Abstract
Despite sharing Catholic Social Teaching (CST) as their system of morals and both being confronted with marketisation pressures, working conditions at German and Belgian Catholic social service providers (CSSPs) of elderly care differ. We argue that an interdisciplinary approach is needed to understand such differences, as interpretation of CST is mediated by local contexts. Working conditions result from interactions shaped by each country’s respective religious, legal and socio-economic contexts, providing players with different levels of discretion and power resources. In Belgium, working conditions at Catholic elderly care providers tend to be better due to a strong Catholic trade union, encompassing labour market regulation and a universal legal system applying to all care providers. Moreover, there is strong interaction between these Catholic care providers and other Catholic institutions (“pillarisation”). By contrast, German CSSPs, operating as faith-based organisations with their own legal framework in a relatively liberalised and decentralised labour market, are able to use various flexibility practices which put pressure on working conditions. Using such practices is partially justified by the Catholic discourse on charity and altruism, stressing the particular nature of work in the Catholic care sector. Overall, the article demonstrates differences in the local application of CST. It also shows how transnational differences in working conditions at Catholic social service providers are the product of more than just local differences in the interpretation and application of CST principles, being shaped by interactions between a country’s specific religious, legal and socio-economic contexts.
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See for example https://www.boeckler.de/112437_112446.htm# or https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2018-10/altenpflege-verdi-allgemeinverbindlicher-tarifvertrag-jens-spahn-hubertus-heil; https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2010-09/gesundheitsbranche-leiharbeiter; https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/frankfurt/pflege-arbeitsbedingungen-eigentlich-sittenwidrige-loehne-15136879.html; https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/personeelstekort-en-slimme-politiek-de-uitdagingen-in-de-zorgsector-onder-de-loep~bec3763e/; https://www.demorgen.be/nieuws/zorgsector-zit-op-haar-tandvlees-wie-wil-nog-werken-in-een-structureel-onderbemande-sector~bab36414/.
In the context of another project on the care sector, one of the authors interviewed six sectoral experts in Belgium and Germany in 2017 and 2018.
Please note: The Germany national minimum wage was introduced on 1 January 2015. Full-time employees just earning the national minimum wage (i.e. €9.19 per hour in 2019) fall below the poverty line in Germany.
See for example https://www.zeit.de/wirtschaft/2010-09/gesundheitsbranche-leiharbeiter; https://www.faz.net/aktuell/rhein-main/frankfurt/pflege-arbeitsbedingungen-eigentlich-sittenwidrige-loehne-15136879.html; https://www.tagesspiegel.de/wirtschaft/ende-der-leiharbeit-bei-der-caritas-keiner-wird-weniger-verdienen/8491420.html.
Minijobs are jobs paying less than €450 a month; they are tax-exempt.
Less than 15 h a week.
Unemployed workers who take part in a labour market reintegration programme. For each hour worked, they receive at least 1 Euro on top of their unemployment benefit. It is important to note that one-Euro-jobbers do not have an employment contract with the organisation they work for.
Please note that employees in CSSPs may also join trade unions other than the Catholic one. However, according to an expert of ACV-CSC, the majority of unionised workers in CSSPs are members of the Catholic trade union.
There are a few insignificant Christian unions in Germany. Having negotiated several collective agreements in the 2000s which “smelt” of social dumping, some of them even lost their right to collectively bargain.
In Germany, trade union membership fees are 1% of net monthly income.
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This research was carried out in the context of an IdeaLab grant (CATSOC) from the Academic Foundation Leuven (Academische Stichting Leuven). We are grateful to Associate Editor Harry van Buren for his guidance throughout the review process as well as to the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful comments.
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Doerflinger, N., Bosschaert, D., Otto, A. et al. Between Morals and Markets? An Interdisciplinary Conceptual Framework for Studying Working Conditions at Catholic Social Service Providers in Belgium and Germany. J Bus Ethics 172, 15–29 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04498-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-020-04498-1