31 Amendments of Terry REINTKE related to 2018/2077(INI)
Amendment 1 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 1 a (new)
Citation 1 a (new)
- having regard to the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities ratified by the European Union and all Member States,
Amendment 41 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the achievement of gender equality has been slow and across the European Union women remain underrepresented in the labour market with the EU gender employment gap still standing at 18.21a ; whereas the evidence suggests that one of the main causes of this is caring responsibilities; _________________ 1a[1] European Commission, “2018 Report on Equality between men and women”
Amendment 46 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas the European Pillar of Social Rights aims to deliver new rights for citizens of the Union and in its Principle 9 on Work-life Balance establishes that “Parents and people with caring responsibilities have the right to suitable leave, flexible working arrangements and access to care services”;
Amendment 48 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Ab. whereas women still remain the main carers of children and older people and the main contributors to domestic care; whereas this is most visible in couples with the youngest child under 7, as women spend on average 32 hours per week on paid work but 39 hours on unpaid work, compared to men who do 41 hours paid and 19 hours of unpaid work per week; Whereas 27,4% of women working part-time is due to looking after children or adults with care needs compared to 4,6% of men1b; _________________ 1bEuropean Commission, “2018 Report on Equality between men and women”
Amendment 54 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas domestic work, mainly performed by women, poses a particular challenge with regards to precarious and undeclared work, as the work is atypical and, by nature, invisible; whereas in order to tackle all forms of precarious and undeclared work, a complex and tailored range of policy approaches and measures is needed;
Amendment 65 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas Europe is facing an ageing population, which leads to increasing care needs; and services and this is expected to continue in the future; whereas despite this reality these services remain underdeveloped in many Member States and the lack formal long-term care arrangements negatively affects the labour market participation of informal carers, who are disproportionately women;
Amendment 77 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C
Recital C
C. whereas closing the gender employment gap is conditional on the fulfilment of basic social rights and the provision of basic social services; whereas the unequal distribution of child and informal long-term care between men and women has a significant impact on the gender pension gap, standing at 37%; whereas older women face a higher risk of poverty and social exclusion;
Amendment 110 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. Whereas there is a lack of sufficient infrastructure offering quality and accessible childcare for all income levels; whereas achieving quality services means investing in childcare workforce training1c; _________________ 1cEurofound(2015), Early childhood care: working conditions, training and quality of services – A systematic review
Amendment 116 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. Whereas most of the jobs created in formal home care for older relatives are poorly paid and require a low level of qualifications 1d _________________ 1dEurofound(2013), Caring for children and dependants: Effect on careers of young workers.
Amendment 123 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1
Paragraph 1
1. Notes that the gender employment gap widens substantially once families have children, which reflects the difficulties that women face in reconciling child-raising and care responsibilities with their work; due to the lack of sufficient public care infrastructures and the persistent gender division of labour that impose an overwhelming amount of care to be provided mainly by women, leading to women spending two to ten times longer on unpaid care than men 1f _________________ 1fEurostatdata for 2010, Commission’s 2015 report on equality between women and men in the European Union (2016).
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 1 a (new)
Paragraph 1 a (new)
1a. Stresses that the feminisation of poverty is the result of several factors including the gender pay gap, the pension gap, care responsibilities and related breaks as well as insufficient support and taxation systems affecting households headed by single mothers; underlines that multiple discrimination that women face on the grounds of, among others, their gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics, contributes to the feminisation of poverty;
Amendment 135 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Welcomes the Commission’s proposal for a directive on work-life balance for workers and carers and emphasises, in this context, the importance of the individual rights of leave and flexible working arrangements for helping working individuals to manage their private and professional lives; Reminds that work life balance policies should promote men to take up care responsibilities on equal basis with women; believes that for the purposes of future development, the aim should be to progressively extend parentalternity and care leave9 , and its level of payment, to ensure non-transferable parental leave, guarantees in relation to dismissal, return on the same or equivalent post and protection from discrimination carried out on the basis of leave-taking decisions, and the extension of rights to self-employed workers and those who need to take leave in order to care for dependents other than children; _________________ 9 As called for in www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do? pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+TA+P7-TA-2010- 0373+0+DOC+XML+V0//EN
Amendment 142 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 2 a (new)
Paragraph 2 a (new)
2a. Calls upon the European Commission to come up with an initiative on the social protection and services for informal carers, that could address the challenges of informal carers that go beyond employment legislation, such as continuing income support, access to health care, the recognition of time spent in informal care in pension credits, and access to services such as peer counselling, psychological support, day- care and respite care facilities
Amendment 147 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Emphasises, however, that the availability of diverse, quality, accessible and affordable care infrastructure, and support for childcare and care for other dependants either at home or in home-like situations, has proved to be a crucial aspect of work-life balance policies that helpand a major factor that promotes parents taking leaves and informal carers, which are mostly women, to make a swift return to and remain in the labour market;
Amendment 152 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Takes note that one fourth of women remain in the category of unpaid contributing family workers, meaning they receive no direct pay for their efforts, and there is a clear segregation of women in sectors that are generally characterized by low pay, long hours and often informal working arrangements which lead to fewer monetary, social and structural gains to women than the typical working male;
Amendment 154 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 b (new)
Paragraph 3 b (new)
3b. Reminds that the absence of public care services is a major factor contributing to the underrepresentation of women in the labour market, as it makes it more difficult to balance work and family responsibilities, leading to some women dropping out of the labour market entirely, working less hours in paid employment and spending more time fulfilling unpaid care responsibilities, with consequential harmful repercussions on their social security entitlements, in particular pensions, and an increased risk of poverty and social exclusion, especially during old age;
Amendment 159 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Believes that every person shouldwith support needs have the right to chooseaccess public quality care services that are suitable for them and their family;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 6
Paragraph 6
6. Is of the opinion that regardless of the differences between the users to which they cater, care services should be developed in a comprehensive fashion in order to meet women and men’sall genders’ needs for a work-life balance and bring about equal representation in the labour market;
Amendment 187 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Believes that care services should be designed in such a way as to provide genuine choices for all users, their family members and their carers, be they in full- or part-time employment, self-employed or unemployed;
Amendment 193 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Believes that accessibility derives from a combination of cost and flexibility and that there should therefore be a range of care service provisions, both public and private, and for care at home and in home- like settings; considers, furthermore, that family members should either be able to voluntarily provide informal care or be subsidised to procure care services; highlights that the establishment of leaves and arrangements for individual informal carers should not serve as a substitute for professional, accessible, affordable and high-quality community-based care services;
Amendment 208 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11
Paragraph 11
11. Underlines the fact that the unavailability of public services and the prohibitive costs of childcare have a negative impact on children from low income families, putting them at a disadvantage from an early age; emphasises that every child has the right to good-quality care and to early childhood development, including a full range of social stimuli;
Amendment 209 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Finds it worrying that over the last decade the number and share of places have increased in private care homes to a greater extent than in public care homes in almost all member states 1f _________________ 1fEurofound (2017) “Care homes for older Europeans: Public, for-profit and non-profit providers
Amendment 229 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Further calls on the Commission to develop harmonised definitions and indicators to assess the accessibility, quality and efficiencavailability of care services for children, persons with disabilities and the elderlyolder persons at an EU level; calls on the Commission to monitor their implementation and promotto propose corrective action where and when may be needed;
Amendment 251 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Calls on the Member States, in providing pre-school childcare, to place emphasis not only on accessibility, but also on the quality of that care, in particular for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and children with disabilities;
Amendment 253 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Notes the disproportionate impact that insufficient investment in public care structures and services has on single parents, the vast majority of whom are women, and for families living in poverty and at risk of social exclusion;
Amendment 254 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 c (new)
Paragraph 16 c (new)
16c. Calls on the Commission to monitor rigorously the spending of EU Funding, especially under the European Structural and Investment Funds in the area of social care services and long-term care and ensure that investments are in line with the human rights obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the EU Charter for Fundamental Rights.
Amendment 255 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Invites the Commission to revise upwards the Barcelona targets and targets on early childhood education and calls on all Member States and the Commission to step up their efforts to meet the targets and to place the provision of all forms of care high on their politic agenda;
Amendment 265 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to set up targets on care services for the elderly and for persons with disabilities, in consultation with the Member States;similar to the Barcelona targets with monitoring tools that should measure quality, accessibility and affordability of these services,
Amendment 278 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 19 a (new)
Paragraph 19 a (new)
19a. Calls on the Member States to introduce ‘care credits’ through labour and social security legislation for both women and men as equivalent periods for building up pension rights in order to protect those taking a break from employment to provide informal, unpaid care to a dependant or a family member and to recognise the value of the work of these carers for society as a whole;
Amendment 284 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20
Paragraph 20
20. Calls on the Member States to increase investment in care services and infrastructures for children, specially early childhood, and for care for other dependents, to ensure the universal access to such services, to improve the quality of care, and to increase investment in special measures that enable carers to maintain an active professional life;
Amendment 291 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 20 a (new)
Paragraph 20 a (new)
20a. Calls on the Commission to make sure the European Semester process and the application of the rules of the Stability and Growth Pact contribute to the realisation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, leaving effective room for Member States to fund and sustain their funding for care services;