Grace James

Forgotten children: work–family reconciliation in the EU

At the core of this article is a discussion of how, why and with what implications, considerations of childrens needs are missing from the EUs work–family reconciliation framework. Part I demonstrates how the EU has failed to properly identify, let alone acknowledge or promote, childrens interests in relation to work-family reconciliation. An examination of relevant legislation and case law shows how children are ‘missing’ from this policy area, which has huge implications for their day to day lives. Part II then considers the reasons behind, and consequences of, this reluctance to engage with childrens interests in reconciliation laws and shows how childrens well-being could be better incorporated into relevant policies and within the jurisprudence of the Court of Justice. This section highlights, for example, how the EU has been willing and able to promote childrens interests in other legal fields and suggests that changes in the Treaty, post Lisbon, offer a means to improve the current approach.

Mothers and fathers as parents and workers: family-friendly employment policies in an era of shifting identities

This article considers what opportunities ‘family-friendly’ policies provide for mothers and fathers to (re)formulate and (re)negotiate their preferred ‘Parent’ and ‘Worker’ indentities. It argues that policies do not yet provide and effective space for the development of self-identities because, despite some progress, they fail to support the shifts that are occurring within a large number of families. The article examines relevant family-friendly employment policies and suggests what might facilitate a better approach, one that does reflect the shifting identities of mothers and fathers and is flexible enough to provide for a plurality of needs.

Regulating working families in the European Union: a history of disjointed strategies

Families in market economies worldwide have long been confronted with the demands of participating in paid work and providing care for their dependent members. The social, economic and political contexts within which families do so differ from country to country but an increasing number of governments are being asked to engage, or better engage, with this important area of public policy. What seems like a relatively simple goal – to enable families to better balance care-giving and paid employment – has raised several difficulties and dilemmas for policy makers which have been approached in different ways. This paper aims to identify and critique the nature and development of the means by which legal engagement with work–family reconciliation has, historically, been framed in the European Union. In doing so, and with reference to specific cohorts of workers, we demonstrate how disjointed the strategies are in relation to working carers and argue that the EU is unlikely to provide the legal framework necessary to bring about effective change in this fundamentally important area of social policy.

Child Welfare and Work-Family Reconciliation Policies: Lessons from Family Law

Family-friendly employment laws seek to help workers participate in the labour market and care for dependent family members. Legislation is principally focussed on enabling parents to provide care for their children through a variety of measures including maternity, paternity or parental leave provisions and rights to request flexible working arrangements. The legislation that exists in developing countries often highlights the need to achieve gender equality and/or facilitate parental choice, and whilst this ought clearly to guide policy formation it is nonetheless curious that children’s need to receive care from their parents (or other carers) features so little in the packages of rights on offer. At an EU level for example, relevant laws have been developed to promote reconciliation between work and family life primarily as a means to achieve equality between women and men, and so children’s welfare is not a fundamental aim, per se, of policies instigated at this level.At a national level, the relevance of children’s welfare in the development of employment legislation varies: some countries articulate children’s wellbeing as central to the policy initiatives that are promoted, but most focus mainly on the gender equality implications or individual choice-enhancing qualities of the laws that they introduce. Yet, if the link between employment laws and children’s welfare is to become more widely recognised we may need to (re)consider how these laws might better promote children’s welfare. In this chapter we are interested in investigating this further and consider what an appropriate shift in the core objectives of relevant packages of rights might involve: this is an exploratory exercise that considers the means and ramifications of placing children at the heart of family-friendly legislation – how can children’s welfare be better recognised as a guiding principle within this specific body of employment law?