A new law threatens the professional existence of many social workers in Austria. With the Social Work Designation Act coming into force in March 2024, only graduates of universities and technical colleges will be allowed to use the title of “social educator.” Two parties involved are filing a lawsuit.
For Mr Kohlberger from Linz (Upper Austria), retraining as a social worker was originally intended as a sustainable integration into the labour market. It was explained to him several times that the professional title was secured in the long term. “We were told at the time that nothing would change,” the 51-year-old explains. Now he is not only threatened with the loss of his professional title, but also with significant salary losses.
Consequences of the new law
Birgitt Langerreiter, a former nurse, is also fighting the consequences of the new law. Due to health problems, she had to give up her long-term job and decided, on the recommendation of the career development institute, to train as a certified social worker.
A prospectus stated that she could work in various areas of leisure education after graduating. An important perspective for the 57-year-old, as she wanted to work as an afternoon nurse at schools. “I live in Amstetten (Lower Austria) and because of the proximity I did my training in Linz. When I finished everything, I found out that the training in Lower Austria was worthless.”
“Both mandates indicate that they could have completed their studies without any problems – if only they had known that this would be necessary,” says lawyer Hubert Niedermayr. The lawyer assumes that hundreds of other people in Austria are affected. But it is not only the affected who suffer, but also our education system, which is desperately looking for teachers.
Source: Krone
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