Pregnancy, maternity, and leave related to work-life balance for workers (Directive 92/85, relevant provisions of Directives 2006/54, 2010/18 and 2019/1158)

• Author: Iustina Ionescu
• Pages: 31-41

31

5 Pregnancy, maternity, and leave related to work-life balance for workers

(Directive 92/85, relevant provisions of Directives 2006/54, 2010/18 and

2019/1158)130

5.1 General (legal) context

5.1.1 Surveys and reports on the practical difficulties linked to work -life balance

No surveys and/or reports have been published in Romania over the last fiv e years which

provide insights into difficulties that workers face in practice in relation to work-life balance

issues.

5.1.2 Other issues

Only one in three children under the age of four attends childcare facilities in urban

Romania, according to a 2018 study by the National Institute of Statistics (Instit utul

Naional de Statistic (INS)), while the situation is probably more dramatic in rural

areas.131 The stu dy does not assess the reasons why p arents choose t o raise their small

children at home, it only suggests that cultural concepts and the distance to childcare

facilities could be significant reasons, in addition to insufficient childcare facilities.132

However, the author of this report point s to the stat istics that show a dramatic decrease

in the number of childcare facilities over the last 20 years, which hav e fallen much faster

than birth rates.133 Therefore, it is rather the infrastru cture and economic conditions that

are influencing cultural choices, women taking parental leave to raise their children at

home being a cultural choice.

5.1.3 Overview of national acts on work-life balance issues

The laws that define the main concepts of work-li fe balance are OUG No.96/2003 on the

protection of maternity in the workplace and OUG 111/2010 regarding parental leave and

the monthly allowance for parental leave. In addition, OUG N o. 158/2005 on leaves and

allowances fr om social health insurance complements the legal framework with general

provisions regarding leave and the Gender Equality L aw stipulates the main guarantees

against discrimination for leave-takers.

5.1.4 Political and societal debate and pending legislative proposals

The political and societal debate s in this field focus on the level of the monthly allowan ce

for parental care leave, in particul ar whether or not there should b e an upper limit to the

85 % of income rate. On the one hand , there are women’s groups which point t o middle-

class women who feel discouraged from having children because they will see a significant

decrease in their income during parental leave. On the other hand, the Government

130 See Masselot, A. (2018) Family leave: enforcement of the protection against dismissal and unfavourable

treatment, European network of legal experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, available at:

www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/4808-family-leave-enforcement-of-the-protection-against-dismissal-and-

unfavourable-treatment-pdf-962-kb and McColgan, A. (2015) Measures to address the challenges of work-

life balance in the EU Member States, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, European network of legal

experts in gender equality and non-discrimination, available at: www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/3631-

reconciliation.

131 National Institute of Statistics (Institutul Naional de Statistic (INS)), 2018 Urban Audit, p. 26, available

at: https://media.hotnews.ro/media_server1/document-2018-09-10-22694071-0-audit-urban-2018.pdf.

132 National Institute of Statistics (Institutul Naional de Statistic (INS)), 2018 Urban Audit, p. 26, available

at: https://media.hotnews.ro/media_server1/document-2018-09-10-22694071-0-audit-urban-2018.pdf.

133 Pascari, M. (2016) ‘Numrul de grdinie din România a sczut de zece ori în ultimii 20 de ani. Scderea

ratei natalitii şi depopularea unor regiuni au pus lactul pe mii de grdinie’ (The number of kindergartens

in Romania has decreased 10 times in the last 20 years. The drop in the birth rate and the depopulation of

certain regions has caused thousands of kindergartens to close) in Ziarul Financiar, 10.12.16, available at:

www.zf.ro/profesii/numarul-de-gradinite-din-romania-a-scazut-de-zece-ori-in-ultimii-20-de-ani-scaderea-

ratei-natalitatii-si-depopularea-unor-regiuni-au-pus-lacatul-pe-mii-de-gradinite-16015100.