LINZ. It doesn’t matter whether it’s kindergartens, after-school care centers or crèches: all of these childcare facilities have one common problem – the lack of staff. It is becoming increasingly difficult for local authorities to find preschool teachers on the labor market. At the same time, the employees are already groaning under the workload. On average, two people are responsible for 25 children. In the pandemic, the challenges became even more difficult.
The GPA and Younion unions have collected a total of around 5,000 signatures for a petition to improve working conditions. Today they hand it over to the responsible LH deputy Christine Haberlander (VP).
Yesterday, Sunday, they announced that they would convene a round table with all those involved. However, that can still take a while, because Haberlander first refers to the federal government: “It is clear that for better framework conditions, financial support from the federal government is required in addition to financial support from the state, cities and municipalities,” she says.
“In the first half of 2022”
The federal government has announced that it will increase the funds. However, it is not yet possible to estimate “which objectives and support options will be provided by the federal government,” says Haberlander. As soon as that is clearer – but at least “in the first half of 2022” – you will be invited to a “round table” in Upper Austria. Upper Austria is pushing for the timely start of negotiations with the federal government.
Haberlander asks the elementary teachers to be patient. Of course you want to improve the staff situation. But she sees a solution “in a bundle of measures and not just in individual actions”. Haberlander cites the expansion of childcare options as one of the reasons for the lack of staff in childcare facilities, which also affects other federal states. In the past five years, 301 additional groups have been created, and this year another 100 are to be added. “In the past ten years alone, the workforce has increased by around a quarter.” On the other hand, the demographic situation is currently leading “to a shortage of skilled workers in almost all areas of work”.
“Hit in the face”
SP club boss Michael Lindner called Haberlander’s announcement “a slap in the face for all employees in the education sector”. For more than two years, “desperate calls for help from the employees have been coming in every day, and that cannot have escaped the attention of the state councilor for education, Haberlander. What has she actually done in these two years to improve the situation?”
Green education spokesman Reinhard Ammer found that childcare in Upper Austria needed “not just words of praise, but finally concrete action”.
Source: Nachrichten
