Transcript TITRE DU DOCUMENT LIEU, DATE, NATURE DE L’INTERVENTION

The European Women’s Lobby
working together for women’s rights and gender equality in
Europe
“Reconsidering atypical employment”
Budapest, 14.05.2012
Brigitte Triems
EWL past President
The European Women’s Lobby
 The largest umbrella organisation of women’s
associations in the EU
 Promoting women’s rights and gender equality
in Europe
 Members in all 27 EU member states and 3 of
the candidate countries, as well as 20
European-wide associations
 Concentrating on European-level, but activities
from local to international level
The main policy areas of EWL work
 European Policies and Legislation on Equality
between Women and Men
 Violence Against Women
 Women in Decision-Making / Parity Democracy
 Economic and Social Policy from a feminist
perspective
 Women's Diversity and Anti-discrimination
 Women and the Media
 Migration, integration and Asylum
Women’s economic independence
 Ensure a feminist perspective in EU economic, employment
and social issues and policies
 Women’s employment remains key to economic authority and
to achievement of equality between women and men
 Advance towards women’s economic independence = address
gender pay gap, quality work for all women, equality in
relation to pensions, paid and unpaid work, care and
reconciliation professional and family life
 Address disproportionate representation of women in atypical
and marginal employment
 Demand for high quality and full-time jobs for women in
labour market reforms
EC’s Employment package:
new measures and key opportunities for EU jobrich recovery
1. Strengthening of national employment policies by EU
Member States
2. Key areas for reforms: stimulating internal flexibility to
reduce job insecurity; establishing decent and sutainable
wages and avoiding low-wage traps, ensuring appropriate
contractual arrangements to prevent excessive use of non
standard ones
3. Creation of a genuine EU labor market
4. Reinforcement of coordination and monitoring of
employment policies at EU level
Typical or standard work model
defined as
-
socially secure
full-time job of unlimited duration
standard working hours
guaranteeing a regular income
securing pension payments
securing protection against ill-health and
unemployment
Atypical and non-standard froms of
employment (1)
✓ Means of achieving labor market felxibility?
✓ Labor market flexibilisation means
= to foster economic efficiency and growth
= to combat mass employment
= increase access for groups traditionally less
attached to the labour market (women, immigrants, less educated, unskilled)
✓
Atypical and non-standard froms of
employment (2)
Flexibilisation of labour market varies with
- nation specific context
- cumulates on certain segments of labour market
- cumulates on groups of persons (women, new
entrants, low skilled, disabled, older persons,
persons mit migration background)
Disproportionate representation of women in
atypical non-standard employment
✓ Increased participation of women in employment =
increasing number of jobs in marginal employment
✓ Traditional models of family lifes and women’s lifes
✓ Role and gender stereotypes resulting in poorer career
prospects
✓ Inadequate care infrastructure for children and other
dependants
✓ Unequal distribution of paid and unpaid work
✓ Rigid structures for working hours
✓ Difference in hourly wage rates between women/men
✓ Women in lowest-paid professions and jobs
Status of atypical employment
Different forms of atypical employment:
- part-time work
- marginal employment (mini-jobs)
- fixed-term contract
- temporary agency work
- job-sharing
- telework
Intimate correlation between atypical work and life
course perspective and framework conditions
✓ Women’s career paths more strongly characterised by
discontinuities than those of men
✓ Periods out of work and periods in atypical employment
leave «scars» in women’s careers
✓ Result: poorer earnings
negative effect on careers
less chances for life-long learning (training)
poverty risk in old age
Importance of work-life balance in
certain life phases
✓ Part-time work as a suitable instrument for
reconciliation of professional, family and private life
►conditions: 1. subject to social insurance
contributions
2. coupled with option of returning to f
full-time work
Alternative work arrangements
✓ Flexible work schedules (Flextime)
✓ Telework
✓ Job-sharing
Flexible work schedules
✓ Benefit: - select working hours based on needs
- ability to balancing job and family life
- sharing of expensive equipement
- eliminating traffic problems
Telework
✓ Potential Benefits:
- increasing the employ-ability of
cirstantially marginalized groups
- work from home arrangements
- ability to balancing job and family life
- alleviating stress situations
- saving travel and work-related costs
- saving time: not having traffic congestion
Telework
✓ Potential Concerns:
- losing social relationsships/team meetings
- personal disconnectedness from employer
- longwer working hours
- lack of security for teleworkers?
- difficult evaluation of results
- negatively affecting a person’s career
no promotion to decision-making positions
Job-sharing
✓ Potential Benefits:
- flexible work arrangements
- sharing not only time, but also responsibilities
- reconciliation of professional and family life
- rewarding talent
- increasing job satisfaction
- preserving career skills and status within
profession
Job-sharing
✓ Potential Concerns:
- reducing income
- losing promotion to leadership positions
- loss of individual accomplishments and
sharing achievements with someone else
- losing individual identity
- unpleasant competition
Conclusions
► consistent equality policy over women’s and men’s
life courses
► guiding principles: equal capabilities of women and
men in education, training and employment systems
► space for alternate work arrangements in various life
phases
► no limitation in terms of personal choices
► employment interruptions for duties necessary for
society such as care work for dependants must not
lead to disadvantages in women’s and men’s life
course
More information:
www.womenlobby.org
Thank you for your
attention!