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Centre for Policy on Ageing | |
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Eldercare and employment
— workplace policies and initiatives to support workers who are carers | | Author(s) | Marina Hoffman, George Leeson |
| Corporate Author | European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions |
| Publisher | European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Dublin, 1994 |
| Pages | 58 pp (Working Paper, No WP/94/32/EN) |
| Source | European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, Loughlinstown House, Shankill, Co. Dublin, Ireland. |
| Keywords | Family care ; Employment ; Social policy ; Europe. |
| Annotation | Identifies examples of good practice of employer eldercare initiatives in the European Community, and examines the attitudes of employees and employers to such initiatives. The results of the interviews with the companies as well as the social partners show a greater awareness of the needs of employees with eldercare responsibilities in the UK and Germany, while the Scandinavian countries seem to rely on public services for support. The increasing involvement of women in the labour force and in politics has had a strong impact on developing social and political strategies to support women as both workers and caregivers by providing care facilities. Integrated policy developments that focus both on the care function and on the labour force participation of women are the first step towards attaining public welfare services (incl. care facilities) and thereby relieving the double pressure on especially female carers. On the other hand, this study shows that the Scandinavian attitude seems to be that responsibility lies with the public sector and/or the families and not companies and/or the social partners. It seems to be a special problem that in southern Europe there is no recognition as yet of the pressure on families that most surely will increase as females join the labour force while their caring responsibilities are left unchanged. There is no sign that private companies in southern Europe will take any initiative to support carers, although the public sectors in Portugal and Italy do have career-breaks that allow employees with eldercare responsibilities to take leave of absence. The only reply from private companies as well as the social partners in southern Europe to this survey has been that they do not have a policy and have no opinion on the subject. |
| Accession Number | CPA-950925005 B |
| Classmark | P6:SJ: WJ: TM2: 74 |
Data © Centre for Policy on Ageing |
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| ...from the Ageinfo database published by Centre for Policy on Ageing. |
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