European Trade Union Committee for Education

The European Commission is carrying out the first stage consultation with social partner organisations on how to improve the work-life balance. ETUCE provides input for the reply of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and invites its member organisations to consult with their Trade Union Confederations in participating in this consultation.

After the withdrawal of the proposal of the Maternity Leave Directive in June 2015 the European Commission is working on a document with a more holistic approach. ETUCE and ETUC have criticised this step, fearing that any new proposition would not be as comprehensive as the former one. With the new launch of the consultation the Commission is picking up topics of the Maternity Leave Directive and is asking social partner organisations at European and national level to give their suggestions on how ‘to reduce obstacles to women’s participation in the labour market’ until 4 January 2016. The consultation document explains problems in arranging family and working life especially for women and gives an overview about the current EU legal framework. Social partner organisations can indicate whether they agree with the problem description of the document, whether and how they would propose to improve EU legislation on this topic and whether they would consider initiating a dialogue on related topics, such as the Parental Leave Directive. Following up on this first stage consultation the European Commission is going to launch a second stage in which social partner organisations and civil society organisations will be asked to provide ideas for action in tackling the difficulty of reconciling working and family life.

To read more about the consultation, please click here.

To find out more about the withdrawal of the Maternity Leave Directive, please click here.