More staff. Now!

The lack of personnel continues to be cruelly felt in nursing homes, home care services, hospitals and socio-educational institutions. The OGBL’s Health, Social and Educational Services Syndicate has been sounding the alarm and drawing attention to this serious problem again and again.

Even before the pandemic, the OGBL had called for staffing levels to be adapted to the real needs in the field. Even if in the last few years, under the continuous pressure of the OGBL, the political leaders have finally recognized the problem and have taken some decisions in the right direction, there are still no short-term solutions in view of the urgency of the situation. It should be recalled that in European comparison, Luxembourg is rather poorly placed in terms of health expenditure in relation to GDP. It is therefore essential to invest more in our health system in the future.

Employees in the sector regularly observe that the workload is far from being properly proportioned, or even dangerously disproportionate, to the available staff.

It is high time to think about the quality of our health, care and socio-educational institutions and to put an end to this permanent understaffing situation!

If the problem of lack of personnel was often denied in the past, today no one dares to claim that there is no shortage. And this shortage must not be used as an excuse to avoid the need to establish clear and binding staffing levels.

In this context, the OGBL’s Health, Social and Educational Services Syndicate is demanding minimum staffing levels that are in line with the needs and that allow high-quality services and good working conditions.

To be able to implement this, it is urgent to increase the staffing levels in the socio-educational and care sector. In the hospital sector, minimum staffing levels must be introduced, which define on the one hand the distribution of staff according to the number of beds, and on the other hand the qualifications of the nursing staff in sufficiently high numbers.

On the other hand, attempts to prevent or weaken efforts to increase staff numbers, by claiming that they cannot find qualified staff, must stop. Because this is precisely the key to improving the situation and thus attracting more staff.

In this context, the OGBL notes with astonishment that last September, according to official figures, a total of 425 health professionals were registered with the ADEM and could have been hired in the areas of “medico-technical professions”, “paramedical care” and “rehabilitation and equipment”.

Furthermore, in some sectors, such as home care, private laboratories and the socio-educational sector, staff are mainly and often involuntarily employed on part-time contracts in order to simplify planning and to take maximum advantage of the fluctuation of reference periods to the detriment of employees. The fact that this has considerable negative consequences for the work-life balance of employees and certainly does not contribute to the attractiveness of professions that are currently experiencing a shortage does not seem to bother employers.

It would be possible here to recover hours in the sector by increasing the hours of involuntary part-time contracts and to obtain considerable improvements in working conditions in the process. All of this would be achieved through improved planning, with the obvious “unfortunate risk”, from the employers’ point of view, of creating occasional over-staffing. However, this would result in significant quality improvements for patients and staff.

On the other hand, in the socio-educational sector, it is more than surprising that only a fraction of the enrolled students who follow alternating training courses for educators are recruited and paid as “educators in training”. Prospective educators hear over and over again that there are not enough educator positions and as a result they are placed in precarious lower careers. This is completely incomprehensible in a sector where the shortage of educators is officially recognized by both politicians and employers. An increase in staffing levels would not only address the shortage in the short term, but also pave the way for young people to enter the sector in the longer term by valuing and recognizing their training.

In general, the number of fixed-term employment contracts in Luxembourg increased by 45.6% in 2021. A trend that the OGBL also notes in the health, care and socio-educational services sector, especially among young people who are the first to be affected by this phenomenon. This is all the more incomprehensible in a sector where the lack of personnel is more than obvious. The revision, or even the introduction of minimum staffing levels would certainly help to remedy this development and attract more young talent.

In 2020, the OGBL’s Health, Social and Educational Services Syndicate had already drawn attention to this disastrous situation and the need to protect employees in the sector under the slogan “Ouni Eis Geet Näischt”. During the negotiations of the collective agreements, the OGBL then focused on qualitative improvements of the workplaces and possibilities for the employees to recover from the enormously intensive work.

However, it is essential to create additional jobs in the sector and then to distribute and secure them through minimum staffing levels. That is why the OGBL Health, Social and Educational Services Syndicate demands: More staff. Now!

Press Release by the OGBL Health, Social and Educational Services Syndicate
February 2, 2023