Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on The role of the social partners in reconciling working, family and private life
Date: 2007-07-11
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU employment policy, family, gender equality, participation of women, social policy, working conditions, working life

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Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on ‘The role of the social partners in
reconciling working, family and private life’

(2007/C 256/19)

On 13 February 2007, the European Economic and Social Committee received a letter from the upcoming
Portuguese Council presidency asking it to draw up an exploratory opinion on The role of the social partners
in reconciling working, family and private life.

The Section for Employment, Social Affairs and Citizenship, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 18 June 2007. The rapporteur was Mr Clever.

At its 437th plenary session, held on 11 and 12 July 2007 (meeting of 11 July), the European Economic
and Social Committee adopted the following opinion by 145 votes in favour, with four abstentions:

1. Background

1.1
Under the Lisbon strategy, the European heads of state or
government resolved to increase the proportion of women in
employment to 60 % by 2010. This objective was confirmed in
the integrated guidelines (Guideline No 17), which were adopted
as a key element of the new Lisbon strategy steering mechanism
in 2005.

1.2
The Lisbon strategy will achieve its ambitious objectives
for growth, employment and competitiveness more rapidly and
on a more sustainable basis if, despite the demographic decline
in the working-age population, successful moves are made to
further increase the number of people in employment in the EU
over the next ten years and to improve their skills. There is a
good chance of achieving both these objectives by considerably
increasing the number of women in work, since the upcoming
generation of young women has a keener interest in pursuing a
career and is also much better educated. It is vital to eliminate
any remaining obstacles on this front.

To that end, the EU Member States agreed, among other

1.3
things, on the following:

— resolute action to increase female participation and reduce
gender gaps in employment, unemployment and pay; and

— better reconciliation of work and private life and the provi-
sion of accessible and affordable childcare facilities and care
for other dependants (Guideline No 18).

The Portuguese Council presidency has

1.4
asked the
European Economic and Social Committee to draw up an
exploratory opinion on the role of the social partners in recon-
ciling working, family and private life.

1.5
The European social partners believe that reconciling
working, family and private life makes a key contribution to
economic growth, prosperity and competitiveness in Europe.

Reconciling working, family and private life is also one
1.6
of the priorities identified by the European Commission in the
Roadmap for equality between women and men adopted in March
2006 (1).
the Commission mentions three
issues of key importance for
reconciliation of
working, family and private life:

In this roadmap,

the better

1. flexible working arrangements for both women and men;

2.

increased care services;

3. better reconciliation policies for both women and men.

On 12 October 2006,

1.7
the European Commission
published a communication — already announced in the
roadmap — entitled The demographic future of Europe — from
challenge to opportunity, thereby launching a first-stage consulta-
tion of social partners on reconciling working,
family and
private life under Article 138 of the EC Treaty.

1.8
In the first part of the consultation, the Commission
family and
stresses the importance of reconciling working,
private life. It is essential to increase the female participation
rate, particularly against the backdrop of demographic change
and the resultant pressure on social security systems. Emphasis
is also placed on the role of reconciliation policies in achieving
the Commission's Lisbon goals.

In their responses to the Commission,

the European
1.9
social partners underline the importance of reconciling work
and family life, especially given the continued underrepresenta-
tion of women on the labour market and an increasingly ageing
population. They explicitly back implementation of the goals for
extending childcare set by the European Council in Barcelona in
2002. The social partners also agree that the three issues of key
importance identified in the Roadmap for equality between women
and men can be useful in achieving the objectives at hand. More-
over, the social partners stress that reconciling working, family
and private life and the issue of equal opportunities for women

(1) COM(2006) 92 final.

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and men at the workplace must take centre stage in the political
debate, especially in the light of demographic trends. In that
regard, particular attention must also be paid to eliminating
existing gender-role stereotypes, since, unless these change,
progress will be difficult.

2. The current state of play

1.10
In a bid to improve equal opportunities for women and
men at the workplace, the social partners (BUSINESSEUROPE/
UEAPME, CEEP und ETUC) (2) in 2005 adopted the Framework
of Actions on Gender Equality (3). Reconciling family life and work
is also explicitly included in the four core areas on which the
national social partners are to take action by 2010. The Council
of Ministers is therefore right in its desire to assign the question
of working time organisation — which is of such key impor-
tance for reconciling family life and work — to the social part-
ners in a bid to identify practical solutions for all concerned.

1.11
By helping improve working conditions, the social part-
ners can also help to improve families' lives. In that regard, they
have a key role to play. The Framework of Actions on Gender
Equality is one way in which the social partners are playing a
part in implementing the Lisbon strategy. Given that the causes
of the continuing imbalances on labour markets are complex
and interlinked, the European social partners are convinced that,
to promote gender equality, an integrated strategy is needed for
any successful resolution of
the issues involved. Reconciling
family and working life is one of the most important elements
in achieving that goal.

1.12
Some companies have stepped up their commitment to
reconciling family and working life in recent years, so that a
family-friendly approach has become an integral component of
their staffing policy and corporate philosophy, as is reflected in
the first joint follow-up report on the social partner agreement
published by the social partners in February 2007. Companies,
the social partners and the Member States must nonetheless
continue to work to eliminate those shortcomings that are still
in evidence (4).

1.13
Equal opportunities at the workplace, initiatives to help
reconcile family and working life, and ‘equal opportunities
employers’ as a management model are elements of the CSR
concept, which encourages companies to engage in best prac-
tices and act accordingly in the interests of their employees.

(2) BUSINESSEUROPE (formerly UNICE) is the umbrella organisation for
European employers' and industrial confederations. UEAPME is the
European association of craft, small and medium-sized enterprises.
CEEP is the centre of enterprises with public participation, while the
ETUC is the European Trade Union Confederation.

(3) http://ec.europa.eu/employment_social/news/2005/mar/gender_equa-

lity_en.pdf.

(4) See the EESC exploratory opinion of 14 March 2007 on the Economic
and budgetary impact of ageing populations, rapporteur: Ms Florio
(OJ C 161, 13.7.2007).

2.1
Social change has resulted in the emergence of a wide
range of different family structures. A policy aimed at recon-
ciling working, family and private life must take account of all
existing ways of life (e.g. one-parent families, blended families,
single people, divorced parents, adoptive parents, working
students, same-sex partnerships and people who live alone). The
growing number of older and very old people is also increasing
the need for care services both inside and outside the family.

Alongside their

2.2
job, women are still more closely
involved in the organisation of home and family than men and
thus find themselves frequently stressed and constantly over-
worked. This is particularly true of women farmers and women
who are self-employed. In such circumstances, women often feel
obliged to work part-time at lower pay with poorer pension
provision and poorer promotion prospects. Reconciling family
and working life is thus also a key tool in achieving workplace
equality both between women and men and also between
women with children and women without.

2.3
Precisely because the underlying issues — and the
options available for resolving them — vary not only from
Member State to Member State, but also from region to region
and indeed from company to company, there are no catch-all
solutions that would apply across the board. In this regard, the
Committee feels that the social partners also have a key role to
play in resolving the issues to be faced. Able, as they are, to
draw on the requisite structures in the individual Member States,
the social partners, through their commitment to helping recon-
cile family life and work, can have a critical impact on workers'
everyday lives.

2.4
Although the decision to have, or not to have, children is
a basically private matter, as is the decision to provide care and
attendance within the family for relatives or other particularly
close individuals in case of illness, disability or old age, the
effects of those decisions are also felt by society as a whole. The
legacy of the falling birth rate will be a future shortage of skilled
workers and managers, customers, employees, business people,
scientists and researchers, thereby adversely affecting the whole
of society (5). The state should therefore bear particular respon-
sibility in the following areas:

— material and financial support (benefit payments, recogni-

tion of relevant factors in pension calculations);

(5) On that point, see the EESC's exploratory opinion of 14 March 2007
change, rapporteur: Mr Buffetaut

family and demographic

on The
(OJ C 161, 13.7.2007).

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— supportive infrastructure (childcare, full-day schools, out-of-
and leisure
volunteer organisations, help

school
programmes offered by
facilities, for instance for outpatient care services);

and school-holiday

facilities

care

— adequate parental leave for mothers and fathers (including in

case of adoption); and

— a family-friendly work environment.

It

2.5
The Commission feels that flexible working time arrange-
ments are important in order to use the full potential of the
workforce.
follows then that such arrangements must be
equally available to women and men. A legal framework is
helpful in this regard. That said, the fact that take-up of such
arrangements is far more widespread among women than
among men generates a gender imbalance that has a negative
impact on the position of women at the workplace and on their
economic independence. More than in the past, therefore, men
should be encouraged to shoulder family responsibilities, above
all through incentives to take parental and paternal leave so as
to share with women the burden of unpaid household chores
and the care of children and relatives fairly and in a spirit of
partnership.

3. Role models

their

life plan. The fact

3.1
As a corollary of social change, women have become
much more highly skilled — and their role models and aspira-
tions have also evolved accordingly. Young women in Europe
today are better qualified than young men and see a career as an
integral part of
that women are
becoming more highly skilled should also mean a narrowing of
the gap in average pay between women and men. The current
pay differentials are to a great extent the result of the high
number of women who work part-time or have interrupted
their career for a relatively long period thus cutting the length
of their professional experience; they are also the result of the
lower percentage of women in management positions and lower
skills
among older women. Although collectively
agreed pay scales in particular provide a guarantee that women
and men with similar qualifications receive equal pay for equal
work, wage inequality still persists. Moreover, genuine freedom
of lifestyle choice will exist only if the social parameters are
such that women and men have the opportunity to structure
their lives as they see fit without having to face a positive or
negative value judgement from society because of it.

levels

3.2
Lifestyle choice is to a large extent determined not only
by the availability of appropriate childcare provision within a
particular country, but also by social attitudes both to working
mothers and to fathers who choose to look after the family. The
views of the social partners on these issues also have a pivotal

influence on social attitudes. Experience in the Scandinavian
countries and in Germany has shown that it may be useful to
introduce a provision whereby families receive certain financial
allowances (a proportion of child benefit, for instance) — or
receive them at a higher rate — only on condition that the
father also takes a certain amount of time out to look after his
child. This gives fathers a legal framework, making it easier for
them to devote a set period of time to bringing up their chil-
dren, while mothers also benefit from the opportunity to rejoin
the workforce earlier.

The Committee stresses that adjusting individual elements
3.3
will not be enough to make a difference to working women
facing dual strain as they try to reconcile family, working and
private commitments. Rather, the goal must be a fundamental
revamp of the way in which unpaid, non-job-related work such
as bringing up children, caring for relatives and organising
domestic chores is shared between men and women. Men must
be encouraged to share such tasks in a genuine spirit of partner-
ship. This requires a radical change in thinking and structure.

4. Social-partner support for reconciling working, family

and private life at company level

Demographic developments

4.1
these
involve have major implications for workers and employers
alike. The social partners at all levels play a key role in making
it easier to reconcile working, family and private life.

and the

changes

responsibilities,

4.2
A staffing policy that takes account of — and ensures a
fair balance between — work-related interests and the basic
and private
outside
concerns of each member of staff (both male and female), is the
basis for a successful corporate strategy to promote work-life
balance. For that to succeed, the individual Member States also
have to provide the following basic parameters:

commitments

family

— good childcare infrastructure — both for infants and for

growing children — which covers existing needs;

— a sufficient quantity and high standard of

care and
attendance provision for older people and people with a
disability;

— fair working time arrangements;

— measures to ensure that periods of leave or part-time work
to care for children or dependent relatives do not affect
future entitlements; and

— skilled staff working for fair pay.

Universal infrastructure provision benefits workers, businesses,
the state and society in equal measure.

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4.3
Staff-related measures that can be deployed in companies
— some of which have also been agreed among the social part-
ners — include:

— the introduction of working time arrangements which are
innovative but not disadvantageous
(fragmentation of
working time, doing several small jobs), teleworking, sabba-
ticals and working time accounts;

— the legal security of a stable employment contract;

4.6
Parents may also benefit from support with the organisa-
tion of childcare. Various companies offer their employees help
in finding childminders and crèche places, and emergency care
ill. Some companies also deploy targeted
when children fall
measures to encourage male employees to shoulder
family
commitments and spend more time with their children, for
instance by giving them a day's leave on their child's birthday.
Such companies deserve backing. However,
in most cases,
support to parents is lacking. Companies behaving in this way
— particularly where they act unlawfully — inflict damage on
themselves as such practices adversely affect the working envir-
onment and staff motivation.

— schemes giving staff the opportunity to keep in touch with

work during parental leave;

— support in arranging childcare, such as the setting-up of
in-house crèches, the purchase of childcare places and finan-
cial assistance;

— support in looking after older relatives or family members

requiring care;

4.7
The Committee would draw attention to studies carried
out by Prognos AG which found that measures designed specifi-
cally to promote staff's legitimate interests — including those
relating to family and private life — do make business sense as
such measures reduce absenteeism and boost staff loyalty, moti-
vation and performance. Staff policies of this kind also make
jobs more attractive, particularly when they also make it easier
for female workers with family commitments to secure — and
retain — promotions. Such a corporate culture makes for a
good working environment and is a positive factor in boosting
a region's profile as a business destination.

— support for personal development; and

— support for reintegration into employment after leave or
part-time work to care for children or dependent relatives.

Such moves also help in the objective of facilitating the
4.4
reconciliation of working,
family and private life for all
concerned through customised and highly flexible part-time
working arrangements designed to benefit companies and
workers alike. This goal is not served where part-time work is
not the result of a free choice. The Committee believes it is
urgently necessary for more male workers to work part-time if
family needs oblige one parent to do so. They can thus show in
practice that, in a partnership and in the family, non-work obli-
gations are not the task of women alone, but should be shared
in a responsible way and exercised together as a team.

4.8
The Committee points out that, when introducing flex-
ible working time models, consideration should also be given to
the flexicurity approach. In the context of the Lisbon strategy,
flexicurity offers an integrated approach to labour market
reform, facilitating the necessary or desirable flexibilities while
at the same time combining these with the requisite degree of
security and planning certainty for all concerned. Flexibility
negotiated between the social partners must aim to secure a
win-win situation for companies and employees alike. Compa-
nies' need to adjust
to market requirements is taken into
account, as is the increasing desire of workers for greater flex-
ibility in areas such as working time, thereby enabling them to
better accommodate family commitments or other non-work
private interests, while retaining security and avoiding insecure
employment conditions. Individual solutions are required that
reflect actual need; these should as a rule be negotiated between
in the
the social partners. The Committee would stress that,
flexicurity debate, more attention needs to be paid to the
differing impact on men and women (6).

4.5
The social partners can help to resolve the issue of how
parents can actually live out their chosen life plan. Some compa-
nies operate voluntary schemes for mothers during parental
leave, giving them the opportunity to stay in touch with work
by standing in for colleagues who are on holiday or off sick.
Such schemes — and others such as extending invitations to
company social
in helping
mothers get back to work after taking a career break for family
reasons. The Committee notes that the provisions in place to
protect pregnant women and fathers and mothers on parental
leave must be stringently complied with and must not be
circumvented through indirect discrimination.

functions — have proved useful

The goal of reconciling working,

4.9
family and private
life is all the more achievable where stakeholders are actually
able to draw on the requisite tools in the real-life working envir-
onment. The utmost importance must therefore be attached to
national-level implementation.

(6) On that point., see the EESC's exploratory opinion of 12 July 2007 on
Flexicurity (internal flexibility dimension — collective bargaining and the role
of social dialogue as instruments for regulating and reforming labour markets,
Rapporteur: Mr Janson (OJ C 97, 28.4.2007).

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4.10
The Committee considers that business competitions,
backed by the social partners, can be a good way of raising the
public profile of family- and women-friendly practices and of
putting such practices forward as examples for others to follow.
Such competitions bring innovative tools to the attention of the
broader public, including:

— playroom provision for staff children;

— in-house nursery schools; and

— company-based networks to coordinate voluntary services
‘between the generations’, whereby,
retired
members of staff run administrative errands or see to the
shopping for young colleagues with family commitments.

instance,

for

the

small

tax incentives

reason specific

Understandably,

large number of

4.11
and
medium-sized enterprises, which make up the bulk of EU firms,
do not have the resources to make such attractive offers, and for
this
should be considered.
However, the closer social contacts that are a particular feature
of SMEs facilitate agreement among those concerned on prac-
tical and prompt solutions tailored to the needs of the individual
staff member. Moreover, several small businesses operating in
the same region can also join forces with the local authorities,
in conjunction with the public and non-governmental organisa-
tions, to offer a shared package of measures, thereby raising
their own profile and boosting their region as a business desti-
nation.

5. Practical initiatives at regional and local level

5.1
To make practical and realistic improvements to the basic
parameters designed to secure the more effective reconciliation
of working, family and private life, it is particularly helpful if
the various local players involved can agree on a coordinated
strategy. The Committee would therefore encourage the social
partners
initiatives,
to launch regional-level and local-level
bringing together committed players (businesses, works councils,
parents' groups,
local
representatives etc.) in towns and local communities to coordi-
nate local parameters in such as way as to secure the most effec-
tive possible reconciliation of working, family and private life.
Changes at local level are of immediate and practical benefit for
all concerned. The various local players are involved in a wide
range of activities and are open to all kinds of creative ideas.
Here are some examples,
to which others could readily be
added:

faith-based communities, sports clubs,

— the establishment of a municipal website providing targeted

information for families;

— the establishment of databanks for the allocation of child-

care places;

— contact points bringing together young families without

grandparents and older people without families;

— child supervision to and from school;

— support

for volunteer organisations and volunteers who

look after children in their spare time;

— workshops on family-friendly urban development to stop

young families moving away;

— mentoring programmes for fathers working part-time;

— revision of school bus timetables to make it easier for
parents to coordinate the start of the working day with the
start of the school day;

— more flexible nursery school opening times;

— company events on the work-family balance at which
companies present their family-friendly staffing policy to the
public; and

— a check on all local government decisions to ensure they are

sufficiently child-friendly.

6. Childcare facilities and care of elderly relatives

The Committee notes the point made in the European
6.1
Commission's second progress report on the implementation of
the Lisbon strategy submitted in mid-December 2006 (7) that
the availability of affordable child care is a problem in a number
of Member States. Member States are therefore called upon to
increase the availability of universally accessible, quality child-
care in line with their own national targets.

the 2002 Barcelona European Council (8)
6.2 Moreover,
resolved that, by 2010, childcare should be provided in the
Member States to at least 90 % of children between three years
old and the mandatory school age, and to at least 33 % of chil-
dren under three years of age.

6.3
Given the changed roles of women and men, it is parti-
cularly important that the social partners make perfectly clear
that a child's development does not suffer because its mother
works or its father looks after the family.

(7) COM(2006) 816 final: Communication from the Commission to the
Spring European Council, Implementing the renewed Lisbon strategy
for growth and jobs ‘A year of delivery’.

(8) Presidency conclusions: Barcelona European Council, 15 and16 March

2002.

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tice. These might, for instance, include working time arrange-
ments that can be changed at short notice to allow carers
respond to any sudden emergencies; workplaces adapted to
carers' needs, i.e. where employees can be reached by telephone
and have access to computers and the internet to help sort out
any care issues that may arise; and the provision of documenta-
tion on organisational, financial and legal aspects of care.

7. Next steps

7.1
The EESC considers that reconciling working and family
life is necessarily linked with the achievement of gender equality.
The objectives of the social partners in this area, when achieved,
underpin this reconciliation. For the reconciliation of working
and family life to become an everyday reality,
it should be
presented as normal and necessary in education programmes
aimed at young children.

7.2
The Committee asks the Council, the European Parlia-
ment and the Commission to take account of and support the
proposals set out in this exploratory opinion in their future
work in order to further improve moves to reconcile working,
family and private life in Europe.

The President

of the European Economic and Social Committee

Dimitris DIMITRIADIS

6.4
Given the wide variation in childcare provision for
under-threes in the individual Member States, the Committee
urges that each Member State should lay down a specific care
target for children in this category. To make it possible to recon-
cile work and family life, a place at a nursery or with a qualified
childminder should be available for at least 33 % of all children
under three by 2010.

The Committee considers it vital that greater importance
6.5
be attached than in the past to expanding childcare provision in
the EU Member States, and that appropriate political measures
be put in place to further accelerate and support this process.

In its opinion on The family and demographic change (9),
6.6
the Committee thoroughly examined demographic change in
the European Union and its
families.
Increasing life expectancy may mean a better quality life for
many people. But it will also mean a future in which more and
more people will have to provide care for older relatives along-
side their
job commitments. Accordingly, greater emphasis
should be placed on expanding care services to help to relieve
the burden on family carers.

repercussions

for

The task of the social partners on this issue can be to
6.7
provide information on tools that have proved effective in prac-

Brussels, 11 July 2007.

(9) On that point, see the EESC's exploratory opinion of 14 March 2007
change Rapporteur: Mr Buffetaut

on The family and demographic
(OJ C 161, 13.7.2007).