Part-time Jobs Support? Helena Tomešová Bartáková Blanka Plasová

Starting Presumptions  Emphasis on family policy does not belong to government priorities  Targets: Enhance a social prestige of the family and strengthen involvement of both parents for child care (X missing specification of concrete measures) Part-time jobs support for parents with children till 6 years (measures: only discount on social insurance for employer 7200 CZK per year) Development of family care options (measures: company kindergartens, family centres, mutual parental assistance)

Women in the Labour Market compared to the EU  Level of women employment is the same as the EU average  Slightly higher gender employment gap (difference between employment of Czech men and women is 17,5% compared to the EU 14,5%)  The highest child employment gap (difference between employment of Czech women without and with children is more than 40% compared to EU-27 average 14%)  Very low level of part-time jobs (average proportion is 4%, in women category 6% compared to EU- 27 average 31%)

Current Part-time Jobs  Part-time jobs preferences harmonizing work and family considerably exceed the real situation  Space for potential demand after part- time jobs exists (almost 40% mother with child between 2 – 3 years would prefer other than exclusive personal child care) X Absence of suitable child care options to (exclusively) family care can lead to enforced stay at home.

Employers and Part Time-jobs in Numbers  Employers mention that they offer a possibility to work part-time at least to some groups of employees in almost 64% cases  Majority of employers (74,9%) have no problems (or only small ones) with part-time jobs.  Approx. a half of employers take into account in the same extent both company/organization needs and employees needs during part-time implementation (+ 22% have in mind rather employees needs and 25% rather their own needs).  78% of employers would meet (or probably meet) a request for part-time job ? Positive employers approach + high preferences of parents with children ≠ higher level of part- time jobs ? Source: survey „Family needs of employees“, 2007, N=1019

Employees Situation with Part-time Jobs in Different Areas (compared to full-time jobs) Better than full- time job employees Approx. same as full-time job employees Worse than employees with full-time job Possibility of work promotion 3,5%68,5%28,1% Claim for employee benefits 4,2%79,3%16,5% Job stability 4,6%79,6%15,9% Participation in company training programs 3,9%82,0%14,1% Survey „Family Needs of Employees“, 2007, N=1019

Approach of Employers in depth Interviews  Significant dependency on nature of work (harmonization of both parties’ needs)  Mainly individual agreement (from the employer’s point of view, experience with a given person and also with part-time proceedings is important)  It is used during parental leave and also when returning to work  Only limited number of employees in part-time work in an organization  Problematic question from full-time to part- time work scheme change

Risks  Low quality (lower wage, certainty of work, access to education, suspension of career prospects)  Discrepancy of parents’ and employers’ needs  Matter of forced work loads (full-time or part-time)  Locked access to the secondary labour markets (potential for segregation and marginalization strengthening of already disadvantaged groups on labour market)  Inexperience of employers with similar type of jobs + challenging work organization  Linkage only to certain work positions - from employers’ perspective  As far as the current employers’ attitude is concerned, the agreements will be more probably based on individual basis than on general rule  Government orientation only on labour market participation – just part-time jobs support – without linkage to any other necessary family policy tools i.e. accessible and quality public child care and adjustment of family allowance setting

Conclusions and Recommendations  Not only employers’ but also parental support is necessary  Likelihood of parental allowance and work concurrence (also part-time work) is indirectly made unfeasible by non- availability of child care for small children - it is not possible to anticipate faster return from parental leave back to the labour market  In accordance with OECD recommendations, it is not possible to provide sufficiently good-quality and accessible child care for children bellow 3 years only through alternative forms (such as mutual parental help or company child care centers)  For concerns of mothers’ marginalization strengthening on the labour market (as a result of locking in part-time jobs), the part-time work schemes should be supported only as one of possible options