Who we are
Who we are
IG24 – Interessengemeinschaft der 24-Stunden-Betreuer:innen
The Interessengemeinschaft der 24-Stunden-Betreuer_innen (IG24) is a self-organised, non-partisan association supported by activists with the aim of representing the interests of the professional group in a comprehensive way. We no longer want people to talk for us, we want to speak for ourselves. The initiators of the association are Iniciativa24, an association of Slovakian carers, and DREPT (Justice in Care and Personal Assistance), an association of Romanian carers.
We offer support for interested carers of other nationalities who want to become active in organising within their community and who want to build up advisory and lobbying structures comparable to the Slovakian and Romanian colleagues (ideally also within the framework of IG24).
The communities’ own initiative is the most important tool of IG24.
Due to the lack of urgently needed counselling services demanded by IG24, we offer our members mother tongue counselling by counsellors (currently Romanian, German and Slovakian) in cooperation with lawyers.
Fight against apparent self-employment – PROPER EMPLOYMENT CONTRACTS NOW!
We want to enforce an employment relationship regulated by the public sector and paid accordingly.
Establishment of free, independent advisory structures
…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.
Publicly addressing the grey area of care and support
We work as assistants, although our daily work would be unimaginable without performing care acts.
Making taboo issues such as (sexual) violence in the workplace visible and combating them
No more inhumane conditions! Decent accommodation and food, contact points in case of (sexual) assault and violence against us.
Restore our dignity
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.
Ute Bock
Award 2023
Sozialmarie main prize 2021
and Sozialmarie Audience Award 2021
History and activities of the DREPT association
The association “DREPT – Interessenvertretung der 24-Stunden-Betreuer_innen” is a self-organised group of Romanian 24-hour personal carers and activists who fight for better working conditions in this sector. In German, the word “DREPT” means right – because rights and justice are what is missing in this sector and what we are fighting for.
In August 2020, “DREPT” was established as a non-profit association. However, the core team, or rather the 24-hour personal carers and activists, have been demanding better working conditions and fair labour rights in this industry together for many years. The group emerged directly from the Romanian care community, out of the need and desperation of being alone and structurally unprotected from exploitation. The colleagues who co-founded DREPT could no longer close their eyes to the many forms of abuse and exploitation to which their colleagues were exposed. And therefore they started to organise.
Our main services are education about the rights and activities of carers, but also individual counselling, support and crisis intervention as well as political lobbying.
This year, the solidarity of carers has spread across borders: We have joined forces with our Slovakian colleagues from the organisation Iniciativa24. Together we founded the umbrella organisation for the representation of the interests of all migrant carers: IG24.
Our struggle is in Austria, but our solidarity is international.
Visit our Facebook page!
History and activities of the association Iniciativa24
Iniciativa24: advocacy of Slovak 24-hour carers came into being in times of the Corona pandemic – also as a reaction to the abuse and discrimination of carers during the Corona crisis.
Based on research into the conditions in this sector (see the thesis by Simona Durisova: The Organisation of Exploitation. Social and Labour Discrimination of Care and Support Workers in the Context of 24-Hour Care, with Special Attention to the Role of Placement Agencies) and reflecting on the problems and needs of Slovak carers, we would like to focus on 24-hour care in Austria in the long term.
Long before the outbreak of the Corona crisis, there was the idea of creating an interest group for personal carers. But it was Corona that challenged us to “take action”. Thus, Iniciativa24 was started as an informal platform on Facebook, where we shared our petition: “Fair application conditions for 24-hour carers” within the framework of the Hardship Fund.
This was followed by a series of educational videos for carers on YouTube, which show and explain the abuses in the industry. There are very good reasons why carers feel disadvantaged and exploited….
In the course of our research on the topic, we came across the online platform of the Romanian carers DREPT PETRU INGRIJIRE. Immediately after the first contact, a cooperation developed quite naturally between us, from which our first big project – the foundation of the association IG-24: Interessengemeinschaft der 24-Stunden-Betreuer_innen – emerged.
Visit our Facebook page!