Call for Pilot projects: Employers Who Care

Open Call Guidelines (.pdf)

Call for projects: Employers Who Care

The COVID-19 crisis has emphasized the importance of care work in all its shapes. However, the attention has mostly focused on institutionalised healthcare workers, neglecting the working conditions of the most marginalised and vulnerable care workers, those working in private households.

A great proportion of domestic workers in Europe are women of migrant origin, sometimes with no regular residence permit and/or with no regular contract. Following the pandemic outbreak, many domestic workers lost their employment, had no access to unemployment benefits, and, in some cases, live-in domestic workers were trapped in the employer’s house or ended up homeless following the loss of their employment.

The ultimate goal is the improvement of domestic workers’ working conditions, understood not only as compliance with the minimum legal requirements but also as fostering a better working environment, based on mutual understanding, equality and fairness.

The focus should be on employers as key actors for a sustainable change in the homecare sector. Their involvement is fundamental to improve the working conditions as well as to contribute to the recognition of care work as valuable. To this end, this pilot project seeks to gather those committed employers that could participate in the change, by enhancing their sense of social responsibility and sensitivity towards domestic work.

What sort of projects are we looking for?

The pilot project will aim to:    

• mobilise employers of domestic workers as actors for change;  
• raise awareness among employers of the rights, circumstances and needs of domestic workers and of the importance of acting as allies; 
• promote alliances among grassroot organisations and strengthen the voices of migrant women domestic workers; 
• disseminate the process and outcomes to raise awareness among the general public and other employers. 

what do we hope to achieve by funding this project?

The outcomes of the project should be:

• Setting up a network of employers
• Fostering dialogue and exchange among the different actors and empowering domestic workers through their involvement in the activities
• Increasing social awareness on the inequalities faced by domestic workers, as well as on ways to act as an ally following a set of best practices

Timeframe and funding

The pilot project should run from March 2022 until October 2022.

Project budgets are expected to range between 20,000€ and 40,000€.

Who can apply?

Projects should be implemented at the local or regional level in one of the eligible countries: EU27 as well as UK, Serbia, Iceland, and Turkey.

Eligible applicants are non-governmental organisations, associations from civil society and municipalities involved in the field of work and labour, migrant-related rights, gender and women’s rights, and human rights, as well as employers’ organisations, as long as they team up with domestic workers’ groups.  

They are expected to have collaborations established with other entities that might contribute to develop the project and/or facilitate contacts with the target groups, both domestic care, migrant women workers, and employers. 

Do you have a question?