WORK-LIFE BALANCEPERSONAL AND HOUSHOLD SERVICES

La Rioja, 24 March 2014

Jean-François LEBRUNEuropean Commission, DG EMPL

The women are the future of growth

Women are more educated than men (55% in tertiary education)

But there are only 26% of employers.

Imagine that this rate reaches 50% so 4 million new enterprises and that 5 workers by enterprise therefore 20 million new jobs.

Gain in terms of growth over 780 billion to € or 6% of GDP.

45% of women admit a problem of work-life balance.

To increase this rate and thus foster our growth, we must improve the work-life balance

To improve the work-life balance, one of the tracks is the PHS.

BARCELONA

PHS: An ICEBERG of 120 millions FTP (full time equivalent). Each adult works 3 hours at home (OECD)

Female employment rate

+ 80

More reconciliation needs

More dependency needs

Social objective More needs tomorrow

• More social services• Quasi-market • Allocations to stay at home• LETS• Voluntary services• …..

Employment objective

PHS: A rational choice and a need for public interventions

21 1

21 1 <1

Informal

0

= Auto

product

ion

With a public support close to the tax wedge (40-50%), the intervention is neutral for public finance (following several studies)

But who pay ? who receive the returns ?

OBJECTIVES – Opportunities in 3 domains

Social - Existing and future needs

Needs linked to the demographic evolution (ageing population and more active women)Childcare, long term care, care for dependant people and non-care activitiesAccess, universality versus selectivity, quality

Employment – Creation of new jobs (5 million in EU 28)

Job creationFight against undeclared workCharacteristics of these activities: highest job content, local (or low import content),…

Economic – A new sector

Development of a new "sector" by the externalisation of several activities made at homeSpecialisation, economy of scale, technical progress

PHS – A NEED OF ACTIONS

FIVE STEPS APPROACH

1.Identification of needs

2.Certification of providers

3.Co-financing by the user

4.Evaluation

5.Support activities

1. Identification of needs

Activities made at home

CARE (without health dimension) NON-CARE•Child Cleaning•Elderly Ironing•Disabled Gardening•Dependent …..

Public opinion surveyStakeholders audition+ Analysis of current supply (including undeclared economy & price on the "black market")→ list of activities and their prices

Eurobarometer

2. Certification (or license) of providers

Quality of servicesSkills (social, communication and technical)Commitment (empathy,…)Segmentation (several providers)

Quality of workWorking conditions (working hours, wages, transport,…)Training

Public authorities can fix requirements, conditions,… to the service providers

Based on quality requirements, skills requirements,…Competition between the providers (public services, social economy or private companies)No public procurementsRequirements in terms of professionalization, vocational training, social dialogue,…

PHS: WORKING CONDITIONS ?• Low wages• Low productivity• Budget constraints

• Working time• Job security• Physical risks• Psychological risks• Transport

Training New technologies Quality control Social dialogue ILO Convention Cultural Change /

communication

• Recruitement • Retention

3. Co-financing by the user

The user (beneficiary or customer) must pay part of the cost (0 to 100%)Fiscal deductibility or direct support (voucher) A grid of financial support in function of criteria (income, dependency, age,)The "public" financial support is "carried" by the user, the demand sideSimple procedures

HIGH PUBLIC EXPENSESBUT THERE ARE IMPORTANT RETURN EFFECTS

- Job creation (taxation, social security contributions,…)- Better balancing family life and work (productivity)

WHY? IN LINE WITH THE CARACTERISTICS OF THESE ACTIVITIES:- High employment content between 0,95 and 1,00- Low-medium skills- Existence of undeclared work- Low productivity- Few or absence of formal job without public interventions

Earn-back effects 1st order earn-back effects 2nd order earn-back effects

- Social security contributions- Additional personal taxes- Reduction in unemployment benefits

- Additional job creation (manager, assistant,…)- Corporate taxes

- Less stress, less absenteeism,…- More working hours/job returns - Cost of alternative solutions (institutionalisation,…)

BE ATSE

Public autorities can determine their financial supports on the basis of several criteria and policy objectives.

The only limit is the black market price.

4. Evaluation

Analysis of databases

Opinion surveys (users, employees)

On-line rating (for the users & for the quality)

….

Possibility to review the system

But caution to the need to have a stable environment

Analysis of the needs satisfaction (opinion surveys,…)Analysis of the employment and financial returnsEvaluation of quality and working conditionsRating by the users (online plateform,…)

5. Support activities

Communication campaignR&DOthers co-financing organisations (enterprises (work life balance, CSR,…), insurance, charities,…)

PHS: A Room for new technologies

Yesterday:Washing machine, dishwasher,…

Today:Automatic vacuum cleaner and lawnmower,..Monitoring devices for elderly

Tomorrow:eLearningIntelligent monitoring devicesTailor made solutionsOther robots

+ Management and administration+ Infrastructure (domotics, house adapted,…)+ R&D

New technology + Technical skills Productivity

Thank you for your attention

•Jean-francois.lebrun@ec.europa.eu