Event "Care Revolution - Ways to a fair distribution of care work" in Göttingen

On 13 March 2025, in the wake of 8 March, an event was held in Göttingen on problems in the distribution of care work, during which Viola Schubert-Lehnhardt from the Care Revolution network presented its political concept. You can read her report from Göttingen here:

At the invitation of the Göttingen Equal Opportunities Office, the Göttingen Women's Forum, the Local Women's Council and the verdi educational organisation as well as the Göttingen Coordination Office for Women and the Economy, the above-mentioned, well-attended event took place in the Holborn House in Göttingen. Viola Schubert-Lehnhardt presented the history and concerns of the Care Revolution network as well as its results and actions to date. This was followed by statements from a father of 3 children, an educator, an employer and two carers. In the lively discussion with the audience, the following problems were raised in addition to the need for general political changes (especially fair wages and good working conditions in the care sector):

1) The collective bargaining coverage for absences of educators* is currently insufficient at 13% above target, 19% would be needed to compensate for absences due to illness, holidays and fluctuation. A particular contradiction currently arises from the fact that daycare centres are sometimes completely closed for 6 weeks due to teachers' holidays, but parents can only take 2 weeks' holiday at a time. This repeatedly leads to conflicts with parents, which makes it difficult to work together to improve childcare conditions.

2) The situation is similar in the case of short-term absences due to illness. When parents are called in the middle of the day to pick up their children, this cannot always be reconciled with their employers or work schedules. In some daycare centres, parents in such situations are offered the opportunity to use the premises on their own responsibility and take it in turns to look after the children. The parents' wish for an educator to be present is not compatible with the legal situation in Germany: this educator would then be legally responsible for all decisions of the parents present as well as for the group of children alone.

3) The founder of a start-up that now has 50 employees reported the following problem: as all the employees are very young, the company wanted to set up a crèche or daycare centre as soon as it was founded. As the company is located in an industrial estate, this requires special official authorisation. This was also granted for the children of employees, but not for "external" children. However, this offer for children of parents not employed by the company was necessary in the start-up phase of the company, as there were not yet enough "own" children to justify the employment of childcare staff. The rejection of "external" children was justified on the grounds of noise and pollution in an industrial estate. Why this was an unreasonable burden for "external" children, but not for "internal" children, could not be explained...

4) Another point of discussion was the housing situation of older people and people with disabilities. Not everyone wants to live in a shared flat or in a care home. There is very good experience from the Netherlands with multi-generation houses. However, these need to be developed and promoted in a targeted manner. In Germany, similar facilities often bring together people from the same generation (e.g. in eco-villages), who naturally grow old together at some point and then face the problem of a lack of support.

5) The inadequate financial equalisation between the federal government and local authorities was cited as one of the reasons for the lack of financial support for local authorities. This brought us back to "big politics" and the Göttingen residents agreed on further joint actions. Their current next goal is to fight for the introduction of 8 March as a public holiday in Göttingen.