32 Amendments of Alex AGIUS SALIBA related to 2021/2170(INI)
Amendment 9 #
Aa. whereas women across the Union are at a higher risk of poverty, primarily due to gender inequalities in the labour market experienced during the life course;
Amendment 11 #
Draft opinion
Recital A b (new)
Recital A b (new)
Amendment 14 #
Draft opinion
Recital A c (new)
Recital A c (new)
Ac. whereas poverty is female and is the result of a lifetime discrimination; whereas in Europe, more than 65 million women live in poverty compared to 57 million men, and women’s poverty creates child poverty;
Amendment 19 #
Draft opinion
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Amendment 33 #
Draft opinion
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas women are nearly four times more likely to work on a part-time basis than men and a fifth of women living in poverty are not active in the labour market due to caring and domestic responsibilities; whereas the overall employment rate of women is almost 12% lower than that of men and one third of women who are employed work part time compared to 8% of working men;
Amendment 36 #
Draft opinion
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas women are over- represented in non-standard forms of work, notably part-time work due to ongoing care responsibilities; whereas the largest growth in female employment over the last decade has occurred in female- dominated jobs and jobs held mainly by women already, including in the healthcare sector; whereas among frontline workers, 75% of workers working in the health sector in the EU are women; whereas Eurofound research shows that despite closing gender employment gaps, jobs are not becoming more gender mixed and that the share of EU employment in gender-mixed jobs (where neither gender share is >60%) declined from 27% to 18% between1998 and 20191a among frontline workers, 75% of workers working in the health sector in the EU are women; _________________ 1aEurofound (2021), European Jobs Monitor 2021: Gender gaps and employment structure, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg.
Amendment 38 #
Draft opinion
Recital D c (new)
Recital D c (new)
Dc. whereas one third of women in the EU do not have a paid job; whereas women earn 14.1% less per hour than men, constitute the majority of minimum wage earners in Europe and are as well one of the main sub-minimum wage earner; whereas the main contributing factors to the gender pay gap are the sectoral segregation of women and men and, the prevalence of women in part-time employment; whereas the gender pay gap ranged from a high of around 20% in Estonia, Latvia, Austria and Germany to a low of less than 5% in Italy, Romania and Luxembourg 1a ; _________________ 1aEurofound,2021: Understanding the gender pay gap: What difference do sector and occupation make?
Amendment 44 #
Draft opinion
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the COVID-19pandemic and its associated economic crisis have impacted women differently than men in the Union and the effects of the COVID- 19 crisis are putting in jeopardy the progress achieved in the past decades on the reduction of poverty and gender inequalities in the EU Member States; whereas according to EIGE young women were disproportionately hit by the Covid- 19 pandemic, with employment decreasing more than 10% for young women compared to 2.4% overall;
Amendment 50 #
Draft opinion
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas low pay and low career prospects are barriers to achieving equal economic independence for women and men and can lead to higher risks of poverty and social exclusion, as well as higher gender pension gaps; whereas according to Eurofound’s research across the EU as a whole between 2010and 2019, the proportion of female pensioners aged over 65 who were at risk of poverty was around 3 to 4 percentage points higher than the rate for male pensioners1a ; _________________ 1a https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/product s-eurostat-news/-/ddn-20210203-1
Amendment 56 #
Draft opinion
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. Whereas Eurofound highlights the importance of policies that promote gender balance in (paid and unpaid)care work, including parental leave policies that increase male participation in unpaid care work, as well as the improvement of pay and working conditions in female- dominated sectors such as care;
Amendment 58 #
Draft opinion
Recital E d (new)
Recital E d (new)
Ed. whereas sector and working time are the main contributing factors to the one-third portion of the gender pay gap that can be explained; whereas women tend to work in lower-paid sectors and are much more likely to work part-time and to suffer the ‘part-time pay penalty’ as a result, and are also less likely to have supervisory responsibilities than their male counterparts, a third significant factor contributing to pay differences 1a ; _________________ 1aEurofound 2021: Understanding the gender pay gap: What difference do sector and occupation make?
Amendment 77 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 2
Paragraph 2
2. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to reduce the burden of women by ensuring affordable formal child care , especially for children under age of three and quality care and services for people with disabilities, the elderly and other dependants; calls on the Commission and the Member States to adequately fund public services and social infrastructure, as this would allow more women to participate in the labour market and would also contribute to reducing the risk of women falling into poverty;
Amendment 92 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Notes, that the impact of lifelong limited economic dependence of women and gender inequalities in the labour market becomes most apparent among older age groups, especially if women are widowed or live alone; notes, that the gender gap in poverty levels to the detriment of women is highest in the 75 and older age group which is of particular concern given that women in the EU make up most of the ageing population;
Amendment 95 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4
Paragraph 4
4. Calls on the Member States to ensure equal economic opportunities for women during and after the COVID- 19crisis; Stresses that the recovery efforts should boost quality jobs and growth, and the resilience and fairness of our societies, and should be complemented by a strong social dimension, paying attention to women who have a disability with inter-sectional approach, paying attention to more vulnerable groups, such as women who have a disability ,single mothers , older women, migrant women, young women or who stay at home to care for a family member, as they are particularly at risk of falling into poverty;
Amendment 101 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 a (new)
Paragraph 4 a (new)
4a. Notes, that one of the areas in which women have been disproportionately affected vis-a-vis men is an equal access to the economy since in Europe women tend to be overrepresented in the frontline of the pandemic and also in the services sector , which has been particularly affected by the current crisis and this has translated into an increase in the female unemployment rates and thus a high likelihood of poverty for women in the EU;
Amendment 106 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 b (new)
Paragraph 4 b (new)
4b. Underlines, that even if overall women encounter a higher likelihood of poverty throughout their life courses, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased such likelihood since the governmental measures to halt the pandemic have had the most indirect impact on the economic sectors (such as gastronomy , hospitality, retail , care, domestic work etc.) in which women tend to be overrepresented;
Amendment 108 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 4 c (new)
Paragraph 4 c (new)
4c. Notes with concern, that economic segregation and the disadvantages women face to enter and remain on the labour market are translated into lower wages, vulnerable working conditions , lower pensions and a greater likelihood of suffering from poverty and social exclusion during the life course;
Amendment 115 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 a (new)
Paragraph 5 a (new)
5a. stresses, that not only women disproportionately lost their jobs at the onset of the pandemic ,but they have also encountered greater obstacles to re-enter and remain on the labour market in the period between the first two waves of COVID-19 pandemic and while employment prospects rose by 1.4 % for men, they merely increased by0.8 % for women during that period; stresses that young people, especially young women, lost disproportionately more jobs during the first wave of the pandemic; notes that previous crises have shown that entering the labour market during a recession can negatively affect young people’s labour market outcomes for a decade or more;
Amendment 117 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 5 b (new)
Paragraph 5 b (new)
5b. Notes that from a household perspective, measures to incentivise employment of women through the involvement of men in caring responsibilities, e.g. effective paternity leave schemes, stopping tax incentives that favour the single breadwinner model, can contribute directly or indirectly to lowering gender gaps both in employment and wages; Calls on the Member States to ensure an equally shared take up of parental leave by both parents which would allow women to increasingly engage in full-time employment and equally share household and childcare responsibilities;
Amendment 127 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 a (new)
Paragraph 6 a (new)
6a. Calls on the Member states to fully implement the European Pillar of Social Rights with a special focus on the headline targets of reduction of at least 15 million people at risk of poverty and social exclusion and of at least 78% of the population aged 20 to 64 in employment by 2030; calls on the Member States to be ambitious in their implementation of the Work-Life Balance directive, the European Child Guarantee and the Pay Transparency Directive, as well as the future Directive on Minimum Wages and Recommendation on Minimum Income;
Amendment 133 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 b (new)
Paragraph 6 b (new)
6b. Underlines, that low-income women , older women, migrant women and single mothers encounter greater inequalities that exist for women in general; calls on the Member States to adopt an intersectional approach to public policies, which will recognize the plurality of identities and realities existent in the EU;
Amendment 136 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 c (new)
Paragraph 6 c (new)
6c. Calls on the Member States to eliminate taxes on sanitary products which jeopardizes the dignity of lower- income women disproportionately; deeply regrets that despite the proposed changes to VAT rules in 2018, a number of Member states have not reduced the VAT to sanitary products;
Amendment 137 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 d (new)
Paragraph 6 d (new)
6d. Stresses, that women are not merely the largest recipients of care during older age, but also the largest providers of care during the life course; calls on the Member States to consider and address the implications of the care economy on older women; calls on the Commission and Member States to speed up process of reaching the Barcelona targets everywhere in the EU to enable women’s participation in the labour market and quality, accessible and affordable care services for children;
Amendment 140 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 e (new)
Paragraph 6 e (new)
6e. Notes, that all the Member States have increased care packages during the pandemic and introduced special provisions for single-parent households; urges the Member states to extend such provisions during the recovery period;
Amendment 141 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 f (new)
Paragraph 6 f (new)
6f. Recalls that the proposal on adequate minimum wages aims at improving the income situation of working people, and women in particular; welcomes the proposal for a Pay Transparency Directive, which aims at reducing the gender pay gap and thereby improving women’s financial stability and economic independence in general, as well as enabling the women affected to escape poverty and situations of domestic violence;
Amendment 144 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 g (new)
Paragraph 6 g (new)
6g. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to encourage labour market participation of women by lowering income tax and submitting initiatives to promote women’s empowerment, through education, vocational training and lifelong learning, as well as access to finance and female entrepreneurship and women’s representation in future-oriented sectors with a view to ensuring access to high- quality employment, decent working and employment conditions across all ages;
Amendment 145 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 h (new)
Paragraph 6 h (new)
6h. Believes it to be important for gender policies to address the gender imbalance in both paid and unpaid care work, to increase women’s participation in male-dominated sectors and to promote men’s employment in female-dominated sectors to address gender segregation of sectors; emphasises that the persistence of gender job segregation suggests that more needs to be done via education and training systems and other incentives to encourage young men and women to engage in occupations identified with the other gender;
Amendment 148 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 i (new)
Paragraph 6 i (new)
6i. Calls for greater promotion of STEM subjects, digital education, vocational training, lifelong learning, artificial intelligence and financial literacy in order to ensure that more women enter in future-oriented sectors and contribute to their development;
Amendment 149 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 j (new)
Paragraph 6 j (new)
6j. Points out that women are particularly exposed to the housing crisis; emphasises that women’s homelessness is often less visible, and that it needs to be specifically addressed; calls on the Commission and Member States to develop a gendered approach in their National Homelessness Strategies in order to support women experiencing homelessness, who have often suffered complex trauma and face re- traumatisation, such as through domestic violence and abuse, separation from their children, stigmatisation and the lack of safe and secure spaces; calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop a gendered approach in their housing policies, particularly by supporting women who face specific situations such as single parenthood;
Amendment 150 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 k (new)
Paragraph 6 k (new)
6k. Recalls that social distancing and quarantine due to COVID-19 have had a dramatic impact on the number of cases of violence against women, including increased incidences of domestic violence and child abuse; recalls that women’s economic independence has been proved to be a key tool for tackling gender-based violence; calls therefore on the Commission and the Member States to provide financial support for women victims of gender-based violence moving to independent living, and enhanced access to information on funding for affordable housing, as ways to improve their economic independence and standard of living;
Amendment 151 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 l (new)
Paragraph 6 l (new)
6l. Echoes the Commission prediction that, in the context of recovery from the COVID-19 outbreak, fighting against extreme poverty, and especially tackling child poverty will become even more important in the coming years; consequently, insists that total of at least EUR 20 billion is invested in the European Child Guarantee in the period 2021-2027; calls on the Member States to make full use of the ESF+, in particular the funds available to support the most deprived persons, to address the forms of extreme poverty with the greatest social exclusion impact, such as homelessness, child poverty and food deprivation;
Amendment 152 #
Draft opinion
Paragraph 6 m (new)
Paragraph 6 m (new)
6m. Calls for an overarching European anti-poverty strategy, with ambitious targets for reducing poverty and homelessness and ending extreme poverty in Europe by 2030, especially among children, in line with the principles laid down in the EPSR and the UN SDGs and building on the headline targets set out in the EPSR Action Plan;