The launch and presentation event of the Horizon Europe CARE4CARE project was held on the 16th and 17th of March 2023 in Florence in presence of all the partners, including EFFE. This project will study 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). The CARE4CARE consortium has 10 partners established in 7 different EU Member States, coordinated by the team from the University of Florence (Italy). In detail, the Consortium brings together seven research units: the University of Florence, the University of Bordeaux, the University of Seville, the University of Girona, the University of Lund, the University of Rzeszowskiun, and the University of Viadrina Frankfurt. TOUR4EU brings the necessary expertise to promote the project and its internationalization. EFFE and EFSI complete this consortium in order to provide the necessary skills to address workers in the sector while respecting the European perspective. In addition, partners can count on the support of the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI).
The project aims to develop suitable tools to improve job quality and counteract discrimination in the sector. The meeting, open to the public audience, reached a broad variety of stakeholders, from trade unions to employers, from families’ associations to equality bodies and networks dealing with healthcare. That’s to indicate the actuality and relevance of the topic the partners are dealing with, in line with actions undertaken by the European Union on setting up a European Care Strategy.
During the Conference, all the partners of the Consortium had the opportunity to present contents and aims of the workpackages led by each of them together with the role they will play in the project, giving to the audience a clear idea of the research and societal outputs pursued and the deliverables achieved so far. These include the creation of the project website, which is already online, as well as the definition of a communication strategy. Moreover, the University of Lund and the University of Girona drafted a questionnaire, fundamental to collect data and produce reports during the project lifetime.
The project will begin with a critically examine job quality and inclusive working conditions (JQIWC) of care workers, in the public and private care sector, in formal and informal economies and with a mapping of patterns of discrimination in the care sector, focusing on two factors: gender and migratory status. The aim is to offer a comparative analysis of the impact of anti-discrimination legislation and case law on social workers in the six member countries of the Consortium. National collective bargaining and equality bodies will also be examined from a comparative perspective to verify the existence of anti-discriminatory practices and any gaps in the implementation of relevant EU legislation.
This work will be carried out through comprehensive data collection and innovative socio-legal research on care workers in national, comparative and European/international contexts as well as dialogue with stakeholders, and will constitute a basis for evidence-based strategies and policy responses. EFFE will ensure that it provides an overview of the needs of the sector’s actors labor market.
You can watch the launch conference, follow all the developments and the next steps of the project via the website that has just been launched or by subscribing to the newsletter.
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