“We want decent wages”: a family caregiver has been on hunger strike for eight days in Lourches (North), where she received the support of colleagues on Saturday to denounce the low remuneration of this profession.
“I am asking for an increase in our wages, we work 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and I am paid between 2.5 and 3 hours of minimum wage per day per person received”, denounces Thérèse Bauwens, 69, who welcomes two elderly people and a disabled person into her home. His job: “welcome these people, do the shopping, meals, toilets, care for them, organize daily activities, outings, receive families, etc. “, she explains.
She claims to drink “only coffee” since February 5, and has moved into her garage, while a colleague replaces her at home.
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Nearly 9,000 hosts in France
Today, “we are demanding a salary of six hours a day, we are not too greedy, a standardization of remuneration on the territory (they vary according to the departments) as well as the increase in maintenance costs”, paid to the hosts for taking care of their guests, she explains in front of her garage where around thirty colleagues have come to support her.
“556 euros in maintenance costs per month” and per person welcomed “to buy meat, hygiene products, maintenance, for electricity, heating, water, transport … We can’t do it”, she breathes, in front of a sign “What will it take for the government to look into foster families? “. “We don’t want to become gravediggers,” she insists, referring to the investigative book by journalist Victor Castanet denouncing the practices of the Orpea group in its nursing homes.
France has 8,789 family caregivers according to the Institute for training, research and evaluation of medico-social practices, and 13,810 people are welcomed there. The North has 500 according to the Department, aware of the claims of Thérèse Bauwens.
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