28 Amendments of Monika VANA related to 2015/2097(INI)
Amendment 2 #
Draft opinion
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas the target of a 75 % employment rate set in the Europe 2020 strategy has already been met for men and is unlikely towill most probably not be achieved for women (currently at 63.5 %) by 2020 should there be no large-scale improvements in the provision of measures to support women’s labour market participation, predominantly through policy packages equalising the workload related to family and domestic activities between men and women;
Amendment 7 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10 a (new)
Citation 10 a (new)
- having regard to the Eurofound Report on 'Maternity leave provisions in the EU Member States: Duration and allowances' (Eurofound, 2015);
Amendment 8 #
Draft opinion
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas available evidence confirms that unpaid or low-paid family-related periods of leave result in low take-up rates and that fathers takerepresent only a small proportions of parental leave periods if theseminority of the parents taking parental leave if these periods are family-based, transferable entitlements; whereas, at the same time, non-transferable periods of leave are widely used by both parents if paid at or close to the level of income replacement;
Amendment 10 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 12 a (new)
Citation 12 a (new)
- having regard to the Commission recommendation of 20 February 2013 entitled 'Investing in Children: Breaking the Cycle of Disadvantage' (C(2013)778)
Amendment 12 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A
Recital A
A. whereas there is little chance of the 75 % employment rate target set in the Europe 2020 strategy being achieved for women (it currently stands at 63.5 %) by 2020 without proactive policies designed to help women enter, stay and return to the job market, especially policies that promote a better work-life balance allowing women and men to better balance their work, family and care responsibilities;
Amendment 12 #
Draft opinion
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
C a. whereas adequate, individual, compensated parental leave is crucial for same sex parenting couples to be able to achieve work/life balance;
Amendment 15 #
Draft opinion
Recital C b (new)
Recital C b (new)
C b. whereas women who exercise their right to work/life balance by taking parental leave are faced with a stigma when they return to the labour market, which results in less favourable working conditions and precarious contracts;
Amendment 21 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital A a (new)
Recital A a (new)
Aa. whereas, according to Eurofound research, the gender gap in employment participation leads to serious consequences and losses for European economies which amounted in 2013 to around €370 billion, corresponding to 2.8% of the EU GDP; similarly the cost of the exclusion from employment of a woman all along her working life is estimated between €1.2 million and €2 million depending on her educational level;
Amendment 22 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Is of the opinion that the social partners should activate the review clause; calls for the revision of the directive, including adoption of measures introducing adequate and incentive-based financial compensation for lost income for parents taking up parental leave, in order to secure families’ social and economic well-being and to promote take-up of parental leave by fathers; underlines the importance of adopting an holistic approach including maternity, paternity and parental leave in any revision of the Directive;
Amendment 26 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Stresses that family-relatedwork/life balance policy instruments such as parental leave should be designed as individual, non-transferable entitlements with a reasonable level of income replacement in order to improve their efficiency and take-up rates, especially among men, ultimately leading to closing the gender pay gap and a more equitable position of men and women in the labour market and minimisreducing the discriminatory effects that prolonged periods of labour market inactivity have on women who take up maternity and parental leave; emphasises the need for a balanced distribution of non-transferable parts of the parental leave between both parents; calls in that respect for the minimum 4-month entitlement to be extended to 6 months;
Amendment 31 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas Eurofound studies have illustrated that aspects influencing fathers' take-up rate of parental leave, are: the level of compensation, the flexibility of the leave system, the availability of information, availability and flexibility of childcare facilities and the extent to which workers fear isolation from the labour market when taking leave;
Amendment 31 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4 a. Underlines the importance of the public sector as an employer having a pioneering role, as more men in the public sector take parental leave and as a principle more protection is granted across the EU in the public sector than in the private one;
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4 b. Calls on MS and the Commission to ameliorate access to justice in instances of discrimination and unlawful dismissal related to work/life balance, by ensuring an efficient judiciary system and widespread social awareness of the rights and remedies regarding work/life balance.
Amendment 34 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas the EU as a whole is facing a serious demographic challenges as birth rates are constantly decreasing in most Member States, and family policies that are fair to men and women should both improve women’'s prospects on the job market, reduce gender gaps with regards to pay, pensions and life-long earnings and have a positive impact on demographic processes;
Amendment 68 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 5
Paragraph 5
5. Notes the high degree of variability between Member States regarding the maximum duration of parental leave and systems regarding pay during the leave period; welcomes the various measures adopted to encourage fathers to take parental leave; believes that the issue of pay during leave is crucial to ensure that low income parents and single parents benefit on an equal footing;
Amendment 86 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7
Paragraph 7
7. EmphasisesPoints out that ensuring that some parental leave is exclusively available for men prompts fathers to take it, thus promoting fatherhood; emphasises therefore that family rights assigned by public policies, including parental leave, should be individual rather than transferableand non-transferable for the entire period, with a view to encouraging both parents to achieve a better work-life balance; stresses also that discriminations towards women and men in staying, accessing and returning to the labour market have to be eliminated;
Amendment 100 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 8
Paragraph 8
8. Notes the flexibility the directive grants to the Member States to define forms of parental leave – part-time or full-time – and the working and notice periods established as conditions for granting parental leave; notes that workers on fixed-term contracts and zero-hour contract are not included in these measures and deplores the increase in these types of work contracts; welcomes the initiatives introduced by the Member States to give workers as much flexibility as possible in this area, ensuring that parental leave ties in with their professional and personal circumstances, but believes that any choices made to cede some of the decision- making power to employers should not undermine the target of increasing the taking of parental leave;
Amendment 127 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Believes, in view of the overlapping nature of the different types of family leave, that a coherent revision of the various texts at EU level is required; in order to provide families with a life cycle leaves perspective; calls for this revision to also lead to a coherent legislative package that includes other forms of leave such as carer's leave, leave for in- vitro/artificial insemination, palliative care, educational leave, credit-time and, in the absence of a stand-alone directive, paternity leave to promote a more equal share of care responsibilities between women and men;
Amendment 136 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11a. Underlines the importance of the public sector as an employer having a pioneering role, since more men in the public sector take parental leave and since, in general, more protection is granted here across the EU than in the private sector;
Amendment 145 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to introduce an adequate level of financial compensation for parental leave with a view to reaching a level that would act as an incentive for income replacement, which also encourages men to take parental leave, over the minimum time period guaranteed by the directive, based on the average EU maternity leave income replacement rate, in order to safeguard families’' social and economic wellbeing;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13 a (new)
Paragraph 13 a (new)
13a. Calls on the Commission and the social partners to increase the age of the child for which parental leave can be taken to cover the full span of childhood and adolescence to ensure that parents can avail of leave in cases of unexpected and non-detected special needs occurring beyond the age of 8; considers in particular that the possibility to take up parental leave for parents of children with disabilities or long-term illnesses should be extended beyond the statutory child age foreseen by the directive;
Amendment 169 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14 a (new)
Paragraph 14 a (new)
14a. Calls on Member States and social partners to tackle the many obstacles to return to work after a period of long parental leave to avoid that this leave becomes a trap of exclusion from the labour market; recalls in this context that equality between men and women can only be achieved through a fair redistribution of paid and unpaid work as well as of work, family and care responsibilities;
Amendment 178 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 15
Paragraph 15
15. Urges the Member States and the social partners to continue with their efforts at sharing best practices on positive action in the area of work-life balance, paying particular attention to policies that help mothers to enter, stay and return to the job market and fathers to participate in family lifeas well as others taking on a parental responsibility to equally participate in family life, including policies for overcoming stereotyped gender roles;
Amendment 184 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16
Paragraph 16
16. Believes that, alongside legislative measures to promote work-life balance, the Member States, with the financial backing of the various EU instruments, should focus on introducing high-quality, accessible childcare facilities with a view to meeting the Barcelona objectives; inclusive, affordable and accessible childcare, which is guaranteed and available from the moment a parent decides to return to the job market, as well as other dependent care facilities, including independent living initiatives, with a view to meeting the Barcelona objectives and increasing caring needs in society in general;
Amendment 188 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 a (new)
Paragraph 16 a (new)
16a. Invites Member States to raise parents' awareness of the benefits of participation in early childhood education and care programmes for their children and themselves; calls on Member States to adapt the design and eligibility criteria of high-quality, inclusive early childhood education and care services to increasingly diverse working patterns, thereby helping parents maintain their work commitments or find a job, whilst keeping a strong focus on the child's best interests;
Amendment 190 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 16 b (new)
Paragraph 16 b (new)
16b. Calls on the member states to step up protection against discrimination and unlawful dismissal related to work/life balance and to ensure and improve access to justice in such cases; calls on the Commission and member states to raise awareness across society of the rights and remedies regarding work/life balance;
Amendment 196 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17
Paragraph 17
17. Calls on the Commission, in that regard, to incorporate workplace gender equality objectives into the European Semester for economic policy coordination to enable the targets of the Europe 2020 strategy to be met and to gauge the positive influence of legislative measures on improving work- life balance with a view to redistributing family, care and domestic responsibilities;
Amendment 200 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 17 a (new)
Paragraph 17 a (new)
17a. Points out that where there are no provisions for maternity, paternity and parental leave, or where existing provisions are considered insufficient, social partners can play an important role in improving the situation;