The European Commission has launched a public consultation on how to improve work-life balance and reduce obstacles to women’s participation in the labour market, thereby contributing to the employment headline target of the Europe 2020 Strategy.
The purpose of this consultation, open until 17 February 2016, is to gather views on possible action and tools at EU-level to support work-life balance, and on the roadmap of the initiative ‘A new start to address the challenges of work-life balance faced by working families’ published in August 2015 to replace the 2008 Commission proposal to revise the 1992 Maternity Leave Directive.
This follows a consultation with the EU social partners on possible improvements to EU legislation on work-life balance launched on 11 November, which includes a specific mention on workers caring for dependent family members at home. AGE welcomes this initiative as a step to a possible directive on carer’s leave.