Fair and self-determined: Centre for Care Cooperatives (ZCK)
Care work is often overlooked in society and hardly valued. This applies not only to unpaid work, but also to paid care work, which includes childcare, caring for the elderly and cleaning. A systemically relevant profession - with precarious working conditions: strenuous physical labour at minimum wage, insecure employment relationships, hardly any co-determination and often a lack of social security characterise the everyday lives of many employees, most of them women.
A cooperative for cleaning staff
The Centre for Care Cooperatives (ZCK) wants to change this and has launched Autonomía in Zurich, a cooperative model that not only ensures fair pay and comprehensive social benefits for cleaning staff, but also enables them to work independently. Because the cooperative belongs to the cleaners. Cooperative members are supported in the transition to a self-organised way of working, and there are also training courses and opportunities for further education. For customers, Autonomía works like a traditional cleaning company: it handles order and payment processing centrally. With the support of the Migros Pioneer Fund, the ZCK would like to consolidate the model and roll it out throughout Switzerland.
A model for a better economy
With its cooperative concept, the project is committed to fair working conditions and socially responsible business practices, which as such should also serve as a model for other care and low-wage sectors. The aim is to create sustainable and fair working structures in care professions to the benefit of both employees and customers.
Centre for Care Cooperatives (ZCK)
Find out more about this Migros community involvement initiative - perhaps it's just what you're looking for?
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