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

• Author: Marlies Vegter
• Pages: 34-51

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

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

2010/18)104

5.1 General (legal) context

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

In the Netherlands there is a continuous stream of publications on work-life balance issues.

Most of these are of a popular nature; some are more serious. The paragraphs below

mention several of the more serious ones.

Research by the SCP (S ocial Cultural Plan Bureau) of 2017 mentions that Dutch citizens

spend on average 21 hours per week on care tasks. Most of this time is spent on cooking,

tidying up, cleaning , washing and shopping. Those wh o have children also spend

considerable time on them, especially if they are youn g. Parents with children under 4

years spend on average 14.5 hour s per week on them.105 There are considerabl e

differences between men an d women. In the age categ ory of 20 - to 64-year-old people

with a partner and children, men spend on average 20.5 hours per week on care tasks

(including household tasks) and women 35.8 hours. If there are no children in the

household, women spend much less time on care tasks (26 hours), whereas for men the

difference between those who have children and those who do not (18.8 hours) is smaller.

Other research has been done by the CBS (Central Bureau of Statistics). The CBS

published a report in March 2019 on the fact that there has been hard ly any increase in

the extent to which fathers take leave to care for their children.106 Almost 87 % of fathers

took some sort of leave after the birth of their chi ldren. One in ten fathers with a child

under 8 years took up parental leave. When asked why more fathers did not use this leave,

the reply is usually that i t is too c ostly, or that they are afraid of damaging their career.

The CBS also reported that around 50 % of fathers work at home for one day per week.

The SCP Emancipation Monitor 2018107 mentions that since the previous Emancipation

Monitor of 2016 an increas e can be seen in the nu mber of hours women do paid work.

Most women work part-time. Four out of ten of them indicate that they work pa rt-time

because of caring for children or grandchildren. Most fathers and mothers indicate that

they would like to share the care for their children equally, but in practice this only happens

in one out of eight families. If care tasks are divided unequally, the mother/woman almost

always has a greater share of the tasks. There is a positive trend though in the sense that

the number of men who do their share of housework and care tasks is s lowly increasing.

Leonie van Br eeschoten undertook s ociological research. She published a Ph.D. thesis in

April 2019 entitled Combining a Career and Childcare, The Use and Usefulness of Work -

104 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

https://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

https://www.equalitylaw.eu/downloads/3631-reconciliation.

105 SCP, ‘Zorg voor het huishouden en anderen’ (Care for the household and for others), 21 December 2017.

Available at https://digitaal.scp.nl/eenweekinkaart1/zorg-voor-het-huishouden-en-anderen/.

106 CBS (2019), ‘Gebruik verlofregelingen vaders vrijwel onveranderd’ (Use of leave by fathers almost

unchanged), 2019. A short video with English subtitles is also available at the website

https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2019/13/gebruik-verlofregelingen-vaders-vrijwel-onveranderd.

107 SCP (2018), Emancipatiemonitor 2018, December 2018. Available at

https://digitaal.scp.nl/emancipatiemonitor2018/emancipatie-weer-in-de-lift/.

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Family Policies in European Organizations.108 Van Breeschoten conclude s, inter alia and

not surprisingly, that for employees, and men in particular, to take up parental leave, it is

essential that this leave is paid. This is more important than whether taking leave is seen

as acceptable and normal within an organisation or not. Another conclusion is that m en

especially take parental leave if they h ave a manager who also do es this and/or if they

work within an organisation with relatively many women employe es.

In this respect the position of self-employed women is interesting. Women sometimes

choose to become self-employed so as to have more freedom in planning t heir working

hours. They also experience this aspect as positive, bu t the downside is that sometimes

little time rema ins fo r the women themselves, e.g. because during the day children or

other family members ask f or attention, whereas in th e evening remaining work must be

done.109 In addition, in the Netherlands self-employed women are not entitled to care

leave, parental leave or other forms of leave, apart from pregnancy leave. It is therefore

hard for them to quit their work for a while. That might mean they lose work, lose clients,

etc.

Some surveys focus especially on flexible working arrangements. However, the outcomes

appear to be different. Most surveys are highly positive about flexible working. For

example, research commissioned by R egus, a broker in workspaces, and car ried out by

the Development Economics bureau in July 2018 mentioned that, if flexible work continues

to increase at the current pace in the Netherlands, the country will, after th e US, be the

‘champion’ in flexible working by 2030.110 The survey also mentions that people with

flexible work arrangements are twice as lik ely to be satisfied with their work as people

who work in a more traditional environment. In another report of 2016, however, it is

observed that 35 % of employees would like to have more flexible working arrangements,

but do not feel free to ask f or or to sta rt working in this way because of the culture at

work or social pressure. Only 20 % of employees experience support from their employer

in this area.111 There are, in short, different findings in this area, probably dependent on

the type of questions asked and maybe al so on the background of those commissioning

the research.112

In regard to childcare, the most recent reports find that there is enough childcare available

and that childcare centres are sufficiently flexible. In 2017 , 882 000 children w ent to

formal child care centres, the highest number ever.113 However th e number of children of

parents with a low income who go to child care is diminishing.114 The costs are one reason

for this, but other reasons ar e traditional ideas about caring for children and ab out the

mother as the ideal person to do so. These ideas appear to have b ecome more popular

(again), especially among people with little education and/or immigran t families.

5.1.2 Other issues

In the Netherlands a large number of women work part time. This is the case both for

women with an employment agreement and for self-employed women. According to

108 Van Breeschoten, L. (2019), Combining a Career and Childcare, The Use and Usefulness of Work-Family

Policies in European Organizations, Utrecht 2019. Available at http://leonievanbreeschoten.nl/wp-

content/uploads/2019/03/Combining-a-Career-and-Childcare_van-Breeschoten.pdf.

109 Annink, A. and den Dunk, L. (2014) ‘De positie van vrouwelijke zzp’ers in Nederland’, Atria, § 4.5.

110 Regus, Flexible Working, Solid Facts, a summary review of the socio-economic benefits of flexible working

in 16 countries, July 2018. Available at. http://vastgoedberichten.nl/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/181017-

Regus_FlexibleWorkingSolidFacts_SummaryReport.pdf.

111 Werktrends (2017), ‘Anders werken: wat vindt werkend Nederland?’, 2016. Available at

https://www.werktrends.nl/anders-werken-vindt-werkend-nederland/.

112 Regus, for example, offers ‘solutions’ for flexible working (workspaces and the like).

113 CBS (2018), ‘Recordaantal kinderen met kinderopvangtoeslag’ (A record number of children with childcare

allowance), 3 July 2018. Available at https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2018/27/recordaantal-kinderen-met-

kinderopvangtoeslag.

114 Roeters, A. and Bucx, F. (2016), Beleidssignalement. Het gebruik van kinderopvang door ouders met lagere

inkomens (Use of childcare by parents with lower incomes). The Hague, SCP.