‘No Time for Children’

Yesterday we organised a book launch event called ‘No Time for Children’ at the European Parliament. You can read here some thoughts on the event:

• The landscape of childbearing is changing: postponement of parenthood and growth in unwanted childlessness.
• Research evidence shows that countries with liberal and inclusive family definition recognising all family forms have higher fertility rate.
• Well-being of children depends also on the recognition and value of the family forms they are coming from.
• Well-being of children and reconciliation of work and family life depend on the policy package available, leave system, job and care.
• Care is not a women’s issue only, but a collective responsibility of the entire society.
• Maternity leave is not a break! Women should be fully paid, and have easy access to return to the labour market, key to good pensions.

Check out some pictures from the event!

International Day of Families 2013 – Why not today?

The International Day of Families is observed on the 15th of May every year. The Day was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly resolution in 1993 and reflects the importance the international community attaches to families.

“… Member States will need to get their financial incentives right. But they will also need to do much more to allow for the reconciliation of work and family life. Creating and developing child care is key in this respect. Similar to the campaign for active ageing in 2012, it would be welcome to dedicate the same attention to the reconciliation of family and professional life”. 

László Andor, European Commissioner responsible for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion at the European Demographic Forum, May 6th and 7th, 2013.

After this statement, is the European Commission going to finally declare 2014 as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life? Why not today, on the occasion of the International Day of Families?

COFACE’s Director Agnes Uhereczky was the Rapporteur of the Workshop Improving the Work-Life Balance at this Forum.

To mark this special Day, COFACE is organising a book launch event from 16:30 to 18:30 at the European Parliament in Brussels. The book, “Fertility rates and population decline: No time for children?” includes the latest research from leading international demographers.

We hope to see you there!

Work Life Balance: a company award

For the 5^th year, Italian Region Lombardia, in collaboration with ALTIS Postgraduate School Business and Society – of the Catholic University of Milan, and with the support of the Italian Department of Equal Opportunity of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, launched a call for the International Work-Life Balance Award.

The Award recognizes organizations from around the world who offer the best work-life balance policies for their employees, their families and the local community.

Companies, public administrations and non-profit organisations can submit their application until 31 May 2013. The winners of each category will receive a trip for two to Milan, Italy where they will receive their award during the III World Regions Forum.

More information and submission form can be downloaded here

Top Employers for Working Families 2013

The Top Employers for Working Families Benchmark and Awards is the definitive list of UK employers who enable the best quality of work-life balance and career development.

The benchmark and awards identify those progressive employers who recognise and leverage the powerful links between flexibility, emotional engagement, wellbeing, and high-performance.

Taking part in the benchmark survey provides a unique opportunity to understand and celebrate what is working well, as well as assess what can be improved.

More information and submission form can be downloaded here

Make 2014 the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family life

Independent MEP Marian Harkin called yesterday on the European Commission to “urgently come to a final decision and declare 2014 the European year for reconciling work and family life”. She noted that a “significant pan-European grassroots campaign has coalesced around this idea, and with one third of the year already behind us, it’s high time for the Commission to make a final call for 2014″.

Thank you Marian Harkin for your continued support!

Read the full article on Marian Harkin’s website

A better Work/Life balance can boost the economy

In a time of high unemployment and widespread cost cutting, a large number of companies, are raising the bar in developing effective and flexible work/life benefits to attract, retain and promote talented employees.

Reconciliation of Work and Family Life is not a luxury in times of crisis.

We know from a number of studies, that good work life balance leads to more loyal and engaged workforce, that it boosts productivity, and is simply a more socially responsible way of doing business.

Overall, employees who have a high work-life fit fare much better than employees who have moderate or low levels of work-life fit. At the same time, the employers could achieve the following results:

• Increasing employee engagement and satisfaction
• Unlocking innovation and creativity
• Increasing the skills and educational qualifications of employees
• Reducing business costs
• Enhancing productivity
• Increasing employee recruitment and retention and reducing turnover
• Aligning staff coverage to meet business needs
• Reducing absenteeism and sick days (lower levels of stress)

When work “works” for all, it is possible for all to benefit! [1]

Some examples:

Companies such as Deloitte, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, Ernst & Young, Kraft Foods, Colgate-Palmolive, and Procter & Gamble highlight the value of flexible workplaces.

Deloitte – Deloitte enables employees to “dial up or dial down” their careers to fit various stages of their lives. The company provides a structured approach for organizations and their people to identify options, make choices, and agree on engagements to ensure that value is created for the business and for the individual. See Deloitte’s Mass Career Customization programme

IBM – Describing itself as “the world’s most forward-looking company,” IBM offers a number of work/life benefits, including part-time and compressed work weeks, job sharing, leaves of absence and the ability to work from home.

Johnson & Johnson – J&J offers an exhaustive list of work/life benefits for its employees including onsite childcare, the ability to work at home and/or telecommute, adoption assistance, flexible hours and job sharing, and paternity leave. The company offers alternative career tracks for parents or other employees with long-term family-care issues as well as access to eldercare services, childcare discount programs and resources for parents raising special-needs children, access to teen driving resources and college counseling and educational services. Employees may also request paid work, personal and family time off for planned and unplanned events including marriage, personal emergencies, eldercare, adoption, custody matters, childcare and even pet care…

Sweden and Spain: Childcare round-the-clock!

Police, health care workers… Thousands of people work in shifts during the weekends or at night, a time when the majority of nurseries are closed. In these cases (especially when there is only one adult in the home or when both are working), having young children forced to make real juggling organization. Unfortunately, not all parents live near family to lend a hand with their children, nor do they have sufficient income to pay someone to stay at home. To respond to these situations some nurseries have expanded their hours and days of operation up to cover weekends and evenings. We think this is a great initiative !
- – Read more about the Spanish experience (in Spanish)

Sweden has long had a glowing reputation for its generous childcare facilities and is regularly ranked as one of the best places to raise a family.  Most public nurseries offer care from around 06:00 to 18:00. But with the numbers of parents working flexible or unconventional hours going up, local councils are increasingly providing overnight and weekend services.
- – Read more about the Swedish experience here

It is time to have the voices of the fathers, mothers and carers to be heard!

In our efforts to keep the attention on the 2014 campaign, we organised a press conference in the European Parliament on Tuesday 26 March on the “European Parliament majority support for 2014 European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life”. The press conference was hosted by MEP Marian Harkin (ALDE) and Elisabeth Morin-Chartier (EPP). We are very grateful to all 4 MEPs for their continued support, and especially to Marian Harkin and Elisabeth Morin-Chartier who took the time to make a statement and urge the European Commission to act swiftly on this issue.

Press Conference “European Parliament majority support for 2014 European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life”

It is an absolute necessity to allow more women to enter the labour market, and it would also create quality jobs in the childcare and other care sectors. We know from a number of studies, that good work life balance leads to more loyal and engaged workforce, that it boosts productivity, and is simply a more socially responsible way of doing business.

It is time to have the voices of the fathers, mothers and carers to be heard, and not only the banks, and big business and politicians. Here we have a key, that we would like Mr. Barroso to grab with both hands, and unlock the door, that leads us to a better quality of life for everyone, added Agnes Uhereczky, COFACE Director.

MEP Marian Harkin congratulated COFACE for the endorsement of the European Year 2014 initiative. The involvement of civil society was defined as crucial for the success of the campaign. She highlighted the demographic challenges in Europe and the question of the recognition of care and family carers within the EU policies. She also stressed, that this would not only be a stand-alone year, but would serve as a catalyst to kick-start the dialogue on this hugely important issue, and lead us to concrete outcomes and initiatives.

MEP Elisabeth Morin-Chartier explained that a recent OECD study showed that the birth of each child lead to a 12% reduction in average of a young woman’s salary compared with a young man’s. And this is because in our European systems we don’t have the proper mechanisms and processes in place to reconcile Work and Family Life properly. Working Life does not recognise that Family time is necessary, and the responsibilities need to be fairly share between men and women. This is not a feminist issue but a question of equal treatment, and equality. She underlined that such a European Year would shine the light on these issues. She specifically mentioned the gap between the pensions of women and men, and how women are more at risk of slipping into poverty than men, and stressed, that this issue is not only a family issue, but a social and an economic one.

We need to inject new energy into this discussion, which is not a side issue, but completely at the heart of the current crisis and the current economic challenges.
Report on the impact of the economic crisis on gender equality and women’s rights

We are waiting for the decision from the European Commission, whether 2014 will be designated as the European Year for Reconciling Work and Family Life, and in view of the multiplication of events and research around the topic, we cannot see how they could say no. Fingers crossed.