Government unveils family-friendly measures

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At the 2005 Conference on the Family, the government announced several new policies, including a mini-reform of paid parental leave. These announcements have not been greeted with unanimous approval by trade unions.

Criticisms of current parental leave

The Conference on the Family is an annual meeting to which the government invites elected officials, social partners, representatives from pro-family organisations and other groups (FR0306105F; FR0210102N; FR0107169F). The 2004 conference was cancelled and after several postponements the 2005 event was finally held on 22 September 2005. At this conference, committees prepared reports on topics selected in advance by the government. The conference was also preceded by the tabling of other official reports dealing with government policy on topics such as the family, parental leave and the amount of the allowance received during such leave.

The current paid leave arrangement has been criticised because it runs the risk of distancing the parent concerned (in 98% of cases, the mother) from the labour market, and for its effect of reinforcing inequalities, which has been demonstrated by numerous surveys (such as the [comparative EIRO study](encoding fixed)) and caused negative reactions to the most recent reform (FR0306105F).

These criticisms are reiterated in recent official reports including: a report on gender inequalities; a report on factors fuelling employment insecurity (Les inégalités entre les femmes et les hommes : les facteurs de précarité) presented to the government in March 2005; and the Hirsch report on anti-poverty measures in April 2005 : What we can do, we must: families, poverty and vulnerability (Au possible nous sommes tenus: familles, pauvreté, vulnérabilité).

These reports all advocate the following: reducing parental leave, which currently stands at three years; increasing allowances in proportion to a parent’s income; introducing measures aimed at providing an incentive for both parents to share leave; and introducing various childcare options, especially in a bid to enable less well-off parents get access to, or keep their place, in the labour market. The Brin report, Demographic Stakes and Support for Families Wanting Children (Enjeux démographiques et accompagnement du désir d’enfants des familles) also argues along the same lines, albeit less stridently.

A report by the Council for Economic Analysis, The Family: a Public Matter (La famille, une affaire publique) advocates varying the rate of the general social contribution (contribution sociale généralisée - CSG) according to the number of children in the family, in order to encourage a higher birth rate.

New measures announced

One of the most important new measures announced by the Prime Minister is the measure allowing parents with at least three children to cease work completely following the birth of a child (as of 1 July 2006), and receive a EUR 750 per month allowance for a 12-month period. This measure is based on a proposal contained in the Brin report, which advised fixing the allowance at 70% of the parent’s earnings, from a minimum of EUR 700 up to a ceiling of EUR 1,000. This measure will not, however, affect the current arrangement, which allows parents of at least two children to stop work and receive a EUR 513 per month allowance until the youngest child’s third birthday. Only the parents of three or more children will have to choose between receiving a higher allowance for a year or less for a longer period. There have been no new measures for other parents.

Other schemes announced at the conference included:

• Tax cuts for childcare outside the home (crèches, nannies) for children under seven rose from 25% to 50% of costs (up to an annual ceiling of EUR 2,300 per child), or a maximum tax cut rising from EUR 575 to 1,150.

• An increase in the parental presence allowance. This allowance means that a parent may stop working temporarily in order to take care of a child under 20 who is seriously ill, has a disability or is recovering from an accident. It will also now be possible to spread the allowance over time in a more flexible way than before.

• An updated 'large family' savings card for families with at least three children will replace the current rail travel discount card, and it should provide access to a wider range of goods and services at concessionary rates.

• The payment for different types of individual childcare, which was previously simplified by the creation of a childcare voucher in 2004, will be facilitated by a universal service employment cheque (based on the luncheon voucher model) that allows companies to make a contribution to their employees’ childcare cost.

• Measures to facilitate parental control and enable filtering of access to certain websites.

Reactions of the social partners

The French Christian Workers’ Confederation (Confédération française des travailleurs chrétiens, CFTC) has welcomed the rise in the allowance when parental leave is restricted to 12 months. The CFTC is happy with the other measures, while still regretting that family policy remains under-resourced. The National Association of Family Organisations (Union nationale des associations familiales, UNAF), a body representing pro-family NGOs, also welcomed what they called 'an important gesture toward the family'.

The French Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff - General Confederation of Professional and Managerial Staff (Confédération française de l'encadrement-Confédération générale des cadres, CFE-CGC) is unhappy that the policy on parental leave is restricted to families with three children, and feels that the flat-rate allowance is grossly inadequate for management and supervisory staff.

The French Democratic Confederation of Labour (Confédération française démocratique du travail, CFDT) challenged the effectiveness of the parental leave reform, and has argued that in order to improve work-life balance, the provision of childcare must first be increased and structured. The CFDT has already been critical of the inadequacy of the budget allocated by the State to the Social Action Fund that provides resources for collective childcare, among other things.

The General Confederation of Labour (Confédération générale du travail, CGT) also maintains that the new parental leave scheme does not match expectations, is unhappy that the allowance is not proportional to the former salary and is demanding public provision of the different forms of childcare, with an emphasis placed on facilities. It is also asking for maternity leave to be extended for the birth of the first and second child. More generally, it deplores what it sees as inadequate funding, especially for poorer families. On this point, both the CGT and the CFDT regret that the proposals of the Hirsch report had not been ignored.

The National Womens’ Rights Collective (Collectif national des droits des femmes) which brings together many voluntary-sector organisations and trade unions, has referred to the reforms as an 'illusion', and argued that the new measures resolve neither childcare problems at the end of the parental leave period, nor the difficulties of returning to work; they also say that disadvantaged and unskilled women have been neglected; and that the policy would end up undermining forms of collective childcare.

The other schemes announced (i.e. large family discount cards, children and internet controls, the parental presence allowance, and tax cuts for childcare) were much more positively welcomed.

Although there has been a consensus for several years that that the current parental leave arrangements have negative effects, the reform only marginally address this criticism, since the much derided old scheme remains unreformed, while the new policy is restricted to families with three or more children.

Commentary

Government policy remains in line with previous measures, which aim to reduce the official unemployment rate through continuing incentives to low-skilled women to give up work in favour of long parental leave periods; priority being given to forms of individual childcare above collective ones; and lastly, an emphasis through tax cuts and tax credits on middle-income and well-off families, with poor families seemingly left to their own devices.

These measures are viewed as a public relations exercise that was achieved at minimum financial cost, mainly because immediately after the conference the government introduced an article delaying the introduction of an allowance to parents of young children born before 1 January 2004, into its Bill on the funding of Social Security. This article is aimed solely at cutting costs. (Antoine Math, IRES)