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work-life balance
Sweden expands parental leave to grandparents and friends

Sweden expands parental leave to grandparents and friends

In Sweden, new parental leave has been extended to grandparents and friends. New rules now allow parents to transfer up to 45 days of their paid leave to someone who isn’t the child’s legal guardian – such as a relative or a friend – as long as the person is insured for parental allowance.

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COFACE working group on transnational families

COFACE working group on transnational families

This working group meeting aims to explore the impact of globalisation on family structures, identify the challenges faced by transnational families, discuss relevant EU developments, and promote collaboration among stakeholders to enhance support systems for these families. 

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Thematic Note on Ageing Family Carers

Thematic Note on Ageing Family Carers

Principle 18 of the European Pillar of Social Rights stresses: the right to affordable long-term care services of good quality, in particular homecare and community-based services. Since its adoption in 2017, the European Union has been looking more intensively at the topic of Long-Term Care (LTC), most notably with the adoption in 2022 of the European Care Strategy and the Council Recommendation on Long-Term Care. In this important time, COFACE Disability Platform launch this thematic note to spark the debate on the diversity of family carers. While the lion’s share of family carers are currently of working age and need urgent actions to support them.

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Raising the bar: The Push for 25 Days of Annual Parental leave in Belgium 

Raising the bar: The Push for 25 Days of Annual Parental leave in Belgium 

Ligue des familles, a Belgian member of COFACE Families Europe, advocates for an increase in the minimum number of annual leave days per year. 
Parents need their annual leave to meet the essential need for balance between family life and work.  According to their latest Barometer 2022 (Ipsos data), 70% of parents find it difficult to work full-time while having children.

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Austria’s implementation of the EU Work-Life Balance Directive: COFACE member KFÖ’s key takeaways

Austria’s implementation of the EU Work-Life Balance Directive: COFACE member KFÖ’s key takeaways

Alfred Trendl, President of the Catholic Family Association Austria (KFÖ), expressed both approval and concern regarding the government’s implementation of the EU directive aimed at strengthening work-life balance and partnership. While applauding the doubling of the family time bonus to 1,480 euros per month, Trendl voiced criticism of the government’s decision to cut two months of leave for families where only one parent takes parental leave. He argued that this infringes upon parental choice in childcare arrangements. 

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COFACE Advocates for Mental Health at the European Parliament

COFACE Advocates for Mental Health at the European Parliament

During the fourth edition of the European Mental Health Week conference, COFACE Families Europe’s director, Elizabeth Gosme, emphasized the significance of fostering mentally healthy communities. With a focus on promoting well-being and resilience, she shared valuable insights on creating environments that support mental health and shed light on the key factors that contribute to a thriving community, from a family perspective.

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Commission takes action to promote work-life balance in the EU 

Commission takes action to promote work-life balance in the EU 

To safeguard the right to work-life balance across Member States, in April 2023, the European Commission decided to continue infringement procedures against Belgium Czechia, Ireland, Greece, Spain, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Luxembourg, Austria, and Slovenia by sending them a reasoned opinion for failing to notify national measures fully transposing EU rules establishing rights on work-life balance for parents and carers. 

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Study shows parental leave has benefits for mental health

Study shows parental leave has benefits for mental health

Becoming a parent can be very joyful, but it can also be stressful. A study by Amy Heshmati, Helena Honkaniemi and Sol P. Juárez (Stockholm University) shows that mental health disorders during the post-natal period are common morbidity, but parental leave might help alleviate symptoms by preventing or reducing stress.

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Working conditions in the time of COVID-19: Implications for the future

Working conditions in the time of COVID-19: Implications for the future

The strict public health restrictions implemented by governments in 2020 to control the COVID-19 pandemic abruptly changed working life and continued to shape it over the two years that followed. This report by the European Working Conditions Telephone Survey (EWCTS) provides a detailed picture of the working lives and conditions of Europeans in that exceptional time.

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EU Work-life Balance Directive transposition in action – A mixed picture: From non-compliance and basic minimum standards to ambitious reforms for modern gender-responsive family policies

EU Work-life Balance Directive transposition in action – A mixed picture: From non-compliance and basic minimum standards to ambitious reforms for modern gender-responsive family policies

The EU Work-life Balance Directive is the first legislative initiative that follows the launch of the European Pillar of Social Rights in 2017 and was formally adopted two years later in 2019. COFACE Families Europe expects high ambitions from the different EU institutions and national governments in the implementation of the European Pillar of Social Rights, as a stepping stone to develop a framework for a more social and fairer European Union.

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Key updates on the EU Work-life balance directive transposition

Key updates on the EU Work-life balance directive transposition

All EU countries had until the 2nd of August 2022 to bring into force the laws, regulations, and administrative provisions necessary to comply fully with the Work-life balance Directive. The Directive contains legal elements that acknowledge the diversity of families in the 21st century, for instance with the mention of “equivalent second parent” under the paternity leave article.

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Lithuanian tool to check your work-life balance – take the test!

Lithuanian tool to check your work-life balance – take the test!

Throughout different periods of our lives, each of us experiences different needs, desires, commitments, and opportunities. No magic formula can be applied to our work and personal lives that would suit everyone. However, there is a tool you can use to calculate the formula precisely for your work and personal life, and it was developed by the Lithuanian Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson, in cooperation with partners: they created a work-life balance formula. 

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Sharing Time to Improve Mental Health and Social Cohesion: The Example of Time Banks

Sharing Time to Improve Mental Health and Social Cohesion: The Example of Time Banks

The Associació Salut i Família has been promoting for more than twenty years the creation of free service exchange networks between people who live and / or work in the same neighborhood, town or city. These networks for the exchange of services, skills, knowledge and relationships between people take the hour of time as a unit of value and exchange.

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