An introduction to the Respect Network in the district of Heinsberg/NRW

We are delighted that Hêvîdar Işik has contributed this article to our website. She is studying Labour Studies and Social Policy at the Universities of Bremen and Milan. For her thesis, she is investigating the Respekt@vpodnetworks in Switzerland and Respekt in Germany and their structures for improving the working and living conditions of live-in carers.

The increasing demand for care services in long-term care stands in stark contrast to the decreasing human resources and the financial gap in the care sector. According to the findings of the DAK Nursing Report 2024, a predicted decline in available nursing staff is forecast from the end of the 2020s, which cannot be offset by graduates of nursing schools.

To counter this problem, so-called live-in carers are increasingly being used. This form of employment, also known as "24-hour care work", involves providing care and living together with the person requiring care in their private home. Migrant women from Eastern European countries in particular often work for several months in countries such as Germany and Switzerland before returning to their home countries - a phenomenon known as "cyclical migration". This work requires not only physical labour such as cooking and cleaning, but also emotional labour.

In addition to the growing illegal labour market, which pushes live-in care workers into illegality, the fact that the actual working hours of care workers are not taken into account in existing employment contracts is a major problem. This is particularly the case because live-in carers live in the same household as the people they work for and often have to be constantly available. It is therefore difficult to distinguish between leisure time and working time. In addition, many live-ins in Germany work in so-called (sham) self-employment. As a result, the provisions of the Working Hours Act on maximum working hours and minimum rest periods do not apply, as they do not apply to the self-employed (see Emunds and Habel 2020)[1].

These precarious working conditions often lead to mental and physical overload for live-in carers. Although the German government announced an improvement in the legal framework for live-in care in the coalition agreement, no concrete measures have been taken to date.

However, where there are shortcomings, resistance is also forming. One example of this is the "Respekt@vpod" network, which was launched in the Basel region in 2013. This network offers live-in care workers their own platform to draw attention to their precarious working conditions and stand up for labour rights.

Although there is not yet a comparable network in Germany, local initiatives such as the "Respekt" network in the Heinsberg district of the AMOS cooperative are emerging, which campaigns for the interests of Eastern European care workers and offers support in carrying out their work. This initiative offers various activities and services, including German courses, training in care and information on labour rights.

Another measure of the network is the creation of the website https://respectcare.de/de, where care workers can find information about their rights, labour issues and organisations they can contact. The network also promotes exchange and support among live-in carers. To this end, meetings are organised between the carers to promote networking. Each meeting brings together around 10-15 live-in carers, with the network having contact with around 60 live-in carers in total. In addition, there is the option of receiving pastoral care from a pastor in Polish.

In addition to the distribution of flyers and the presence in social media, contact with the live-in carers is also established by having already networked live-in carers recommend the network to others. For this purpose, there are also dedicated WhatsApp groups in which contact with the live-in carers is maintained. However, due to the high potential for isolation associated with the working relationship of live-in carers, it is difficult for the network's activists to establish long-term contact. This situation is due to the fact that the live-in carers live with the people they work for and usually only work in Germany for a few months before returning to their home country. In some cases, it is up to the activists to pick up the live-in carers from their workplace themselves, as they are not mobile without aids such as bicycles.

Despite their work, which aims to improve the working and living conditions of live-in carers in Germany, there is no further financial support for the Respekt network outside of AMOS eG and the Diocese of Aachen. Some activists work in the network entirely on a voluntary basis, which is very time-consuming given their tasks.

In an interview, a spokesperson for the initiative emphasised that they would like to work more closely with the German trade unions. The Netzwerk Respekt would like to work together in broad alliances to publish political position papers that criticise the precariousness of the 24-hour care sector in a way that is effective for the public. The spokesperson emphasised that an attempt to initiate this was possible and that a position paper criticised the model of (bogus) self-employment and called for significant changes. However, further supporters and signatures are needed, including from the German Trade Union Confederation and its co-financed projects such as Fair Mobility, in order to achieve a broader base and a stronger impact.

The volunteer members of the network emphasise the need to bring the issue of live-in care into the public eye and exert more political pressure to enable changes in the sector. They draw a comparison with the meat industry, where improvements have been achieved through public awareness and political intervention. They argue that live-in care also requires a public debate that affects both the workers and the people being cared for. However, the sensitivity of the situation requires a broader public debate.

---

[1] Bernhard Emunds, Simone Habel: From undeclared work to the "grey market" - and beyond? Recent and future developments in so-called 24-hour care. In: Jacobs, Klaus et al: Pflege-Report 2020. Reorientation of care and financing. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-662-61362-7_7 (open access)