The Legal Regulation of Domestic Care Work in Austria. A Law and Society Approach to Covid 19 Relief Measures for Migrant Domestic Care Workers

Autor(en)

Maria Sagmeister

Abstrakt

This article explores challenges faced by migrant domestic care workers in Austria during the Covid-19 pandemic. It discusses the accessibility of two Covid-19 relief measures, the “Stay Here Bonus” and the “Hardship Fund”. Building on a legal analysis of the relevant laws, it focuses on an analysis of the structural characteristics of these measures within the larger context of both a legal mapping of the domestic care work sector in Austria and the social formations structuring it, such as circular migration patterns and the gendered norms of the private household workplace. Herein, the article follows a Law and Society approach. The text clearly demonstrates how the varying implementation of the “Stay Here Bonus” in the Austrian provinces excluded migrant workers, and reinforced dependencies between workers and their agencies and clients. Also, regarding the “Hardship Fund”, the paper shows how issues related to migration affected its accessibility: Language barriers, the requirement of an Austrian bank account, and a tax threshold hindered many domestic care workers in applying for Covid-19 relief. The paper also examines how Austrian media portrayed the measures at the time and how the specific clauses were amended during the pandemic in reaction to objections by organised care workers and activists. Therefore, besides legal documents, newspaper articles and reports of care workers self-organisation were also analysed. The article concludes that many problems arising during the pandemic are rooted in the general legal regulation of the sector, particularly the self-employment model introduced by the 2007 Home Care Act, and must be understood in the context of circular migration.

Organisation(en)

Forschungsplattform GAIN - Gender: Ambivalent In_Visibilities

Journal

Revue des politiques sociales et familialies

Band

2024/1

Seiten

117-133

ISSN

2490-7944

DOI

https://doi.org/10.3917/rpsf.150.0117

Publikationsdatum

2024

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

505020 Sozialrecht, 504024 Rechtssoziologie

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/9a3c9f69-992e-4bc6-8c8e-57a7ebd07f78