Eldercare professionals engaged in precarious work in the Netherlands faced shortages in personal protective equipment (PPE), testing, and staffing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This qualitative study of the health, financial situations, and paid and unpaid caring responsibilities of freelance eldercare workers illustrates how labor market inequalities have been (re)produced and exacerbated during the pandemic. Freelancers were pushed toward the margins of the labor market, working risky shifts and compromising their own interests, while unprotected by organizations, social security, or political efforts. Consequently, these workers were stretched to limits where they could no longer attend to their own health or to their paid and unpaid care responsibilities. The study places these empirical findings within Nancy Fraser and Rahel Jaeggi’s theoretical work on capitalism, illustrating how eldercare workers found themselves at the center of boundary struggles during the pandemic.

HIGHLIGHTS

• In the Netherlands, paid eldercare workers increasingly opt for freelance care work.

• During the pandemic freelance eldercare workers were seen as a health risk for clients.

• Some lost assignments; others were asked to work with insufficient PPE.

• As a result, many struggled with moral and financial dilemmas.

• Unions and other players in the Netherlands hold conflicting views on freelancers in eldercare.

• These views stand in the way of building an alliance to enhance the situations of all working in the sector.

在荷兰发生COVID-19大流行期间，从事危险工作的老年护理专业人员面临着个人防护设备（PPE），测试和人员短缺的问题。这项对自由职业老年护理人员的健康，财务状况以及有偿和无偿照料责任的定性研究表明，在大流行期间如何（重新）制造和加剧了劳动力市场的不平等现象。自由职业者被迫进入劳动力市场的边缘，进行有风险的变动并损害自己的利益，而不受组织，社会保障或政治努力的保护。结果，这些工人被拉到极限，使他们无法再照顾自己的健康或有偿和无偿护理责任。

强调

• 在荷兰，带薪老年护理工人越来越多地选择自由护理工作。

• 在大流行自由职业者中，老年护理人员被视为对客户的健康风险。

• 一些丢失的作业；其他人被要求在个人防护装备不足的情况下工作。

• 结果，许多人在道德和财务困境中挣扎。

• 荷兰的工会和其他参与者对老年护理中的自由职业者持不同观点。

• 这些观点妨碍建立联盟以改善该部门所有工作人员的处境。