Imbalance: The declining number of care workers is offset by a growing need for care places – because the population is getting older.
Image: Laila Sieber
The four-day week should make work in care more attractive – that’s how the city of Frankfurt thought about it. But there are hurdles that make the magistrate’s project a long way off.
The four-day week in nursing will not be introduced in Frankfurt for the time being. In May, the SPD, FDP, Greens and Volt factions submitted a motion to the city council. A multi-year pilot project for a four-day week with the same wages in a nursing home in Frankfurt was required. If the concept takes effect, it should be extended to all Frankfurt care facilities. The trial is to be accompanied scientifically in order to find out whether the working conditions in nursing can be improved as a result, the application said. Nothing has happened since then.
It is currently unclear whether the model test will take place at all. A care facility or department in which the model is tested in practice has not yet been found. Financial and practical issues have not been clarified. The city has yet to say how much the project would cost. According to the city treasury, the application is still being examined, and only then will it be decided how much financial resources the city will provide and whether the attempt will actually be implemented.