Streamline your customer sales cycle in European Union with airSlate SignNow

How to create outlook signature

[Music] foreign welcome back to the eprs Chronicles in our series on care work in episodes one and two we looked at paid and unpaid care work how and why women end up doing the majority of it it's undervaluation both in society and across the labor market in this final episode we're going to examine why this gender imbalance has been perpetuated as well as look at some ways in which we can have a more sustainable care work sector in the future for this I am joined Once More by Mina Fernandez and Cecilia Navara both policy analysts at the eprs welcome back to chilea thank you welcome back Mina I'm going to start with you to Julia I want you to tell us a little more about what you define as a vicious cycle in care work the Vicious Cycle is a tool that we use to understand the problem and connect the dots so first of all because women do the bulk of unpaid work we have what we have called in the first episode The Care penalty second women on average earn less than men in the labor market and therefore they are more likely to fall out of employment as soon as a care need appears in the household third when these needs arise quality Professional Care is often not accessible or not affordable and this is because of a low investment approach that we have also discussed so and with care duties remaining in the in the household as we have seen they will fall over overwhelmingly on women so all together this vicious cycle is reinforcing gender inequalities and it's entrenching them in the economy thank you Mina tell me what kind of policies could address this vicious cycle to address the Vicious Cycle we need policies that can go to the root of the problem and this is the undervaluation of care work we need policies that are Broad in addressing both paid and unpaid care work we need policies that make care work visible and recognized in our society many policies that address the gender Dimension given that the vast majority of care providers are women and we most of all we need to publish cities that can change the mindset in society and the value that we attach to productive work as well as the value we attach to reproductive work there are three types of policies that can address the Vicious Cycle first of all are policies that promote the equal earner equal care model and this can promote greater gender equality within the household as well as the labor market there are also policies that promote investment in the Professional Care sector which can boost employment wages and working conditions which are currently poor as was discussed in the previous episode of this series and last of all are policies that can promote better access and quality of care whether it be paid or unpaid and that can help to guarantee the autonomy and dignity of those being cared of and is there a role that the EU could have yes there is definitely a role in fact the EU could play a very key role in coordinating actions and Investments this is because care is a public good the EU can promote upward harmonization across the member states to ensure that no one is Left Behind and All Care needs are met the potential gains are what we call European added value the European commission presented its strategy on care work in September are there measures in it that would counter the Vicious Cycle well yes the strategy is a good step in the right direction of addressing the Vicious Cycle it presents a range of measures which fall into the three areas I mentioned before and it clearly states the need for investment at the same time though it's not mobilizing new additional funding for the sector and the measures leave a lot of flexibility to the member states and this means there's a limitation on the potential for Upward harmonization which is needed to generate the benefits So based on our research we would say that the strategy is an important step but we need to move even further if we want to reverse the Vicious Cycle and speaking of moving further has the European Parliament already presented its position indeed in July the European Parliament adopted a resolution that called for ambitious EU action in the area of both paid care work as well as unpaid care work with regards to paid care work it calls for changes on working conditions professional qualifications and the role of the European labor Authority and with regards to unpaid care work it calls for a range of measures that promote the recognition of unpaid care work and how to rebalance it between men and women within the household thank you Mina chachilla just moving to you now if the European parliament's proposals are adopted what would care work look like in the future across the EU well it could produce a shift from a low investment low access model to a high access High investment high quality model so a kind of a shift towards a modern sector that is people centered whereby people we mean both recipients of care and carers and care workers themselves so the view is that people who have care needs would see their needs met unpaid carers would have an actual choice between providing keraton or looking for care services and Care work would be more equally distributed within households so in this approach I would say that care is the right so it would no longer be seen as a luxury that the only the more affluent people can afford and Care work would be an attractive sector of employment which is regulated and protects workers and guarantees good working conditions and how would these policy shifts impact Society well indeed yes those policies would not impact only the care sectors but the society uh in general too first of all because both care workers and those in need of care would lead more dignified and independent lives and it would help put us all on a sustainable path especially in the face of an aging population this sounds wonderful but wouldn't it be quite expensive to make such a big transition well as we have seen in the first episode there is a cost for not acting yes so to be exact 240 billion euros per year only speaking of unpaid care we are actually used to thinking of Greater investment on care only as a cost but this is not the case we are paying a cost by not investing enough in the care sector I would cite an example research finds that investment in care can generate High benefits that more than repay themselves so for example a study on Austria finds that every Euro invested in long-term care produces 1.7 Euros of added value and if you calculate the benefits of your actions in the three areas mentioned just before it adds up to between 100 and 200 billion euros per year that means that we all stand to gain from a bold and ambitious action on care sector and that you could play actually critical role indeed thank you very much to Julia thank you thank you very much Mina thank you this concludes our series on care work if you would like to know more about how EU policy could positively impact society and the economy please check out the eprs website foreign [Music]