Austria’s long-term live-in care sector relies heavily on migrant carers from Central and Eastern Europe who are formally self-employed but structurally dependent on intermediary care agencies. While self-employment offers flexibility, carers face major disadvantages such as a lack of social protection, no collective bargaining, and reliance on agencies for work, contracts, and conflict resolution. The dual role of agencies—supportive but at the same time where carers are dependent on them— and the self-employed status of the live-in carers create imbalances, leaving carers without collective interest representation. Their working conditions, shaped by 24-hour availability in private homes also create risks of potential exploitation and precarity, requiring new future pathways of better regulatory frameworks that fit the needs of the live-in carers.
The brief is available in both English and German.
