ILO welcomes EU Care Strategy in the European Parliament and calls for recognition and better rewarding of care workers
At a meeting in the European Parliament, the ILO has welcomed the EU Care Strategy, and discussed the Strategy through the lens of its ‘5R’ Framework for Decent Care Work.
The ILO addressed a meeting on the European Care Strategy, organized by the social partners representing the personal and household services (PHS) sector at the European level. The event was held in the European Parliament.
Lieve Verboven, Director of ILO-Brussels, welcomed the EU Care Strategy, which explicitly addresses several challenges in the care sector to meet the needs of caregivers and care receivers.
The ILO strongly advocates to take a high road to care work, given the challenges care workers and domestic workers face. This means pursuing five key policy objectives, as defined in the ILO’s ‘5R’ Framework for Decent Care Work: recognize, reduce and redistribute unpaid care work; reward care workers by generating more and better-quality care work, including pay; and promote the representation of unpaid carers, care workers and care recipients in social dialogue.
The measures taken by the European Commission to improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of both early-childhood education and care, and long-term care, allow for a more flexible work-life balance for parents. They also contribute to social and gender equality.
“Many women provide unpaid care work and this has major implications for their engagement in paid work, as well as their access to social protection, including pensions,” the Director explained.
“The European Commission has also proposed measures to allow care workers to develop their skills, and called on EU member states to invest in and improve early childhood education and care. These initiatives, as well as the Proposal for a Council Recommendation on long-term care, are important elements in redistributing and reducing unpaid care work,” said Ms Verboven.
As proposed in the EU Care Strategy, paid care work needs to be better rewarded. A joint ILO-WHO study has found that women in the health and care sector earn 24 per cent less than peers who are men. Addressing gender discrimination in rewarding paid work is therefore crucial to close the gender care and pay gap.
The EU Care strategy makes references to the representation of workers, such as the promotion of collective agreements in the care sector, as well as the exploration of a new sectoral social dialogue for social services at the EU level.
At the end of the meeting, the social partners in the personal and household services adopted a joint statement on the EU Care Strategy.
“Following the EU Care Strategy’s implementation of the ILO’s Framework for Decent Care Work, we can continue the high road to care work. Taken together with the strong cooperation between the ILO, our social partners, and the EU, I believe that we can overcome the challenges the PHS sector is currently facing,” the Director concluded.
