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Economic risk: Daycare places are rare in Germany

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Bernd Thissen/dpa

Dozens of top executives from DAX and MDAX companies, research institutions and university hospitals have warned of the negative consequences of the daycare crisis on Germany as a business location.

"There are a lot of absences because employees don't get their children cared for," said Ingo Autenrieth, CEO of Heidelberg University Hospital, to the "Zeit Online" portal. 

According to the report, Autenrieth and other top managers fear, among other things, that they will lose mothers to the labor market again, especially in times of skilled labor shortages.

“It is still mostly women who make up for closing days, reduced opening hours and a lack of staff,” Sabine Kohleisen, board member of the Mercedes-Benz Group, is quoted as saying.

Christian Gleimann, human resources manager at E.on, also criticizes: "Many women would like to work full-time, but can't."

According to the report, companies are now trying to get more involved in child day care.

But those responsible are confronted with extensive bureaucratic hurdles: Hellofresh, for example, failed in its attempt to set up its own daycare center - because the local green space was not large enough, according to "Zeit Online".

Porsche also wanted to build its own daycare center on the company premises in Zuffenhausen and open it up to children from the district - which was not approved.

“Given the current situation, I have no understanding whatsoever,” Andreas Haffner, Porsche’s Chief Human Resources Officer, is quoted as saying.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, of the 60,045 daycare centers in Germany, only 780 are run by companies.

That corresponds to 1.3 percent.

Numerous daycare centers nationwide are suffering from an acute shortage of staff.

Care times are no longer reliable due, among other things, to a lack of skilled workers and are often restricted.

In addition, according to calculations by the Bertelsmann Foundation, there is a lack of 400,000 daycare places.

Employer President Rainer Dulger sees the state above all as having a duty: “For more than ten years there has been a legal right to a daycare place for children aged one and over.

So far, the need has never been met," he told "Zeit Online".

“We can no longer afford such a failure of the system economically.”

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