by one teacher and one assistant; in extreme cases, the number can be increased to 25 children. That’s far too much, unions and educators have been criticizing for months. The care key needs to be adjusted, the current one is no longer up to date. The individual care of the children so impossible. The new package of measures includes a “clear commitment to the group size of 23 children”. The state reserves half a million euros to support groups larger than 23 children. In Upper Austria, this affects 70 out of 2,400 groups.
In addition, the state is investing one million euros in integration. 80 assistants are to be hired to facilitate work with children with a migration background. These should be educators or assistants, many of whom will probably have to be trained first.
Ideal case: joint advertising
The state of Upper Austria is providing half a million euros for training measures in elementary education. Exactly what the money will be used for is still being worked out. Although the sponsors of the kindergartens – Caritas, Volkshilfe, but also communities – are responsible for recruiting staff, the state wants to support them with advertising with an additional 100,000 euros. Ideally, as part of a large-scale, joint campaign.
The mentoring program is also being expanded. After completing BAfEP (educational institution for elementary education), young educators are assigned a mentor. Their number is now tripled to 60 supervisors.
More preparation
With three of the six million euros, the “preparation time” item takes up the lion’s share of the budget. Educators have to prepare their work, talk to parents and deal with bureaucracy; they don’t look after the children during this time. Full-time employees have three hours a week in the crèches, seven hours in kindergartens and after-school care centers and eight hours in curative education facilities. In the case of part-time employees, this time value was previously aliquoted – i.e. adjusted in relation to the extent of employment. A 20-hour worker had three and a half hours. That’s gone now. The 2,300 educators affected now receive more paid preparation time.
The additional leave is also adjusted. Pedagogues get ten days of additional vacation per year, but so far helpers don’t. Extending the regulation to helpers is an “important step towards making the professional field more attractive,” said Michaela Langer-Weninger, the state councilor responsible for public service law.
praise and early criticism
The package presented yesterday improves “in particular the working conditions of the staff”, praised the President of the Association of Municipalities, Johann Hingsamer. In the future it will be “important to emphasize the advantages of the job profile of kindergarten pedagogy in public,” said the Mayor of Wels, Andreas Rabl (FP). The package reflects “what is feasible,” said the mayor of Linz and head of the association of cities, Klaus Luger (SP). “I am aware that some of the unions’ wishes remain unfulfilled.” Although Friday was agreed as the presentation day, GPA and younion had already pushed ahead on Wednesday, published the plans and criticized the package as “insufficient”. The measures would “pass by a real relief”. However, in a broadcast yesterday, Christian Jedinger, younion state chairman, and GPA managing director Wolfgang Gerstmayer praised the package as the “first step towards relief”. But further measures are needed.
Source: Nachrichten
