Children’s strikes – protest: whistles instead of morning circle

“It’s about the future of our entire society. We want to raise children and not manage them.” Fabien Damböck (25), a primary school teacher in Vienna-Ottakring, tells the “Krone” why he took to the streets on Tuesday. He was one of 10,000 employees of Vienna’s kindergartens and after-school care centers who demanded better conditions, more staff and higher salaries. Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s (ÖVP) announcement that he will make 4.5 billion euros available in the coming years is not enough for the association.

The Union demands an extra billion annually
She warns that the already acute staff shortage will worsen even further. There is a shortage of 1,200 teachers in the federal capital alone. The employee representatives demand at least one billion euros in investments in primary education every year to make up for the shortcomings of recent years.

A uniform federal framework law for the whole of Austria is also needed. The medical association, which wants to protest for similar reasons as the kindergarten teachers, expressed its solidarity. If we were to invest properly here, “we would need significantly fewer child psychiatrists,” says the chairman of the doctors employed by the Curia, Stefan Ferenci, who is himself a child psychiatrist.

“The primary school teachers are absolutely right,” confirms book author Andreas Salcher in an interview with “Krone”. The elementary educators are paid very poorly compared to the teachers. The problem is that they are not part of the education system and states and municipalities are responsible for kindergartens.

As a result, they don’t have a strong union behind them, Salcher says. It is urgent that the childcare ratio is radically reduced from currently 20 to 25 children per group to 6 to 8 based on the Scandinavian model. The Chancellor should make the issue his personal matter. It would have been better if the government had addressed the issue at the beginning of the legislature and not at the end, Salcher criticizes.

Kindergarten teachers only earn about 1,500 euros
The Momentum Institute has taken a closer look at salaries in kindergartens. Women in childcare receive an average net salary of 1,464 euros, which is only 72 euros above the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. In Tyrol, Upper Austria and Salzburg, work is even paid below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. Women receive the highest salary in childcare in Vienna, where they receive an average of 1,661 euros.