Get a job, they said...
Stories from the labor market from Ukrainians in Austria, ahead of another meeting we volunteers have with the labor ministry tomorrow.
Tomorrow is yet another meeting, scheduled into our Google calendars months in advance, during which we (in this case, Jenia and I), will talk about the issues most on the minds of Ukrainians in terms of access to the labor market in Austria. We will be politely listened to, notes will be taken, and in all likelihood, through no direct fault of our conversation partners, absolutely nothing will change. That is how government works. People attend an awful lot of meetings, do an awful lot of talking, sometimes there is a breakthrough, very often no one manages to change a status quo.
I asked my Telegram group yesterday to share with me their stories about their own experiences looking for and working in Austria. Some of the responses were eye-opening, and I would like to share them with you here now. I have removed the names but left the location, as location does play a role — the laws regarding employment differ even amongst Austrian states.
Yesterday I spoke with a woman whose husband (they have a child with severe special needs) worked for a distributor for Amazon for nearly a year. The company screwed him on every step of the way. Time spend travelling to and from first and last drop-offs was not paid. Days worked fell off the roster, and he wasn’t paid for them. In the end, he calculated he was cheated out of €1000 of earnings over 11 months. He was then fired before he would have worked long enough to be eligible to claim unemployment while looking for a new job. His wife explained this all to me as the choices one makes (a) without German skills and (b) with a family to feed. He had originally found this work through adverts posted into Telegram groups looking for Ukrainians, but the company itself was run by “Arabs” (I don’t know the nationality). It is certainly a classic scheme that a group of immigrants who arrived ten years ago now makes money on the backs of those who just arrived. You see this the world over. Some believe it is a right of passage, e.g. we suffered and were cheated, so everyone else should too. In any case, I think there are many such stories.
D’s story (cancer patient, middle aged, male, Lower Austria)
“Hi Tanja. Could you please ask how those of us with disabilities can find work. Or how we can receive some kind of additional training. AMS (this is like the Austrian equivalent of a Job Center but ironically they actually do not help people find jobs, only help edit resumes, pay out unemployment, decide who can be hired for which role, etc. — IMHO AMS is a bureaucratic behemoth the Austrian labor market could do without) gently told me they cannot help. I wrote to the WIFI (sort of like a community college funded by the business owners’ association), I told them I have a diploma as a professional masseuse. That I am handicapped. I don’t know if my massage training is accepted in Austria. That I would like to take an additional course and work. But that I do not know where to go and what to do.
They wrote me back, that if the employer has no objections, I should just work. That’s it. They didn’t offer me to learn anything new or additional. Everyone says go on your own and find work. But how to find a new profession? I know there are some women who are taking courses under such a program. But what should handicapped men do? Who are ready to learn and work. And don’t want to live on state handouts.”
A’s story (single mom of five year-old, college educated, Upper Austria)
“Steyr, Upper Austria. I have been asking for two years for my son to be able to stay the whole day in kindergarten. Even when I found a job, they don’t give it to us. They say there are no spaces, you are on the waiting list. There are only 6-10 kids in the group.
For a single mom, without parents or any kind of helpers, it is a dead end. The other kindergartens are also full. So you can only work from 8am until noon. But almost all offers for cleaning start at 6am, or in the evenings. I am rejected from almost everything I apply for. I have applied for jobs in my area of training, as a salesclerk, as a breakfast cook and cleaner. Either they find better candidates, either they make note of my details for the future, etc.
I was able to find a job through an acquaintance, but I was fired two months later because they found a cleaner who could work full-time. They fired me as if we both agreed to it. But I didn’t receive my salary for the last month, and have been waiting for two weeks already.
This question is really a hot topic for moms with small children who are here alone and have no one to help look after them. I was not able to do a childcare sharing arrangement with another mom. Most people are here with their families.
And a question about education. If you have a university degree, various courses, but here that is not valued. I would like to have the opportunity to take some additional classes, online or offline. Some courses which would help me then get a job. Not everyone is physically capable of manual labor in the kitchen or cleaning from morning until evening.”
J’s story (Tirol)
“With work the situation is as follows (personally for me): I was able to have my diploma certified in Austria as a pianist and teacher of piano. I have this document. I sent my resume to all open positions in music schools. Here there are only state-run music schools and no private ones. Austria is a very musical country, we recall the Viennese and classics, and also Strauss and Schubert and the new Viennese.
They love music here and really enjoy taking lessons at any level. In my village in the Tirolean mountains there is a Bundesmusik Kapelle (it is true it is only a church orchestra). Local residents play in it, that is the postman, a secretary, a bus driver, and a farmer. The village even has its own music school. But! It is empty. Because no one works in it, the classes are empty, there is all the equipment and instruments. But there is no one 😞. But there is a big wish to work in the school…but tons of bureaucracy and unclear rules. I have already learned German to B1 and have a lot of experience (15 years of teaching in a music school in Ukraine). Here I have also taught privately. I know with 200% certainty that children in the next village would like to learn to play the piano, and they wait on the list for 2-3 years! And yet there is a teacher, willing to teach, there is a school, there is a piano. But…all depends on the headquarters for all music schools of Tirol, which already invited me for an interview (which was actually a four-part serious exam). But they only offered me work 4 hours from where I live and only 6 hours per week 😭.
Question: what can the directors of the music schools not decide on their own which teachers to hire, those who are completely local? What is that only decided via the head office? Why make things so difficult? Why do children who are wanting to learn and pay for lessons have so much trouble accessing a teacher who is ready to teach and is there where there are empty classrooms waiting to be used? Why are there instruments bought with government money which are now covered in dust and do not work for the benefit of society?
Thank you, sorry if this is to long, I get boiled over 😔.”
I immediately told J that her story is like a Chekov short story about the dysfunctional nature of how so much of the Austrian labor market is structured. School principals also cannot hire and fire teachers. That can only be done by the education ministry, which does not observe how they work on a daily basis. Private business owners tell me when they want to hire third-country nationals for jobs in Austria, they must first ask for AMS “approval” and in most cases AMS tries to convince the employer that an Austrian could be hired for the job, even though the work experience and qualifications between the two candidates could be night and day in favor of third-country national (e.g. in IT).
This managed socialism is really messing with the labor market, and ironically, does not lead to higher employment. This seems to suit a lot of people, as after one has worked for 14 months, one can collect unemployment and then take some classes, which are offered out whether or not you want them. This whole further education schemes seems to be big washing of taxpayer dollars. I imagine the taxpayer-funded mathematics of these semi-mandatory further education courses are in transparent as well, just like those of the German language courses paid for by ÖIF.
As I said to the Ukrainians this morning, I think for folks with high education and cushy office jobs, they cannot imagine how hard it is in reality for recent immigrants to Austria to be hired for even jobs well below one’s professional qualifications. I myself have experience this for YEARS, periodically applying for jobs I know I could do in my sleep, only to be rejected on the grounds of “we found a better candidate”. The most recent rejection made me laugh out loud. It was for a part-time job translating for Ukrainian families with special needs kids. Accompanying them to doctors appointments and the like. I was rejected because I do not have a degree in social work. I will frame that one day alongside the rejection I received for train station translator from the same NGO.
Yes, really.
Just as I was about to hit send, I received another two stories.
A’s story:
“My husband is an engineer in construction. In Ukraine he monitored the quality of construction, he was a technical observer. Not knowing German, he went to work here as a simple worker performing a variety of tasks, he lost his health after six months, he has been trying for the last six months to get his diploma certified here, they are still working on it… :( I am trying to get a job in a nursing home as an aid, I am learning German so that I could take a class to be a nursing home aid, you need B2 German…”
E’s story (small town, Lower Austria near Czech border)
“I am working in my second job in Austria, and I also found my first job through locals who gave me advice. I am working in a nursing home. The schedule suits me. Of course I have a university degree, but I would need C1 German to work in my profession. My husband is an engineer and works as a packer in a factory, three shifts, the work is hell, he has to work fast, and they check, engineers are needed everywhere even at the factory, but you need B2 German, it is hard even with English.
We are learning German with an online tutor, because there are no courses near us, we pay for it ourselves, as the online classes offered by ÖIF are at fixed times that don’t match our work schedules. So we have to do it on our own.”
In short, “get a job” is not nearly as simple as it sounds.