Vienna kindergartens face shortage of 1,800 educators

Vienna’s kindergartens are short of around 1,800 educators, including about 840 in the city’s own facilities, ORF reported. The Younion trade union has threatened a “hot autumn” over the worsening staffing crisis and announced possible measures.

The union says pay is one cause of the shortage and is calling for a new salary package from Bettina Emmerling, Vienna’s education councillor. “The councillor owes us a salary package that would allow us to do a great deal more. There is a standstill,” union representative Manfred Obermüller told ORF.

Asked whether this could lead to a strike, Obermüller said the term was “very broad”. The union would begin with workplace assemblies, he said. It would also tell staff without pedagogical training, or staff who are not paid as educators, that they did not have to perform educators’ duties.

Vienna’s municipal kindergarten department, MA 10, confirmed that insufficiently qualified assistants are currently being deployed as educators in the city’s kindergartens. The department said support measures were in place.

“We are of course focusing on recruitment measures and job fairs,” MA 10 head Karin Broukal said. The department was also running a training initiative for existing staff, including assistants and assistant educators, to gain higher qualifications.

As of June, the city’s kindergartens had around 840 vacant posts for early childhood educators, up from 645 in May. Broukal said the measures were taking effect, but added that the question was how to make them work more quickly.

The city currently employs 3,360 early childhood educators and around 4,180 assistants. Vienna has about 88,000 childcare places for children aged up to six in public and private facilities, including around 33,000 in municipal kindergartens.

The Wiener Kinderfreunde, Vienna’s largest private kindergarten operator, currently has around 200 educational posts filled by people without the relevant training qualification. The organisation told ORF that these were mainly experienced assistants or people undergoing training.

Younion is calling for better pay, more training opportunities and uniform conditions, including rules on group sizes. The union also criticised a federal programme that provides three million euros over the coming years for training. Obermüller called the amount “a joke” and “an outrage”, saying he regarded the situation as a form of disrespect.