After presenting the electoral proposals addressed to the families of the four major parties: PP, PSOE, IU and UPyD we will collect what we believe are the best proposals aimed at work and family reconciliation.
Unfortunately, in the political landscape, conciliation is not given the importance it deserves. A few days ago I just tiptoed through the electoral debate. There seems to be more pressing problems to solve such as unemployment and the economic situation, regardless of whether a change in conciliation policies could help drive real change.
In recent days we have extracted the electoral proposals that each political party collects in its programs for the next 20N elections, always focused on those issues that interest parents especially as education, conciliation, families, motherhood and equality.
Analyzing each of the proposals of each party in each area would be very cumbersome, and we believe that it is not the place to do so, so we have decided to focus on the best proposals made by the parties on labor and family conciliation.
Nurseries in the workplace, flexible hours, telecommuting and days of child care leave
We begin with the proposals of PP, poetic but very little concrete:
We will approve a comprehensive plan to support the reconciliation of work, personal and family life of men and women, whose main purpose is the elimination of obstacles that limit this reconciliation. We will incorporate tax incentives for those companies that create daycare centers in their work centers. We will promote the flexibility of schedules at work and in schools, as well as measures to promote teleworking. (PP)
We will make more flexible the use of the time available to workers to deal with their own affairs, through a bag of hours that they can freely distribute. (PP)
What will the plan consist of? We want to know the measures that will be taken to achieve it. The nurseries in the workplace, the flexibility of schedules and teleworking seems great, but how will it be promoted? We will end up believing that the PP does not want to show his letters so as not to burn himself.
For its part, the PSOE It has been more explicit, perhaps because under conditions it has to put all the meat on the grill:
We will expand the schedule offer of public nursery schools to enable their compatibility with the work days of parents. In addition, in order to meet the needs in the first cycle of early childhood education, those entrepreneurial initiatives that provide flexibility and parental choice in the formulas for the care and care of children will be facilitated. (PSOE)
A priori it may seem very beautiful. More offer schedules so parents can accommodate their work schedules with the school day. But what parents want and need is to have more work flexibility, in schedules and conditions, to to take care of their children themselves instead of having to leave more hours in the care of others. Instead of more childcare places, measures that allow parents to choose to stay at home the first years of their children's life if they wish, without being excluded from the labor system.
And by the way, the measure proposed by the PSOE that in theory is very good but you have to see what would be in practice is to create a pact for the rationalization of time:
We will promote a cultural change for the rationalization of working hours, through a great National Pact for a Better Use of Time. This pact would include measures to raise public awareness, incentive policies for companies in conciliation measures and the rationality of working hours and in promoting new organizational models more in line with the needs of families. Specifically, it will contemplate the application of measures such as the easing of the schedules of entry and exit of work, the extension of the voluntary application of the part-time, the generalization of the continuous day, the use of ICT, especially in the form of teleworking or teleconferences. (PSOE)
They also propose daycare centers in the workplace and four days of permission for the urgent care of minor children.
We will continue to promote children's areas in work centers, morning classrooms and proximity services. (PSOE)
We will establish leave days for the care of children and other relatives in a situation of dependency for reasons of urgency. For this, we will promote a modification of the Workers' Statute that includes the recognition of four days of leave for one of the parents destined for the urgent and transitory care of children under twelve years of age and other relatives in a dependent situation in charge of the worker. (PSOE)
Extension of paternity and maternity leave
One of the most attractive proposals that we find in the electoral programs is the extension of maternity and paternity leave, where I consider the key to work and family conciliation, but for one reason or another, it has just been relegated.
Extend the duration of maternity and paternity leave, as a measure to promote work and family reconciliation and foster positive parentality. (IU)
Encourage the extension of parental leave tending to equate maternity and paternity leave to promote equal employment opportunities for men and women, and the right of both parents to participate equally in raising children. (UPyD)
Responsibility shared by father and mother
And something also very important for families: to promote the shared responsibility of both parents.
Encourage co-responsibility in the tasks of family care for women and men through the development of social services, especially nursery schools and care for dependency, and in business hours and services that facilitate conciliation. (UPyD)
United Left He proposes to reduce the working day, although I believe that less hours is not the solution but a better rationalization of time, where productivity is more important than the number of hours.
Reduction of working hours to 35 hours per week without a decrease in monthly salary. Control and limitation of overtime. Streamlining work schedules. (IU)
And to incorporate women into the labor market:
Encourage the incorporation of women into the active salaried population with the development of a battery of measures that favor this entry and that help in the creation of employment (universalization and gratuitousness of public nursery schools; extension of maternity / paternity leave; real reconciliation of family life with work ...). (IU)
Rationalization of schedules
The rationalization of schedules, more similar to those in the rest of Europe, because we can share little with our children if we get home two hours later than the rest of Europeans.
Promote more rational schedules, similar to those of the rest of Europe, that facilitate the reconciliation of family and work life. Encourage in companies the establishment of teleworking systems. (UPyD)
Finally, we want to present some proposals from another party, Equo, which although minority, intends to approach the Norwegian model and has interesting proposals in terms of conciliation. It proposes:
Develop policies to support family units in their various models, including aspects of shared custody, parenting, co-responsibility, work-life balance and others. To improve and complement the periods of low after the birth, adoption or reception of babies according to co-responsibility criteria. New labor regulation at the service of conciliation, equity and joint responsibility. Involvement of the business world. Promotion of measures to expand resources and aid in the home and school settings for the first years of life. (Equo)
Although I do not think anyone decides their vote only for proposals focused on the family (or maybe yes), at least I hope that this general screenshot for better electoral proposals of the different political parties regarding labor and family conciliation, I can help you to know what the intentions are, that although in general they are well on the way, I consider little forceful to achieve a real conciliation.
