Dear colleagues, friends, solidary people! In our current newsletter, we would like to give you an overview of our ongoing...
Read moreWe need a representation of interests for 24-hour carers!
LET’S GET ORGANISED!
We demand an end to bogus self-employment for 24-hour personal care workers and take legal action!
Good care and support needs good working conditions!
Therefore we go to court.
To finance the trial, we have started a crowdfunding project at respekt.net.
…A big “THANK YOU” to all who help finance the trial!
Special thanks to RD Foundation Vienna for the generous donation.

You can help finance
the process here:
IG24 – Interest Group of 24h-Carers in Austria:
WHO WE ARE – OUR GOALS
We are 60,000 and indispensable!
Every few weeks we, mostly women, travel from Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Croatia or Hungary to Austria, on often overpriced transport, to look after and care for physically and/or psychologically seriously ill people in their homes. For several weeks, seven days a week, 24 hours a day, often completely isolated with the people we care for.
We work as self-employed entrepreneurs, although neither the place, time nor content of the work have the character of self-employment. We work as assistants, although our daily work would be inconceivable without carrying out care activities.
But because our pseudo-self-employment and our status as assistants makes our labour cheaper, our demands have so far gone unheard.
Our social security is almost non-existent, there is no protection for us under labour law. We work for a shameful two to three euros an hour, 24 hours a day. The path to poverty in old age is guaranteed; in retirement we are usually left with no more than one to two hundred euros per month.
Almost all of us are placed with people in need of care by agencies. Agencies that charge a lot of money for their mediation work, from us and from the persons in need of care, with often immoral clauses in their contracts – agencies to which we are largely delivered unprotected. The fact that there are now almost a thousand agencies in a small country like Austria is evidence of the gold-rush atmosphere in this industry.
In the households where we work, in addition to the difficulty of the work, we also repeatedly find inhumane conditions; we are often housed in small chambers that do not deserve the term room; often the food we receive is insufficient. Often our access to electricity, heating or hot water is restricted by the relatives of the person in our care. Often the work we are asked to do (gardening, taking care of animals, etc.) has nothing to do with the actual assistance work. We are often subjected to (sexual) assault and violence by the patient, but also by family members.
It is for all these reasons that we are now organising!
Some of us have joined forces with supporters to form the
IG24: Interest group of 24 hour carers.
You can join us, too!
Our goals:
We want to enforce an employment relationship regulated by the public sector and paid accordingly.
…which enable us to consistently confront grievances within the employment relationships, in the placement companies and the families.
The experiences of the Romanian and Slovakian 24-hour counsellors as well as the flagship project CuraFAIR of Volkshilfe Upper Austria clearly show that the free offer of independent legal counselling in the mother tongue already represents an enormous step forward. The quick implementation of counselling centres in every province is therefore an urgent and effective measure.
We work as assistants, although our daily work would be unimaginable without performing care acts.
No more inhumane conditions! Decent accommodation and food, contact points in case of (sexual) assault and violence against us.
We want to regain our dignity as women and as migrant workers and better support each other in our everyday isolation facing often excessive demands.

Care4Care: from precarious to safe working conditions
Improving the working conditions and safe labour migration of migrant 24-hour caregivers working in Austria

Our Work, Our Rights!
This project is dedicated to digital opportunities for giving 24-hour carers access to objective information. The goal is to highlight to them their rights and the legal options open to them

Carers go to court!
We demand an end to bogus self-employment for 24-hour personal care workers and take legal action!
IG24 NEWS
Due to work overload, we are currently unable to translate all news into all of the languages in which we offer content. Please understand …! If you want to read all news, and understand German, please click on the red button.
HELP! Translators urgently needed!
Dear friends of IG24,
We are urgently looking for volunteers to translate news articles and updated information on our website!
Most of our resources go directly into advising and supporting colleagues.
Subject: Help with translations
THANK YOU!
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IG24 proudly presents: Newsletter#3
Dear colleagues, friends and people in solidarity! In the first newsletter of 2023 we want to give you an overview...
Read moreWhy quality certification has little to do with quality, but all the more to do with the power and profit interests of placement agencies and WKO functionaries.
There is a good series of articles on the topic of “Quality certification of placement agencies”: Part 1: https://www.moment.at/story/oeqz-24-betreuung-agenturen Part...
Read moreSelf-employment of home care workers in Germany and Austria – Good solution or just another exploitation model?
A statement by the German counselling centres and IG24 In Germany, the ruling of the Federal Labour Court on the...
Read moreDangerous transports, care reform, bogus self-employment: IG24 in the Ö1 Health Magazine
https://sound.orf.at/kalender/oe1/20221214/1640 On 14.12.2022, IG24 was invited for an interview on the programme Radiodoktor, the health magazine of Ö1. The topics...
Read more“Dignified work- dignified care”
International Conference on Domestic Workers in Spain IG24 had the opportunity to participate in the conference on domestic workers in...
Read moreIG24 proudly presents: newsletter#2
Dear colleagues, friends, people in solidarity! Almost in time for the beginning of autumn, we want to give you an...
Read moreIT’S ENOUGH! – Our basic needs must be secure! – Sign petition
Sign the petition against inflation now! Our basic needs must be secure: Heating or showering must not be a luxury,...
Read moreWhy caregivers want to organise and go to court
The feminist-development organisation Frauen*solidarität published an article by our colleague Simona Ďurišová in their magazine, which is dedicated to the...
Read moreFocus Conference: Care & the World of Work
Focus Conference: Care & the World of Work The focus conference on the topic of care & the world of...
Read moreBook presentation Glass Borders, Peter Birke: 9 June, 18:00 echoraum, Sechshauser Strasse 66, 1150 Wien
Buchpräsentation Grenzen aus Glas/ Peter Birke 9.6. 18:00, echoraum Sechshauser Straße 66, 1150 Wien We are very happy that together...
Read moreAmnesty International’s petition for fair working conditions in 24-hour care is only open until mid-June! Sign now!
Amnesty International is campaigning to improve the working conditions of 24-hour caregivers with the “24 Hours Essential” campaign. Use the...
Read moreIn 2021 IG24 won the “SOZIALMARIE” main prize :o)

We also won the “SOZIALMARIE” audience award. THANK YOU :o)

We are member of the UNDOK
(4.1.2023)