Cullen, Kevin

This report describes over 50 cases of companies in 11 Member States that have adopted measures to support their employees with care responsibilities for disabled children or adults. Key initiatives by companies include: various types of leave; reduced working hours; and such supportive measures as information, counselling and practical support. The report concludes that: raising awareness is particularly important; that particularly effective approaches combine measures targeted at working carers, and measures that the entire workforce can avail of; that line managers have a pivotal role to play in supporting working carers; and that it is possible to create solutions that either avoid the need for employees to leave the job, or that enable them to return to work. An annotated bibliography is also available, together with a searchable database.

The overall focus of the study on ‘Company initiatives for workers with care responsibilities’ is on company (employer) initiatives to support the needs of workers who have (informal) care responsibilities, including parents caring for children with disabilities and informal carers of adults who need care because of disability, illness or old age. This report presents an overview of the context and field of practice in this area. It is intended to serve both as a standalone output and as a companion document to help contextualise a series of detailed case studies of company-level initiatives in four countries (Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom (UK)).