Cyberstreet
Contributions of Civil Society Organisations to the Well-Being of Families
Foro Español de la Familia SPANISH FAILY FORUM
Adress:
C / Marinero, 10
28260 Galapagar
Spain
Contact person:
MARIA CARDENAL AND LOURDES DEL FRESNO
Contact e-mail:
"forofamilia@forofamilia.orgy
prensa@forofamilia.org"
Telephone:
+34915105140
Cell: 34690853967
Telefax:
+34915105139
Homepage:
www.forofamilia.org
Content:
Statement by Foro de la Familia (Spanish Family Forum)
at the Family Platform Conference
to be held in Brussels 4-5 November 2010
The issue of the reconciliation of work and family life has been on the agenda of the European Union for many years. In Spain, due to certain historical and sociological factors, progress in the implementation of effective policies in this area can be described as slow. The policy of Foro de la Familia (Spanish Family Forum) in respect of work/ family reconciliation can be summarized as follows:
Legislation in collective bargaining agreements and in the field of work/family life reconciliation, which will provide for, among others:
a. Leave of absence for the mother or father of a child until the age of three, with guaranteed return to work. If the 3 year period is divided between father & mother, it is to be extended one further year.
b. Maternity leave to be extended to six months from the birth of the child, and paternity leave introduced for the father for a period of four months under the same conditions as maternity leave.
c. Maternity/paternity leave to be extended in the case of multiple births, disability of the child and in one-parent families.
d. Legal recognition of the right to a reduced working day during the first year of the child’s life.
e. A code of Good Practice in work/family reconciliation in the area of the Social Responsibility of enterprises.
f. A positive points system in all public tenders for companies which demonstrate family-responsible and progressive reconciliation policies. The system should be duly accredited by an independent agency, such as the Family-responsible Company Certificate issued by the Foundation Mas Familia.
g. Prevision for a situation of “temporary dependence”, when one or more of the children of the family need the full-time care and attention of one of the parents because of grave illness.
h. Increase in the time and duration of breast-feeding from 1 to 2 hours and from 9 to 12 months, without reduction of salary and including the possibility of working a 6-hour day during this period.
i. The development, in coordination with local city & town councils, of new methods of telephone & on-line welfare services aimed at the ill and the elderly, to improve attention to people with special needs and at the same time promoting the reconciliation of work and family demands.
j. Financial support and technical assessment for NGOs which work to help families by means of tenders for public subsidies.
In National, Regional and Local Administrations:
Promote at all levels of the Administration the following in collective bargaining agreements and among the social agents:
a. Flexible working hours to adapt to the needs of workers with young children.
b. Networking from the home.
c. Periods of part-time working to allow for the care of children up to the age of three.
d. Creation of crèches at the workplace and increase of public funding of a crèche network large enough to satisfy the needs of families. Support for the creation of privately run-crèches.
e. Specific scientific training for mothers/fathers who decide to undertake the care of their children during their leave of absence and on returning to work.
f. Increase in the number of day-care centres, homes for the elderly and schools, with longer and more flexible timetables.
Public subsidies for family-responsible enterprises:
a. 100% discount of Social Security payments for a period of 1 year for companies which take on female staff who have stopped working temporarily to look after their families.
b. 100% discount of Social Security payments for workers who are hired to substitute staff on leave of absence or with reduced working hours for family reasons.
c. In collaboration with the various social agents, establish a Code of Good Practice in respect of the reconciliation of working life and family needs.
d. Make available incentives to companies which provide their staff with centres or qualified personnel to help cover the needs of young, dependent or elderly people in their charge.
e. Institutional support for approved Family-responsible Company Certificates.
Other measures:
a. Promote preventive measures to help overcome conflict in the family (according to Council of Europe recommendations): prepare a Basic Draft Law for Family Protection and promote and strengthen public and private Centres for Family Orientation.
b. Review and reform the law governing divorce and separation procedure, allowing judges to invite the parties in conflict to attempt mediation.
c. Promote Schools for Parents and Family Orientation associations and activities.
d. Review and reform the electoral system, recognizing the right to vote of all family members by means of a family vote, so that minors can exercise their right through their parents or legal representatives.
Madrid, 20th October 2010
Brussels, 29 March 2012: Meeting EU MPs Exchanging good practices:
Spanish Family Forum – Foro de la Familia
Spanish Citizens’ Initiative: RedMadre
Foro Español de la Familia has been promoting 17 Citizens’ Initiatives, one for each Regional Government. The objective of these Citizens’ Initiatives is to ensure that Public Administrations offer real solutions to the problems which pregnancy can create.
Up to the present moment, after following a strictly and fully legal procedure of collection of signatures and presentation of the Citizens’ Initiatives in 9 Autonomous Regions, the respective regional governments have enacted laws to protect pregnant women, while in the other 2 regions we are awaiting the outcome of parliamentary deliberations and in 6 regions we are still working on it.
These Citizens’ Initiatives have set in motion a whole cultural and legislative change in favour of maternity.
4.- What do these Citizens’ Initiatives mainly propose?
• That all women have access to advisory services in the case of conflict regarding a pregnancy.
• Priority access for pregnant women to social benefits and aid .
• Special attention to pregnant adolescents: education for maternity.
• Ensure that Government subsidies and protocols are available to centres which provide pregnant women with advice and help.
• Ensure that confidentiality is maintained at all levels
• Ensure that the Government of the Autonomous Region undertakes to put in place an overall support plan for pregnant women.
• Commit local town councils to publishing information concerning the support networks
Ignacio García Juliá and Lourdes del Fresno
Translation: Philip Muller
Paseo de la Castellana, 203 - 1º D. 28046 Madrid. SPAIN Phone:+ 34 915 105 140 Fax: + 34 915 105 139
www.forofamilia.org
SPANISH FAMILY FORUM
Proporsals for measures in respect of family policy
Introduction
GIVEN that the promotion of stable families commited to the education of their
children and to the care of and attention to their elders means less delicuency, less
antisocial behaviour, less school dropout, better mental health, reduction of
poverty (especially infantile poverty) and reduction of public spending associated
with the crisis of the family and the freeing of funds which could be channelled
into active family protection policies
GIVEN that the destructuring of families and the weakening of the vertical and
horizontal ties between family members generate numerous social problems which
the State must undertake to resolve at high cost
GIVEN that strong families mean a healthy society and that the family is important
to all of us both as inndividuals and as members of society since it is in the family
home where social behaviour is first learnt, the family being the primary
institution of education and welfare
GIVEN that the most advanced countries in Europe are witnessing an
unprecedented interest in the family; more through need than by design, countries
such as Germany, France, Sweden, Great Britain and Italy have set course for the
sake haven of family protection
GIVEN that warnings from Brussels that the demographic time-bomb produced by
ignoring the family must be deactivated by decisive policies aimed at increasing the
birthrate and eliminating obstacles in the path of family development
GIVEN that the family is important to the whole of society because almost every
social problem we are facing depends on the stability of the family; that protection
of the family will mean increased protection of the disadvantaged, the
strengthening of the social fabric and the way to a better future with less failure
and greater progress
Paseo de la Castellana, 203 - 1º D. 28046 Madrid. SPAIN Phone:+ 34 915 105 140 Fax: + 34 915 105 139
www.forofamilia.org
GIVEN that protection of the family is a common heritage which should be free
from ideological considerations
GIVEN that 98% of the Spanish population live in families and that the family is
the primary environment in emotional, social, economic and educational terms, in
which citizens are born and perceive for the first time that they not only have
rights but also inescapable duties towards others: children learn to live with and
respect those who surround them and learn the value of caring for the young, the
ill, the elderly and the handicapped.
GIVEN that the family should be supported in the bearing of children and in the
process of their education to become responsible citizens. This demands that the
State – and the various regional Administrations, duly coordinated – should define
a public policy relating to the family. This family policy should support the family
as such and not simply provide partial remedies to counter the problems of
members of the family considered as individuals.
GIVEN that to be on equal terms with its European neighbours Spain should make
a notable increase in the amount of support devoted to the family. In terms of GDP,
Spain spends four times less that its Community partners on family support. Spain
should increase the amount of support to the family as an institution and not only
the support provided for members of families in situations of difficulty; in other
words, policies which promote the family unit and its social functions, without
attempting to take its place.
We propose the following measures in respect of family policy:
1. Approval of a Plan of Public Funding of Family Protection to bring Spain
into line with the rest of the European Union. By 2012 a total of 2,8% of
GDP in Eurostat accounting terms should be assigned to family policies by
the Central and Regional Spanish Administrations.
2. The enacting of a law which contemplates the family as a unit in all public
policy and which guarantees a common minimum of family protection
throughout Spain.
Paseo de la Castellana, 203 - 1º D. 28046 Madrid. SPAIN Phone:+ 34 915 105 140 Fax: + 34 915 105 139
www.forofamilia.org
3. A plan to actively harmonise the demands of work and family
a. Leave of absence for the mother or father of a child until the age of
three, with guaranteed return to work. If the 3 year period is divided
between father & mother, it is to be extended one further year.
b. Maternity leave extended to six months from the birth of the child,
and paternity leave for the father for a period of four months under
the same conditions as maternity leave.
c. Extension of maternity/paternity leave in the case of multiple births,
disability of the child and in one-parent families.
d. Legal recognition of the right to a reduced working day during the
first year of the child’s life.
e. Introduction of a code of Good Practice in family-work reconciliation
in the area of Social Responsibility of companies.
f. Introduction of a positive points system in all public tenders for
companies which demonstrate family-friendly and progressive
reconciliation policies, duly acredited by an indepedant agency, such
as the Family-friendly Company Certificate issued by the Foundation
+ Familia.
g. Prevision in the law for a situation of “temporary dependance” in
which one or more of the children of the family need full-time care
and attention of one of the parents because of grave illness.
h. Increase the time and duration of breast-feeding from 1 to 2 hours and
from 9 to 12 months, without reduction of salary and including the
possibility of working a 6-hour day during this period.
i. The development, in coordination with local city & town councils, of
new methods of telephone & on-line welfare services aimed at the ill
and the elderly, to improve attention to people with special needs and
at the same time promoting the reconciliation of work and family
demands.
Paseo de la Castellana, 203 - 1º D. 28046 Madrid. SPAIN Phone:+ 34 915 105 140 Fax: + 34 915 105 139
www.forofamilia.org
j. Facilitate financial support and technical assessment for NGOs which
work to help families by means of tenders for public subsidies.
Other measures to be negotiated with the various social agents:
a. Flexible working hours to adapt to the needs of workers with young
children.
b. Networking from the home.
c. Periods of part-time working to allow for the care of chidren up to the
age of three.
d. Creation of crèches at the workplace and increase of public funding of
a créche network large enough to satisfy the needs of families.
Support for the creation of privately run-créches.
e. Specific scientific training for mothers/fathers who decide to
undertake the care of their children during their leave of absence and
on returning to work.
f. Increase in the number of day-care centres, homes for the elderly and
schools, with longer and more flexible timetables.
Public aid to companies:
a. 100% discount of Social Security payments for a period of 1 year for
companies which take on female staff who have stopped working
temporarily to look after their families.
b. 100% discount of Social Security payments for workers who are hired to
sustitute staff on leave of absence or with reduced working hours for
family reasons.
c. In colaboration with the various social agents, establish a Code of Good
Practice in respect of the reconciliation of working life and family needs.
Paseo de la Castellana, 203 - 1º D. 28046 Madrid. SPAIN Phone:+ 34 915 105 140 Fax: + 34 915 105 139
www.forofamilia.org
d. Make available incentives to companies which provide their staff with
centres or qualified personnel to help cover the needs of young,
dependant or elderly people in their charge.
4. Institutional support for approved Family-friendly Company Certificates.
5. Promote preventive measures to help overcome family crises (according to Council of Europe recommendations): prepare a Basic Draft Law for Family
Protection and promote and strengthen public and private Centres for
Family Orientation.