Precarious Situations of Care Workers in Home-Based Elder Care in Slovenia

Abstract

Based on policy analysis and individual interviews, the author analyzes the care workers' precarious situations in home-based elder care in Slovenia, a post-socialist, European Union country characterized by a rapidly aging population and delays in adapting a long-term care system to this new social risk. Employment and quasi-employment positions which coexist in home-based care can be sorted along two continuums: between public and market service; between formal and informal work. The author argues that working conditions in home-based care differ according to the position of the care worker on these two continuums, that is, being employed in public services, being self-employed, working in informal care markets, holding a status of family assistant, or being an informal family caregiver. Although the working conditions in public services are deteriorating, the analysis shows that precarity is more severe in market and informal care, while formalization and socialization of care bring about less precarious conditions.

Dimensions of job precariousness and associations with workers’ health and well-being in Swedish homecare

“…The first dimension, employment precariousness, refers to instability, insecurity and/or uncertainty in employment conditions (Kalleberg, 2009), including aspects such as low pay, limited social benefits, a low level of regulatory protection, temporary contracts, part-time work and non-standard work hours (Rodgers and Rodgers, 1989;Vosko et al, 2009;Juliá et al, 2017).Temporal precariousness constitutes the second dimension and refers to various forms of temporal uncertainty and/or poor temporal conditions of work (Vosko et al, 2009;Hrzenjak, 2017), including aspects such as strict time measurements, lack of time and time pressures (Rubery et al, 2015;Tufte and Dahl, 2016). The third dimension, job-control precariousness, refers to working conditions that involve low discretionary power for employees, including limited opportunities to exercise control about how to organise their daily work and limited scope to alter their work methods and tasks (Rodgers and Rodgers, 1989;Karasek and Theorell, 1990) to respond to individual and changing needs (Fisher and Tronto, 1990;Clarke, 2015).…”

Multi-local and cross-border care loops: Comparison of childcare and eldercare policies in Slovenia

“…Besides underpayment, intensification of work and long working hours represent the key features of the bad working conditions in institutional and home-based eldercare (Hrženjak, 2017).…”