Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Coordiatig the Network of EU Agecies 2015
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Wyattville Road, Loughlistow, Dubli 18, Irelad. Tel: (+353 1) 204 31 00 Email: iformatio@eurofoud.europa.eu Web: www.eurofoud.europa.eu
Whe citig this report, please use the followig wordig: Eurofoud (2015), Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage, Publicatios Office of the Europea Uio, Luxembourg. Author: Jea-Marie Jugblut Research maagers: Jea-Marie Jugblut ad Robert Aderso Eurofoud project: Impact of demographic chage o policies for recocilig work ad family life Ackowledgemets Thaks to the followig for their help, commets ad ispiratio: Gerd Naegele (Istitut für Gerotologie, Dortmud), Adreas Hoff (Uiversity of Applied Scieces, Zittau/Görlitz), Adrea Pricipi (INRCA, Acoa), Moika Reichert (TU Dortmud), Kevi Culle (Work Research Cetre, Dubli), Kaisa Kauppie (Fiish Istitute of Occupatioal Health, Helsiki), Elizabeth Mestheeos (Presidet AGE Platform Europe), Zsuzsa Szema (Hugaria Academy of Scieces, Cetre for Social Scieces, Budapest), Michael Gebel (Bamberg Uiversity) ad Joerg Dittma (Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz, Basel). Luxembourg: Publicatios Office of the Europea Uio, 2015 doi:10.2806/766197 ISBN: 978-92-897-1392-4 For rights of traslatio or reproductio, applicatios should be made to the Director, Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios, Wyattville Road, Loughlistow, Dubli 18, Irelad. The Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios (Eurofoud) is a tripartite Europea Uio Agecy, whose role is to provide kowledge i the area of social ad work-related policies. Eurofoud was established i 1975 by Coucil Regulatio (EEC) No. 1365/75, to cotribute to the plaig ad desig of better livig ad workig coditios i Europe. Europea Foudatio for the Improvemet of Livig ad Workig Coditios Telephoe (+353 1) 204 31 00 Email: iformatio@eurofoud.europa.eu Web: www.eurofoud.europa.eu Europe Direct is a service to help you fid aswers to your questios about the Europea Uio. Freephoe umber (*): 00 800 6 7 8 9 10 11 (*) Certai mobile telephoe operators do ot allow access to 00 800 umbers or these calls may be billed. Cover image: Shutterstock
Cotets Executive summary Itroductio 1. Aims of the study ad data collectio 2. Prevalece of work ad care i Europe 3. Policy debates about care arragemets 4. Care regime clusters ad recociliatio typology 5. Recocilig work ad care i Europe A cross-atioal assessmet 6. Policy istrumets to support workig carers at atioal, sectoral ad compay level 7. Coclusios Bibliography Aexes 1 5 7 11 23 29 35 43 89 95 109
Coutry codes AT Austria IE Irelad BE Belgium IT Italy BG Bulgaria LT Lithuaia CY Cyprus LU Luxembourg CZ Czech Republic LV Latvia DE Germay MT Malta DK Demark NL Netherlads EE Estoia PL Polad EL Greece PT Portugal ES Spai RO Romaia FI Filad SE Swede FR Frace SI Sloveia HR Croatia SK Slovakia HU Hugary UK Uited Kigdom
Executive summary Itroductio Exteded workig lives ad life expectacies mea that icreasig umbers of workers i Europe, especially older workers, are ow providig care for depedet relatives while they are i employmet. Although may actors are ivolved i providig care the state, family, compaies ad social parters it is still for the most part delivered by upaid family members. Give the rage of istitutioal policy frameworks with vested iterests i the area of recocilig work ad care, it is difficult to arrive at a coordiated strategy. Families ofte ted to orgaise care themselves, delegatig care to family members who have the least opportuity costs. But with icreasig employmet participatio at a older age, carers are owadays more likely to be still egaged i paid work. This report highlights the issue of people of workig age combiig employmet with providig care to depedet relatives, either childre or older persos. It aalyses the situatio of workig carers, how they maage to combie work ad care ad what measures are available to support them i their resposibilities beyod their professioal activity. The study examies developmets i atioal labour legislatio, collective agreemets ad compay iitiatives. It is based o resposes to a questioaire completed by Eurofoud s etwork of Europea correspodets i all 28 EU Member States. Policy cotext The Europea Commissio cosidered the possibility of extedig the curret leave provisios set out i its 2010 Paretal Leave Directive to iclude the right to filial leave (leave to care for a depedet family member). The issue was icluded as a item for impact assessmet i the Commissio s 2011 roadmap for recocilig work, family ad private life ad is still o the EU ageda. The Commissio s 2010 Gree Paper o pesios raised the possibility of more Member States creditig ivolutary employmet breaks for pesio purposes whe citizes are carig for frail elderly depedats. Its follow-up 2012 White Paper o pesios recommeded that particular attetio be paid to the geder aspects of loger workig lives ad active ageig, icludig measures to facilitate the recociliatio of work ad care resposibilities. I its 2013 aual report, the Commissio s Social Protectio Committee (SPC) affirmed that the provisio of log-term care has a key role to play i eablig older people to participate i society ad the labour market. I a similar vei, the 2014 joit report from the Commissio ad the SPC o log-term care eeds i a ageig society highlighted the eed for measures to support workig carers. Key fidigs Accordig to Eurofoud s third Europea Quality of Life Survey (EQLS), 12% of me ad 16% of wome aged 18 64 i employmet care for a elderly or disabled relative less tha oce a week, ad 8% of me ad 9% of wome care for a elderly or disabled relative at least oce or twice a week. Amog workers aged 50 64, 18% of me ad 22% of wome provide care at least oce a week. Fidigs from a 2011 Eurobarometer survey o employmet ad active ageig reveal that aroud 16% of Europeas provided full-time (3%) or part-time (13%) care i 2011, with 40% reportig that they either had to or still have to provide care for a depedet adult. The majority of workig age carers are i employmet: 50% of full-time carers ad 70% of part-time carers work. 1
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Wome reportig that they care for a elderly or disabled relative every day make up 7% of the female populatio compared to just 4% of me, accordig to the EQLS. Amog the populatio as a whole, 24% care at least sometimes for a elderly or disabled relative ad 14% do so at least oce a week. Maitaiig a professioal life is importat for carers: work gives them access to vital social etworks, gives them a role other tha the carig job ad helps them to retai a perspective o their career, learig ad experieces so that they feel icluded i society. The research shows that carers who are i a positio to combie work ad care have a better quality of life ad higher self-esteem, as well as beig able to maitai a career, cotribute towards their ow pesio ad social protectio etitlemets ad be productive i the ecoomy. All coutries have i place a mix of support policies ad varyig types of formal log-term care ifrastructure to support depedet persos ad to help people balace their carig ad professioal resposibilities. The Nordic coutries have a relatively high level of state provisio of both types of support, while easter Europea ad Mediterraea coutries still rely largely o family members, who ofte have to give up their jobs to become carers. The EU Paretal Leave Directive implemeted i about two-thirds of Member States (as of April 2015) etitles all workers to time off from work o grouds of force majeure for urget family reasos i cases of sickess or accidet makig their immediate presece idispesable. I 19 Member States, some form of employmet protectio for carers is i place. I 18 coutries, there is provisio for workig flexible hours. I most cases, there is o full wage replacemet. May coutries also have collective agreemets i place that either go beyod Labour Code provisios or itroduce additioal etitlemets. I Germay, collective agreemets iclude the issue of demographic chage ad carer support provisios. I the Nordic coutries, workig time flexibility is ehaced i sectoral collective agreemets. Demark, Filad, Germay ad Italy have the best-performig policy istrumets i terms of scope ad geerosity of etitlemets. The coutries where it is most difficult to combie work ad care are Greece, Hugary, Latvia ad Polad. Policy poiters Policymakers eed to ackowledge the importace of providig istrumets to support workig carers i their efforts to balace their professioal ad carig roles. As the research shows, istitutioal solutios of formal care are too expesive i most Member States. Icreasig the role of families i log-term care is ot feasible either, as this would further reduce the labour pool ad create problems i the future for today s carers. A more balaced mix betwee actors eeds to be foud that would also iclude more measures to support workig carers. Policies to assist workig carers should iclude the followig elemets: appropriate log-term care services to support depedet persos ad their families, icome support ad other flexicurity measures for carers, rights ad regulatios i the employmet field ad practical measures that ca be implemeted by employers at compay level. Formal care ad iformal care should be viewed as complemetary: policies should support the recociliatio of work ad care alogside other forms of care. This ivolves brigig three actors together: public authorities, employers ad employees with care duties. 2
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Measures to support work ad care do ot have to be expesive or oerous, but should cotribute to makig life easier ad better for carers ad avoidig uecessary costs for employers either through abseteeism or preseteeism. Simple istrumets are ofte the most adequate: implemetig the etitlemet to time off work o grouds of force majeure everywhere ad ot oly for childre; more workig time flexibility arragemets, such as teleworkig; more iitiatives by social parters, especially i easter Europe; compay iitiatives, such as log-term workig time accouts. 3
Itroductio The shrikig of the workig age populatio meas that these workers will have to dedicate more time to a growig umber of elderly people i eed of care sice welfare states caot deliver to the same stadards as i the past. May differet strategies are beig tried or cosidered to help alleviate the situatio, icludig pesio reform, ecouragig active ageig, developig the care sector ( white jobs ) or by itroducig ew forms of log-term care isurace. This report looks at recet developmets i public policies ad compay practices. Most research o log-term care focuses o iformal family carers who give up work to dedicate their time to carig for relatives, o the support services that provide log-term care for frail elderly people, ad o those professioals providig care as their mai occupatio (white jobs, see also Aderso, 1987 o carers i geeral). This project tries to highlight the importace of people of workig age combiig employmet with care provisio. The issue of combiig work ad care of a depedet or disabled perso is a relatively recet etry to the policy ageda o the recociliatio of work ad family life. Research oly bega to address the issue i Europe i the 1990s (Beck ad Naegele, 1997; Naegele ad Reichert, 1998; Reichert ad Naegele, 1999). I North America, the earliest research dates from aroud the same time (Neal et al, 1993; Marti-Matthews ad Campbell, 1995). Usually the recociliatio of work ad family life focuses o work life balace for parets, ad especially while their childre are very youg. Most policies developed i recet years have cocetrated o work ad childcare arragemets for parets of small childre. However, the workig age populatio (15 64) i the EU has started to decrease while the populatio aged 65 years or more is projected to icrease from 87 millio i 2010 to 152 millio i 2060 (Europea Commissio, 2012). Thus the issue of providig care is becomig icreasigly promiet o policymakers agedas. This is for a good reaso, as this demographic chage will mea that the umber of people i eed of care will almost triple over that same period (Europea Commissio, 2014). I additio, the pressure exerted by rapid growth i demad for log-term care, ad the expectatios of the baby boomer geeratio, o esurig quality of care provisio must also be take ito accout. The recociliatio issue has become more acute as female labour market participatio has icreased i may coutries ad public policies aim to icrease the umbers of people workig loger before they retire. This report aalyses the situatio i the 28 EU Member States regardig the policies implemeted to help people of workig age recocile work ad care of depedet relatives. The report uses the followig defiitio of social care, coied by the Europea Research Framework programme 5 fuded project SOCCARE: care is the assistace ad surveillace that is provided i order to help childre or adults with the activities of their daily lives (Kröger, 2003). Social care ca be paid or upaid work provided by professioals or o-professioals, ad it ca take place withi the public ad the private sphere. Formal services provisio from public, commercial ad volutary orgaisatios as well as iformal care from family members, relatives ad others, such as eighbours ad frieds, are icluded withi social care (Daly ad Lewis, 2000; Kröger, 2001). This report focuses o social care which is provided upaid by o-professioals, such as family members, frieds or eighbours. Other forms of social care also play a role as they ca complemet iformal care. 1 1 Sometimes, however, iformal care ca become formal if the carer is recogised by the public authority ad paid for the care service. This is commoly the arragemet i the Nordic coutries. I geeral, however, the focus here is o care give by workig relatives sometimes complemetig other more professioal care arragemets. 5
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage The limitatios of this study must be outlied from the start. The aim was to give a overview of policies that help the recociliatio of workig life ad the care of adults or disabled childre o differet istitutioal levels coutries, collective agreemets ad compaies across Europe. There was a potetial misuderstadig i the title of the project by the members of the etwork of correspodets: the metio of work ad family life ad iclusio of disabled childre led respodets to focus too much o paretal leave. May of the correspodets listed all possible policy iitiatives i their coutry that deal with childcare, paretal leave, materal leave ad breastfeedig. Subsequetly all such metios were removed because they were ot relevat for this study, leavig little to report for some coutries. It goes without sayig that some of these facilities would be geuiely useful for parets with disabled childre i terms of improvig their work life balace, but they were ot specifically desiged to this effect ad were thus ot icluded. The first chapter sets out the aims of the report ad explais i particular why it is a importat cotributio to the curret policy debate. It the outlies the methodology ad data used i the report, i particular for the comparative aalytical report compiled as part of the research. The full questioaire is icluded i Aex 2. The chapter closes with a hierarchical presetatio of the differet policies for the recociliatio of work ad care. The secod chapter reports o the prevalece of care amog the workig populatio i Europe. The chapter is divided ito two sectios. The first summarises the research that has already bee doe i this area, ad the secod explores recet datasets to map the differet aspects ad demographic characteristics of workig carers. Chapter 3 addresses the recociliatio of work ad care issue i the political debate, as it is at the itersectio of differet policy domais which operate accordig to very differet logics. The fourth chapter presets a typology of care regimes, groupig culturally ad ecoomically similar coutries together: the Nordic coutries, cotietal Europe, easter Europe (takig the iteral differeces of these coutries ito accout), liberal coutries ad fially the Mediterraea coutries. This typology is the used to report o similar coutries withi each groupig. Before this aalysis, however, a geeral assessmet is made of the level of recociliatio for workig carers by atioal cotext i Chapter 5. The resultig outcome of this chapter is a recociliatio idex ad a coutry typology. The fial coutry chapter describes the specific regulatios that facilitate the recociliatio effort i each Member State. Fially, a coclusio sums up the report. 6
Aims of the study ad data collectio 1 Aims of the study The eed for combiig work ad care is becomig icreasigly importat i the face of demographic ageig i Europe s Member States ad limited spedig o healthcare. The likelihood of a situatio where the combiatio of work ad care becomes uavoidable aturally icreases with age. As people grow older ad work loger it becomes more commo to fid workers who have to care for a adult relative, a parter, parets or sibligs. While the provisio of log-term care requires a extesive cotributio from iformal carers be they relatives or other o-professioals the eed for icreased labour market participatio i the future, as well as log-term icome security, make it essetial to fid better arragemets to recocile work ad care. Typically i the past, more wome tha me have take o the resposibility for elderly care, but with shrikig family size, icreasig female employmet rates ad separatio, me will have to take over care of their ow parets as they may ot have alterative family members to do so, for example spouses, iactive sibligs or childre (Eurofoud, 2012a, pp. 56ff). This is also a direct cosequece of chaged reproductive behaviour, as may adults will ever have childre. It is also becomig clear that the recessio had a egative impact o fertility rates (Eurostat, 2013; Sobotka et al, 2011). The extesio of workig life by raisig the pesio age to 67 or eve 70 years icreases the likelihood of becomig a caregiver while still i employmet. Curretly a sizeable proportio of the populatio of workig age (both me ad wome) face the challege of recocilig paid employmet with carig resposibilities, ad this proportio looks set to icrease cosiderably over the comig years for reasos outlied i this report. A added factor complicatig the issue further is the expectatio of a loger workig life as retiremet ages seem set to rise across the EU. Exteded workig lives ad life expectacies mea that a icreasig umber of ad especially older workers will have to provide care while they are still i employmet. A multiproged approach is eeded to address the challeges i the area of log-term care, which may iclude the followig: movig from reactive to more proactive approaches seekig to prevet the loss of autoomy ad thereby reduce the eed for care at a later stage; prevetig people from becomig depedet by promotig healthy lifestyles ad age-friedly eviromets i homes ad eighbourhoods; suitably orgaised log-term (commuity ad home-based) care services to support depedet persos ad their carers; icome support ad other flexicurity measures (flexicurity meaig flexibility combied with employmet ad social security); rights ad regulatios i the employmet field that support the recociliatio effort; practical measures that ca be implemeted at compay level to support workig carers. While may studies have already dealt with log-term care i geeral, health systems ad formal support systems i particular, much less research deals with the private iformal side of care, the situatios of family carers ad particularly their experieces of recocilig work ad care. Those studies discussed below that have dealt with workig carers approach the care questio from the poit of view of family carers: their coflicts, their eeds ad the support they may get from professioal services. I this study, the focus is o the situatio of workig carers: how they ca combie work ad care ad what resources they ca use to fid time to provide care beyod their professioal activity. The study examies developmets i atioal labour legislatio, collective agreemets ad compay iitiatives. This study is 7
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage meat to complemet ad update the work doe by previous research at Eurofoud (2011) o compay practices to support workig carers. Methodology ad data To get a good picture of what policies are i place i Member States, a questioaire (see Aex 2) for a comparative aalytical report was developed, with the aim of documetig ad uderstadig how demographic chages are beig cosidered i the developmet of policies ad collective agreemets for the recociliatio of work ad family life. The questioaire was completed by Eurofoud s etwork of Europea correspodets who collected iformatio, directly askig their atioal actors ivolved i supportig carers: govermets, trade uios, employers associatios ad other istitutios. The fial questioaire was set out to the correspodets i July 2013 ad was retured betwee October 2013 ad February 2014. The questioaire was subsequetly aalysed i-house. The questioaire first covers atioal policies desiged to help people recocile work ad care. Such polices iclude legal etitlemets of workers to ask for (more) workig time flexibility, have days off for reasos related to care duties at home, ad a statutory right to take o part-time work or eve upaid log-term leave motivated expressively by the eed to care for a depedet perso. The first four questios of the comparative aalytical report are about the legal cotexts that exist i coutries, helpig workig carers with the effort to recocile carig ad work. These questios are about the ature of the policies itroduced to address the issue, such as emergecy leave, short-term leave, flexible workig time orgaisatio ad sabbaticals. It is importat to ote that the motivatio behid workig time flexibility or career breaks may ot always relate to recociliatio of work ad care resposibilities. For example, the Belgia time credits or the part-time work schemes i the Netherlads are ot at all motivated by care eeds but ca be used to this ed. Such measures are therefore implicit care leave arragemets, ad the same holds true for may flexible workig time regulatios such as log-term workig time accouts. O the other had, other cases such as the Frech cogé de soutie familial or the cogé de solidarité familial are explicit policies to help the recociliatio of work ad care. Explicit measures are motivated specifically by the eed for workers to recocile work ad care while implicit measures are rather geeral policies useful for recocilig work ad family life that ca be used by workig carers. The existece of implicit ad explicit measures makes it difficult to assess coutries with regard to work ad care facilitatio. While some coutries do ot have ay explicit policy to support workig carers, they might still provide a good cotext for recocilig work ad care, ad eve better tha coutries which have oly a scat explicit measure. Flexible workig time arragemets are a good example of implicit measures, while care leave periods are a good example of explicit policy measures. The questioaire asked about who iitiated the policy, which care receiver is covered by the etitlemets (parets, sibligs, other relatives ad o-relatives) ad who is eligible to take time off for care reasos. Ofte such policies ca be a govermetal iitiative or a parliametary iitiative, but sometimes the iitiative comes from social parters ad is take up by atioal policymakers. Further, questios were asked about what the precoditios for the etitlemets were, for example full-time employees o permaet cotracts oly or all workers at the compay, eve icludig temporary agecy workers. Also importat is the fact that atioal etitlemets have to be icluded i collective agreemets to accommodate the differet ature of some sectors of idustry, as is the case i Demark, Filad ad Frace. The questioaire also collected social parters opiios about the measures i place ad refers to these from time to time. Awareess campaigs are also a importat istrumet for the support of workig carers because first of all, the challeges of workig carers are ot kow to most people who have ever carried out such a role themselves, ad secodly workig carers themselves are ot always aware of the support available to them. Beig able to work flexibly whe workers have to care for a adult or depedet child is oe thig, but beig able to sustai oe s ow daily eeds is aother. To iquire about this the authors icluded questios o compesatio for foregoe earigs paid from the social protectio budget. Such compesatio ca either be paid directly to the accout 8
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage of the carer to compesate for earig losses, or paid to the perso receivig care to sped at their discretio o the care provider a workig relative i this case. Other issues are the social beefits, such as pesio etitlemets, healthcare coverage ad so o. The questioaire asked about health ad pesio coverage for part-time workers ad for those goig o upaid leave ad if time spet givig care was take ito accout by the pesio regime. I additio to legal etitlemets itroduced by govermets, collective agreemets ca also provide a framework for the recociliatio of work ad care by themselves ad idepedet of the atioal codificatio. Frequetly, collective agreemets complemet or eve supplemet the atioal policy i place. A further set of questios addresses compay practices to support workig carers. Examples here would be job-sharig or job rotatio i self-orgaised teams that would eable carers to iterrupt their work i case of emergecy. However, either statutory rights or sectoral agreemets will be effective if there is o protectio of workers agaist ufair dismissal. If workers are ot protected, employers could ed their cotract to avoid providig ay of the abovemetioed arragemets. Aother liked issue is the guaratee of workers returig to their origial job after a exteded period of care leave. The questio arises whether workers have the right to do the same job they did before they left for a exteded care leave period. Eurofoud used the retured questioaire to make a coutry-by-coutry assessmet ad to compute a work ad care recociliatio idicator for each coutry. This idicator should reflect the level of etitlemet ad protectio of workig carers. Further iformatio is give about detailed policy istrumets, the geeral policy orietatio towards carers ad future orietatios to complete the coutry profiles. As ot all material could be icluded i this report, the authors excluded, for example, all regulatios that specifically address the workig coditios of civil servats as they oly apply to a particular group of the labour force. Especially i the Mediterraea coutries, civil servats have rather geerous etitlemets. O topics where very little or uclear iformatio was give by the atioal correspodets, the authors decided ot to report o them as the quality of the iformatio does ot warrat it. To better categorise the diverse umber of sigle policy istrumets across the coutries, the authors grouped them i a pyramid ispired by the well-kow Maslow pyramid or hierarchy of eeds (Maslow, 1970, 1987). Maslow chose the shape of a pyramid with the largest, most fudametal levels of huma eeds such as physiological ad safety (food, water, sex, security, health ad property) at the bottom ad the eed for esteem ad self-actualisatio at the top (cofidece, achievemet, respect, creativity, self-realisatio). Maslow s theory describes how basic eeds must be met before the idividual will cosider or strogly desire the secodary or higher-level eeds. I a comparable maer, the eeds of caregivers are put i a similar hierarchical order: o the lowest level of the pyramid are the most commo eeds of carers, for example workig time flexibility; these are followed by employmet protectio ad emergecy leave etitlemets; o a higher level still is upaid short- ad log-term leave; while the highest level of carer support is logterm leave with partial or full icome replacemet. I short, a carer who has to dedicate time to carig for a relative, ad would like to cotiue workig, eeds flexible workig time arragemets, ad further eeds to be protected agaist ufair dismissal if their situatio does ot allow them to be fully productive i the workplace. The carer might the also eed to be abset from work for emergecy reasos if a sudde icidet occurs, without disruptig the work process or violatig workplace rules. Fially, if the health coditio of the care receiver worses, a exteded care period may be eeded without the carer havig to resig from their job ad without losig all sources of icome. Figure 1 displays the hierarchy of recociliatio measures as aalysed i this report. O the bottom levels are workig time flexibility ad part-time work, followed by employmet protectio durig periods of care provisio. Employmet protectio plays a key role for workig carers as the existece of ay legal etitlemet oly makes sese if workig carers are protected from dismissal for persoal or ecoomic reasos. This also jeopardises existig recociliatio measures as workers will ot easily claim their rights if they have to fear dismissal. O a higher echelo of the pyramid 9
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage are further emergecy leave or force majeure leave. Although the latter is part of the EU directive o paretal leave, 2 it has oly bee adopted i 13 out of 28 coutries so far. Still higher o the hierarchy of etitlemets are upaid short-term ad log-term leave ad higher agai are paid short- ad log-term leave. Figure 1: Types of recociliatio policies by sophisticatio ad prevalece i the Europea Uio Paid logterm leave Paid shortterm leave Log-term leave (upaid) Short-term leave (upaid) Emergecy leave / force majeure leave Employmet protectio durig care Right to take up reversible part-time work / reduce the workload Flexible work-time arragemets / log-term work accouts The ext chapter describes the situatio of workig carers i the Member States of the Europea Uio. 2 See Coucil of the Europea Uio, 2010, Clause 7, which states that Member States ad/or social parters shall take the ecessary measures to etitle workers to time off from work, i accordace with atioal legislatio, collective agreemets ad/or practice, o grouds of force majeure for urget family reasos i cases of sickess or accidet makig the immediate presece of the worker idispesable. It should be metioed that this clause explicitly does ot oly apply to parets of childre. 10
Prevalece of work ad care i Europe 2 Previous research o workig carers I the mid-1990s, the first publicatios o the recociliatio of work ad care were preseted to a wider public (Eurofoud, 1994) ad i the late 1990s scholarly publicatios too were focused o the topic (Beck ad Naegele, 1997; Naegele ad Reichert, 1998; Reichert ad Naegele, 1999). These studies had oly a low impact at the time, however, as recociliatio issues betwee work ad care were ot yet high o the political ageda. Apart from the SOCCARE project i the EU Framework Programmes 4 ad 5 (Kröger, 2003), two more recet research projects have dealt with the issue of family carers: Eurofamcare ad Carers@Work. Eurofoud has tried to take forward the ageda of recociliatio of work ad care for over 20 years. A first report was published i 1993, Family care of depedet older people i the Europea Commuity. To some extet this was the first iteratioal work lookig at family carers i Europe, but oly coverig the the EU12 Member States. This work set a good basis for Eurofoud to cotiue with the iterest i family carers ad it exteded ito a umber of project areas as it clearly was part of Eurofoud s work o age maagemet i compaies (Eurofoud, 2006a, 2006b, 2006c; see also Aderso, 2013). This work recogised early o that the ageig of the workforce has ot oly brought about challeges for skill maiteace ad developmet ad health, but also issues of recocilig work ad family resposibilities. May of these topics also foud their way ito the surveys that Eurofoud produces ad special reports ow cover these topics (Eurofoud, 2012a). A Europea-wide review of measures at the compay level has also bee published recetly by Eurofoud (Eurofoud, 2011; see also Aderso, 2013). It is ot ofte ackowledged that oe of the most importat coditios for successful recociliatio of work ad care that is metioed by workig carers is the support ad uderstadig of colleagues ad lie maagers. This moral support ad uderstadig are very importat precoditios for a successful recociliatio of work ad care (Kohler ad Döher, 2010, p. 89). Kümmerlig ad Bäcker (2010) report that mistrust towards employers is widely metioed by workig carers ad prevets them from beig ope about their care situatio amog colleagues ad maagemet. May carers fear egative cosequeces for their career prospects if their colleagues or lie maagers kow about their double burde. I particular, this apprehesio leads some workig carers to avoid askig about support offers or talkig about their issues at work. Eurofoud s study o compay iitiatives for the recociliatio of work ad care i Europe (2011) shows that a umber of compaies offer flexibility to their workig carers to support full-time ad part-time workig. Beyod this, some compaies also support carers i a differet way ad have developed strategies ad istrumets that rage from iformatio ad cousellig to takig a iterest i the health ad well-beig of carers, tryig to chage attitudes amog colleagues ad staff ad also collaboratig with exteral stakeholders. Very little iformatio is so far available o iitiatives o the sectoral levels ad agreemets betwee social parters. The mai aim of the Eurofamcare project (Lamura et al, 2008; Eurofamcare, 2006) was to evaluate the situatio of family carers of older people i Europe i relatio to the existece, familiarity, availability, use ad acceptability of support services. A baselie survey of about 6,000 family carers i six Europea coutries (1,000 per coutry) was carried out usig a agreed protocol for sample selectio ad implemetatio of the survey. There was also a follow-up study o the origial sample of family carers oe year after the baselie iterviews were doe. The participatig coutries were Germay, Greece, Italy, Polad, Swede ad the UK. Surveys were carried out usig face-to-face iterviews with the carers themselves. The data gathered were maily quatitative, but some qualitative data aalysis was also carried out. The mai outcome of the project was to idetify suggestios for the implemetatio of strategies to support family carers at the atioal level but also to trigger more activity o the Europea level. Although the project was about iformal home carers i geeral ad ot specifically workig carers, the latter are covered as well. 11
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Eurofamcare foud that about oe i seve of the surveyed workig carers reported havig had to reduce workig hours because of carig. Amog o-workig carers, oe i 10 reported that they could ot work at all because of carig while oe i 12 said that they had to give up work because of carig (Lamura et al, 2008). The project also reported that carers were less ofte employed (41%) tha ot (59%). But if employed, they would more likely work for the public sector (42%) tha the private sector (37%) ad aroud 17% were self-employed. About 15% of the employed carers had reduced their workig hours as a result of carig for elderly relatives, ad most of them had experieced a subsequet declie i their icome. Workig carers of both sexes reported requirig more measures to help them adequately combie caregivig with paid employmet, as well as more opportuities for older persos to udertake leisure ad recreatioal activities o their ow with or without public support (see Eurofamcare, 2006, p. 169). Such activities could take some of the pressure off workig carers who would ot have to dedicate as much of their time to visitig ad etertaiig loely relatives. The Eurofamcare project also tried to classify coutries accordig to the existece of care ifrastructure, rights, regulatios ad social orms. I some coutries, it is a primary legal obligatio of childre ad the spouse to provide care for their depedet relative. Moreover, there are also social attitudes ad expectatios towards carers to provide care to a frail relative. I other coutries, either the legal obligatio or the social expectatio exists, but the resposibility to provide care lies with atioal or local public authorities. Table 1 shows the differeces betwee the coutries i this regard. Oly three coutries (Austria, Frace ad Spai) have a legal obligatio to care for oe s spouse, while i most other coutries the childre are legally obliged to look after their parets whe i eed. This is maily the case of souther, easter (or residual welfare states) ad cetral Europea states (or the so-called coservative welfare states). I the Nordic coutries (sociodemocratic welfare states), the UK (liberal welfare state), Luxembourg ad the Netherlads (coservative welfare states), the legal obligatio to provide care lies with the state or local authority. This iformatio o the cotext for workig carers becomes importat to judge the eed ad efficiecy of policies for workig carers that will be assessed i this report. Apart from the istitutioal cotext for care, the social attitudes towards care ad the resposibilities of differet actors are importat. Agai, most coutries with a coservative welfare orietatio have a high expectatio that family members will provide care, whereas i the Nordic coutries ad the UK this expectatio is lower. Most of the coutries that have care isurace also have a icreasig formal recogitio of the carer status (for example, Austria, Germay ad Italy). I the Nordic states carers ca be officially recogised ad receive their icome from local authorities ad are de facto employed by the commuity coucil while their employmet is o hold. I a sese, there seems to be a orth south divide i attitudes towards care: i orther Europe, the legal obligatio lies with public authorities ad there is o social obligatio for family members to provide care to their relatives but the status of carer is formally recogised. Coversely, i cetral, easter ad souther Europe, family members are legally obliged to provide care, public authorities have o defiite role ad the expectatio o family members to provide care is high but there is o formal recogitio of the carer status. 12
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Table 1: Eurofamcare typology of care regimes Primary legal obligatio to provide care Coutry Spouse Child State/local authority Uclear Family care ad social attitudes Special expectatio to provide care (high +, low -) Icreasig formal recogitio of the carer status AT X X + X ES X X + FR X X + EL X + IT X + X MT X + X PL X + PT X + BE X - X BG X - DE X +/- X SI X - HU X (X) + IE X + X CZ X - DK X - LU X - FI X - X NL X + X SE X - X UK X - X Note: See the begiig of this report for a full list of coutry codes. Source: Based o Eurofamcare (2006, pp. 20ff) Coutry differeces i the Eurofamcare project were explaied by the differet welfare regimes i the six coutries studied ad their impact o how policymakers act to improve workig carers coditios through appropriate policies. The study comes to the coclusio that carig duties are more likely to affect employmet participatio i Germay, Greece ad the UK, compared with Italy. Coservative regimes like i Germay, where the male breadwier model is combied with a female carer model, meas cosiderable work restrictios for carers, ad particularly for wome. The situatio is differet i the Mediterraea coutries, as the care of older people is traditioally maaged by the wome i the family, who ofte withdraw from the labour market for this reaso or are discouraged to look for work from the start as employmet levels are low ad public support is ot available. I Greece too, limited public resposibility ad low employmet rates add to frequet withdrawal from the labour market. I Polad, extesive solidarity patters ad a overall low employmet rate cotribute to low levels of work restrictios i a cotext of a shortage of public ad formal services. Oe optio that is highly popular i Polad is that people become self-employed to maage work ad care more flexibly. The Swedish model of geerous welfare services ad beefits (desiged as a support for older people) shows that high employmet ca coexist with a sustaied ad high iformal level of care. I the UK, care relies maily o private services ad the state leaves the brut of the care burde to families, thus caregivers caot give up work completely ad have to fid a way to recocile work ad care as well as possible (Jugblut, 2015; Pricipi et al, 2014, pp. 221ff). 13
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage This mappig of the care cotexts is importat for the remaiig discussio, which focuses o the recociliatio of work ad care. The importat poit to stress here is that there are may actors ivolved i care provisio ad may istitutioal policy frameworks are ivolved i the recociliatio of work ad care. By default, however, families seem to desigate care duties to a family member with the least opportuity costs (ofte older female o-workig relatives). The Carers@Work project cocluded i 2010 also describes social ad cultural orms behid the decisio to provide care to a family member i the four couties aalysed: Germay, Italy, Polad ad the UK. The remaider of this sectio draws heavily o this study (for the iteratioal study see Hoff ad Hambli, 2011 ad for the fial report see Kümmerlig ad Bäcker, 2010, oly available i Germa). For example, i Polad female workers are expected to reduce their workig hours to provide care to a relative. Although traditioally the same has bee the case i most coutries, more optios are ow available i may of them (Stypiska ad Perek-Bialas, 2011). For example i Italy, family carers are hirig migrat care workers paid by the family geerally with subsidies through the public health isurace system. These migrat workers are mostly udeclared. Family carers i Germay ad the UK may be able to call o care services offered either by the state or the volutary or private sector (Hoff ad Hambli, 2011). I Germay, the log-term care isurace system offers the most geerous package of all four coutries studied by the Carers@Work project (Kohler ad Döher, 2010; Kümmerlig ad Bäcker, 2010). The situatio of workig carers i the four coutries studied by the Carers@Work research team was strikigly similar. For example, the eed to cope with a sudde illess (such as a stroke) ad the subsequet care eed was described as beig a particularly difficult evet i all four coutries. May workig carers reported frustratio with excess bureaucracy ad the frequet breakdow of commuicatio with various admiistratios. The relatively better situatio of the Italia carers compared to other Mediterraea coutries is obviously related to geerous paymets from the medical isurace i combiatio with the widespread employmet of migrat care workers. I cotrast, Polish workig carers were more preoccupied with deliverig care themselves, as a result of the absece of effective public support mechaisms. Oe way to cope with such a situatio is that carers decide to become self-employed, i order to be more flexible. Whe it comes to the employmet situatio of workig carers, most of them were employees ad self-employmet was relatively rare i the Carers@Work study. Exceptios are the Polish ad Germa samples, where a fifth reported beig self-employed (see above). The Italia sample i the study revealed that the vast majority of workig carers seem to work i the public sector. Hoff ad Hambli (2011) further show that public sector workers were also the largest cotiget i the British ad Polish samples but ot so i the Germa sample. I terms of occupatio, professioals represet the largest cotiget i all coutries except i Italy where clerks accouted for the largest share of workig carers. Aother of the study s fidigs was that the vast majority of workig carers were workig full time, ad the average duratio of the care provisio estimated by the Carers@Work project was five years (Kohler ad Döher, 2010; Kümmerlig ad Bäcker, 2010). Workig carers ofte experiece a iability to switch off, a lack of spare time, too much stress ad adverse implicatios for persoal health ad well-beig, as well as too little time for family ad social life. Workig carers i the UK were particularly aware of the egative fiacial side-effects of their situatio. May of them caot afford to reduce workig time because of the high costs of private care provisio. Becomig a full-time carer ad stoppig work is ot a optio either, as the icome is eeded to live o (Hambli ad Hoff, 2011). Germa workig carers are a lot better off fiacially, maily because the majority of them work i rather well-paid jobs. Italia ad Polish workig carers cosider their caregivig obligatios as a etirely private matter ad avoided tellig ayoe i the workplace (which seems to be a widespread behaviour i Frace as well). By cotrast, British ad Germa 14
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage workig carers iformed at least their lie maagers, ad ivested substatially i buildig or maitaiig a relatioship of trust with their lie maagers. Usig available welfare state provisios is a vital support. The two mai types of support are care services ad cash beefits. Relatively geerous cash beefits for workig carers are available i Germay ad Italy. The British welfare state arragemets provide some meas-tested fiacial support to workig carers but i the case of low icomes oly ad with substatial reductio of workig hours. The Polish carers have the lowest amout of fiacial support of all coutries aalysed by the Carers@Work project (Hoff ad Hambli, 2011). Most of the policies referred to withi this report, whether they result from etitlemets eshried i the labour legislatio, sectoral agreemets or simply compay policies, are relatively geerous from a welfare perspective. Iitiatives or policies ca be grouped ito categories: they are either workig time arragemets from flexible workig time over emergecy leave to short-term leave or sabbaticals; policies that provide icome replacemet whe workers have to take time off; or protectio mechaisms that provide security of employmet or guaratees that they ca come back to the same job after a spell of care provisio. Oe way of assessig the use of differet types of policy measures is to ask workers about their prefereces whe it comes to recociliatio measures. Amog the measures to support the recociliatio efforts that are metioed most ofte by carers are (see, for example, Kümmerlig ad Bäcker, 2010): flexible workig hours ad the ability to react promptly to emergecy situatios; the opportuity to reduce hours of work per week for a limited time; the possibility to give up resposibilities at work ad maagig duties for the duratio of care; flexible workplace arragemets such as the opportuity to work from home; movig to a more suitable workplace withi the same compay; a guaratee to retur to the former positio oce the caregivig situatio is resolved; care leave schemes. The Carers@Work study also presets the most valued support istrumets as reported by workig carers (see Hoff ad Hambli, 2011, pp. 63ff). For example, beig able to start ad fiish work more flexibly is certaily ecessary to recocile work with care, but beig able to work less o some days ad more o others or eve havig a reduced schedule for a exteded period may seem eve more useful. May carers seem to eed their orgaisatio to be more flexible with regard to workloads ad resposibilities, for example a reductio of maagemet tasks durig a period of care. O a higher level are the leave etitlemets: emergecy leave or force majeure leave for up to oe week, upaid short-term leave (usually up to six moths) ad upaid log-term leave (oe year or more). Fially come leave etitlemets that are paid usually ot by the employer but covered by isurace paymets, local muicipalities or tax-fuded. It should be oted that although may scholars probably agree that workig time flexibility is of highest importace for workig carers, some authors judge icome replacemet of higher importace. For example, if a sigle mother has to take upaid leave to look after her disabled father, this is likely to make a already bad icome situatio worse. Legal etitlemets ca oly work if people are able to use them, ad ofte this is ot possible because they would represet a substatial loss of icome. Most vulerable amog carers are those who have to care for older family members ad youg childre at the same time, as they also have to work (Hoff, 2004; Mooey et al, 2002; Hörl ad Kytir, 1998). 15
Workig ad carig: Recociliatio measures i times of demographic chage Public care services are available i all coutries uder study, but the degree of availability varies widely. The Germa welfare state provides substatial help through the log-term care isurace based o medical eeds assessmet. The British ad Italia welfare states support oly those most i eed ad least able to fiacially afford givig care. The Polish welfare state hardly provides ay support at all. I the coutries studied by the Carers@Work project, Germay, Italy ad the UK have itroduced recociliatio measures for workig carers while the Polish workig carers had o such opportuity. The eed for better quality care services was metioed, as i may istaces mistrust of public care services was commo across the board. The eed for loger hours of care services was also metioed, as limited service hours posed a serious problem to workig carers i particular i all four coutries. Daycare cetres where care recipiets could sped the day ad were properly looked after was see as a very effective way of eablig workig carers to combie work with care. Cosiderable progress i leave etitlemets has bee made i recet times i all coutries surveyed by the Carers@Work project. These are essetial, but may respodets still felt that they lacked the flexibility to be adjusted to real-life situatios. Prevalece of work ad care O average, betwee 10% ad 20% of people i employmet have some care duty towards a older perso or a depedet disabled child (Reichert ad Frake, 2011, pp. 21ff). The estimates stem from a wide rage of sources ad deped o what defiitio is used to measure care, the coutry surveyed ad also whe the survey was carried out. Eurofoud s third Europea Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) reports that 11% of wome ad 10% of me are carig for a elderly or disabled relative less tha oce a week, while 9% of wome ad 8% of me care at least oce or twice a week for a elderly or disabled relative. Wome reportig that they care for a elderly or disabled relative every day make up 7% of the female populatio while oly 4% of me do so. Amog the whole populatio, 24% care at least sometimes for a elderly or disabled relative ad 14% do so at least oce a week (Eurofoud, 2012b). The icidece of providig care is highest amog 50- to 64-year-olds, the age group ot yet i retiremet but ear the ed of their workig career. The prevalece rate is usually uderestimated but a umber of surveys yield figures higher tha 10% of the populatio i employmet havig to provide care to a relative. I 2007, workig carers employed people providig care to a disabled older/adult relative at least oce a week represeted 11% of the male ad 17% of the female workforce (Eurofoud, 2009). Data from the Europea Labour Force Survey ad hoc module Recociliatio betwee work ad family life suggest that aroud 6% of the workforce i 2005 were carig regularly for a relative aged 15 years or over. This represets 13.5 millio workig carers amog the total EU populatio. If carers of childre with disabilities or chroic log-term illesses are icluded, the umber is eve higher. Across Europe, about 80% of hours of care provisio are delivered by iformal carers, predomiatly wome aged 45 or more. I early all coutries, amog family carers of workig age half or more are i employmet (see the Eurofamcare project referred to earlier). I terms of hours of care per week provided by workig carers, data from the 2011 Irish cesus ad the 2001 UK cesus suggest that the majority of workig carers provide betwee oe ad 20 hours of care per week, with 20% or more carig for 20+ hours per week ad may of these providig 50+ hours per week (CSO, 2012; Yeadle et al, 2006, p. 11). Evidece suggests that recociliatio adjustmets to combie work with care are commoly made i the first three moths of caregivig ad remai fairly stable after this. Such adjustmets may eve persist after care eds (Lilly et al, 2007). To some degree there is a egative associatio betwee carig ad the likelihood of beig i employmet i most EU coutries, although with differeces i the extet to which this ca be detected across coutries ad by age ad marital status (Viitae, 2005). Detailed aalysis idicates that there ca be cosiderably lower labour market participatio rates for some subgroups of carers, eve if ot for all carers. Those who provide loger hours of care i particular ted to have lower levels of labour market participatio (see Scheekloth ad Wahl, 2005; Europea Commissio, 2010d; Lamura et 16