Activities of Sara MATTHIEU related to 2021/2253(INI)
Plenary speeches (1)
Common European action on care (debate)
Shadow reports (1)
REPORT towards a common European action on care
Amendments (66)
Amendment 25 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 10
Citation 10
— having regard to the International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and recommendations, and in particular C189 Domestic Workers Convention of 2011, C149 Nursing Personnel Convention of 1977, C183 Maternity Protection Convention of 2000 and C190 Violence and Harassment Convention of 2019,
Amendment 51 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 23 a (new)
Citation 23 a (new)
— having regard to the 2022 ILO report Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work,
Amendment 52 #
Motion for a resolution
Citation 23 b (new)
Citation 23 b (new)
— having regard to the ILO Resolution concerning a global call to action for a human-centred approach from the COVID-19 crisis that is inclusive, sustainable and resilient, adopted at the 109th Session of the International Labour Conference in June 2021,
Amendment 102 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B
Recital B
B. whereas care encompasses services to address the physical, psychological and social, personal and household needs of dependents, as well as support to guarantee the equal exercise of rights, dignity, autonomy, inclusion and well-being for all members of society;
Amendment 106 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B a (new)
Recital B a (new)
Ba. whereas the term "care work" refers to a variety of services provided by individuals, families, communities, paid service providers, public organisations and public institutions in different types of settings, ranging from institutions to private households;
Amendment 113 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B b (new)
Recital B b (new)
Bb. whereas the European Commission defines personal and household services as a broad range of activities that contribute to well-being at home of families and individuals, including childcare, long term care and for persons with disabilities, household chores, remedial classes, home repairs, gardening, ICT support;
Amendment 115 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B c (new)
Recital B c (new)
Bc. whereas in personal and household services, care and non-care activities are highly intertwined with a vast proportion of workers performing both;
Amendment 119 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital B d (new)
Recital B d (new)
Bd. whereas care provision includes not only personal care but also non- relational indirect care performed by personal and household workers, which provides the necessary preconditions for the provision of personal care;
Amendment 140 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital C a (new)
Recital C a (new)
Ca. whereas many care workers are migrant, predominantly racialised women, facing a highly precarious situation and experiencing intersectional discrimination due to their race or ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and nationality; whereas migrant workers are not treated equally in terms of access to decent work and social protection;
Amendment 161 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D
Recital D
D. whereas there is a lack of quality, universally accessible and affordable care in nearly all Member States; whereas the monitoring of care is hampered by the lack of disaggregated data and the lack of quality indicators;
Amendment 171 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D a (new)
Recital D a (new)
Da. whereas continuous cuts in public spending have drastically lowered access to quality health care and care services;
Amendment 173 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D b (new)
Recital D b (new)
Db. whereas universal access to care depends on well-financed, quality public services and social protection systems;
Amendment 174 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital D c (new)
Recital D c (new)
Dc. whereas the majority of care workers do not earn enough to afford a decent standard of living for themselves and their families;
Amendment 194 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E a (new)
Recital E a (new)
Ea. whereas the increase in workload, heightened exposure to health and safety hazards as well as an increase in violence and harassment against care workers have exacerbated mental health and psychosocial risks such as anxiety, depression and burn out amongst workers in the care sector;
Amendment 201 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E b (new)
Recital E b (new)
Eb. whereas according to the World Health Organization up to half of the COVID-19 deaths in Europe were of residents in long-term care facilities; whereas 31 % of care workers do not have adequate access to personal protective equipment;
Amendment 204 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital E c (new)
Recital E c (new)
Ec. whereas the persistent lack of recognition of personal and household services workers has meant that many who lost employment during the COVID- 19 pandemic, were unable to access social protection measures and became homeless as a result;
Amendment 220 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F
Recital F
F. whereas the provision of quality care depends on the existence of a sufficientlysafe staffing levels and a large and well-trained workforce, the creation of decent working conditions and integrated services, and adequate funding;
Amendment 228 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F a (new)
Recital F a (new)
Fa. whereas the proportion of undeclared work in the care sector remains disproportionately high, leading to fewer protections for workers in the sector, and a loss of income for Member States;
Amendment 232 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital F b (new)
Recital F b (new)
Fb. whereas quality care work is a skilled occupation, and demand for skilled care workers will only increase in the coming years;
Amendment 250 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital G
Recital G
G. whereas the structures of care need to be changed from centralised institutions to home and community-based care; whereas that shift has been too slow;
Amendment 289 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital I
Recital I
I. whereas 6.3 million professionals work in long-term care, among whom women (81 %) are overrepresented and there are increasing numbers of part-time and precarious platform workers, as well as migrant, informal and mobile workers;
Amendment 301 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital J
Recital J
J. whereas in all the Member States, pay in the care sector is well below the average pay and is connected with lower collective bargaining coverage in the care sector, as well as the feminisation and undervaluation of care work;
Amendment 323 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K a (new)
Recital K a (new)
Ka. whereas only 6% of men say that the main reason for working part-time is because of care responsibilities, compared to 29 % of women and only 64 % of fathers in the EU provide care on a daily basis; whereas the uneven distribution of unpaid care work hinders women’s access to full-time employment and contributes negatively to the gender income gap;
Amendment 329 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital K b (new)
Recital K b (new)
Kb. whereas in the European Union at least 3,1 million personal and household service workers are employed undeclared, lacking recognition and fundamental workers’ rights such as collective bargaining, social security and social protection;
Amendment 334 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital L
Recital L
L. whereas the high numbers of care recipients who are dependent on informal care are directly linked to the inaccessibility and unaffordability of quality professional services, whereas an increasing privatisation and commodification of care exacerbates economic and gender inequalities;
Amendment 353 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital M
Recital M
M. whereas women in the EU carry out 13 hours more of unpaid care and housedomestic work per week than men; whereas 7.7 million women in the EU remain out of the labour market owing to their care responsibilities;
Amendment 373 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital N a (new)
Recital N a (new)
Na. whereas there is alack of sufficient infrastructure offering quality and accessible childcare for all, in particular early childhood services; whereas the lack of access to early childhood care particularly disproportionately affects children from disadvantaged families;
Amendment 385 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P
Recital P
P. whereas access to quality care services, especially long-term care, is increasingly preconditioned on individual and family income; whereas access to healthcare and care should be universal, irrespective of economic conditions or residence or migration status;
Amendment 397 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P a (new)
Recital P a (new)
Pa. whereas trade union representation and collective bargaining are critical for the defence of the rights and interests of care workers in all care settings;
Amendment 404 #
Motion for a resolution
Recital P b (new)
Recital P b (new)
Pb. whereas the Acquired Rights Directive (2001/23/EC) must be applied whenever employee contracts are transferred to an acquiring care provider;
Amendment 464 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3
Paragraph 3
3. Calls for a dedicated investment package to promote the EU care economy; Highlights the need to increase public funding for both formal and informal care across the EU to guarantee equal access for dependants to affordableuniversal quality care services, as well as an active professional life for carers, and therefore calls on the Member States to make the best use of the European structural and investment funds, including the ESF+, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, for investing in carethe right of care workers to decent work and living wages, and therefore calls on the Member States to earmark and significantly increase investment in care by using the European structural and investment funds, including the ESF+, as well as the Recovery and Resilience Facility, for investing in care; calls once again for the development of gender budgeting tools in the MFF and related programmes that allow to track down the specific funding allocated to promote gender equality;
Amendment 480 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Paragraph 3 – subparagraph 1 (new)
Calls on Member States to invest into the care sector and ensure sustainable and adequate funding, at all levels of government, of public services, and ensure that public procurement is conditioned on respect for fundamental rights at work, decent working conditions and collective bargaining; calls on the Member States to make respect for fundamental labour rights a mandatory exclusion criterium in public tenders;
Amendment 483 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 3 a (new)
Paragraph 3 a (new)
3a. Calls on Member States to ensure universal health coverage, to increase investment in healthcare; Calls on Member States to urgently remove existing barriers to healthcare for all, including undocumented migrants, with particular attention to women facing intersectional discrimination;
Amendment 547 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 a (new)
Paragraph 7 a (new)
7a. Calls on the Commission to address in the European care strategy the challenging working and employment conditions of all personal and domestic workers; stresses the importance of adopting measures that facilitate the recognition of all personal and household workers; Calls for a targeted revision of Directive 89 / 391 /EEC to ensure the inclusion of domestic servants within its scope;
Amendment 555 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 7 b (new)
Paragraph 7 b (new)
7b. Calls on the Commission and Member States to regulate the sale of real estate and other assets in the care sector to prevent debt pushdowns on care providers through company-internal loans; encourages Member States to review and revise relevant taxation regulations;
Amendment 571 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9
Paragraph 9
9. Calls on the Member States to design childcare, education and other policies and measures in support of children and their families in an inclusive manner and one that upholds the swift and efficient implementation of the European Child Guarantee; including the commitment to a legal entitlement to high quality early childhood education, regardless of the employment status of the parents, socio-economic background, country of birth, residence status or ethnic background;
Amendment 577 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 9 a (new)
Paragraph 9 a (new)
9a. Underlines the importance of accessible, available, affordable and inclusive quality childcare and early childhood education, using a child- centred approach, with particular attention to the need for social inclusion of children in vulnerable situations, in or at risk of poverty and social deprivation, as well as migrant children and children from minorities;
Amendment 587 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 10
Paragraph 10
10. Recalls that social protection and support to families is essential and calls on the competent national authorities to ensure universal adequate and accessible social protection systems and integrated child protection systems;
Amendment 599 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 11 a (new)
Paragraph 11 a (new)
11 a. Calls on the Commission and Member States to collect standardized equality data, disaggregated by indicators such as country of origin, ethnicity or disability status;
Amendment 606 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 12
Paragraph 12
12. Calls on the Member States to recognise care as a right and to reform and integrate their social services and protection systems in such a way as to provide effective and equal access to care services throughout the life course, taking a personalised approach, in order to enhance the continuity of care, preventive healthcare, rehabilitation and, whenever possible, independent living, as well as integrating the care needs of carers and especially those who, as non-nationals with various statuses living in the EU, may face particular barriers in accessing care, intersectional discrimination, marginalisation and in-work poverty;
Amendment 635 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 13
Paragraph 13
13. Notes that accessibility derives from a combination of cost and flexibility; believes that in this respect different forms of care service provision should be availablepromoted, valued, recognised and professionalised, such as in in-home and community-based settings;
Amendment 657 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 14
Paragraph 14
14. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to develop the toolquality indicators required for the regular assessment of the accessibility of care services and a comprehensive benchmark for monitoring the quality of both formal and informal care services;
Amendment 710 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18
Paragraph 18
18. Calls on the Commission to establish an ambitious and comprehensive set of qualitative and quantitative indicators for long-term care, and corresponding targets and tools for monitoring the accessibility, affordability, staffing levels and quality of care, similar to the Barcelona objectives for childcare;
Amendment 716 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 a (new)
Paragraph 18 a (new)
18a. Calls for an EU right to care and for everyone to have access to high quality formal care services based on need; underlines that to guarantee this right, long-term care needs must be integrated into national social protection systems, as recommended by the Social Protection Committee, which are for equity and efficiency reasons best placed to deliver;
Amendment 731 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 b (new)
Paragraph 18 b (new)
18b. Recognises the essential role and contributions of both intra-EU mobile workers and non-EU migrant workers, including undocumented workers, in providing care in the European Union;
Amendment 736 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 18 c (new)
Paragraph 18 c (new)
18c. Recognises that in many cases this care is being provided undeclared or under-declared, in exploitative conditions, impacting on the rights and well-being of workers and their families;
Amendment 783 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21
Paragraph 21
21. Urges the Commission to propose a common coherent package of actions at EU level on informal care, to identify and recognise the different types of informal care provided in Europe, to facilitate employment to be declared and ensure insurance and social protection coverage and to guarantee carers financial support and other additional support services, including time off for carers, and a work- life balance and rehabilitation services for carers and care recipients, regardless of their migration or residence status;
Amendment 796 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 21 a (new)
Paragraph 21 a (new)
21a. Calls on the Member States to introduce ‘care credits’ through labour and social security legislation for both women and men as equivalent periods for building up pension rights in order to protect those taking a break from employment to provide informal, unpaid care to a dependant or a family member, and to recognise the value of the work that these carers do for society as a whole;
Amendment 816 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22
Paragraph 22
22. Urges the Member States to place adequate staffing levels and investment in care staff at the centre of their care policies, including skills development and career progression opportunities for care workers, as part of the efforts to make care work more attractive, and to support the creation of quality jobs in the sector;
Amendment 825 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 a (new)
Paragraph 22 a (new)
22a. Calls on the Commission to set up an EU Skills for Care Initiative to support Member States to improve up- and reskilling opportunities for professionals in the care sector, identifying skill gaps and needs, promising practices and successful initiatives. It should also develop a framework to recognise skills acquired through experience, such as through informal care work to facilitate access to formal employment in the sector;
Amendment 831 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 22 b (new)
Paragraph 22 b (new)
22b. Recognises the role of personal and household services workers in guaranteeing EU citizens have a genuine choice when it comes to choosing their preferred care model, and calls on the Member States to invest in the development and professionalisation of the personal and household services sector;
Amendment 840 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23
Paragraph 23
23. Calls on the Member States to ensure the right to join and establish trade unions and to engage in collective bargaining, decent working conditions for all workers in the care sector, both formal and informal, and to adopt high standards of occupational health and safety, in line with and beyond the ambition of the recently adopted EU strategic framework on health and safety at work 2021-2027;
Amendment 851 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 a (new)
Paragraph 23 a (new)
23a. Calls on the Member States to develop specific measures for women, girls, and gender-non conforming people whilst addressing gender-based violence and harassment at home and in the workplace, including in the care sector, Calls on the EU and member states to ratify the ILO convention no.190 on Violence and Harassment and adopt the necessary measures to ensure a work environment free of violence and harassment;
Amendment 857 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 23 b (new)
Paragraph 23 b (new)
23b. Regrets that only 8 member states have ratified the ILO Convention No189 on domestic workers that aims to provide legal recognition for domestic work, extend rights to all domestic workers, especially women, in the informal economy, and prevent violations and abuses; Calls on EU and all Member States to urgently ratify and implement this ILO Convention;
Amendment 874 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 24
Paragraph 24
24. Calls on the Member States to strengthen social dialogue and promote collective bargaining and collective agreements in the care sector, both profit and non-profit, and including home and community-based settings, as crucial mechanisms for the improvement of employment and working conditions and for tackling the gender pay gap, and as the most effective tools for securing an increase in the minimum wage and in wages in general;
Amendment 913 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 26
Paragraph 26
26. Calls on the Member States to swiftly and fully transpose and implement the Work-Life Balance Directive; stresses that only an equal share of care responsibilities between men and women by means of non-transferable and adequately paid leave periods would enable women to increasingly engage in full-time employment and achieve a work-life balance; recalls that policies on work-life balance should encourage men to take up care responsibilities on an equal basis with women and stresses the need to progressively advance towards fully paid and equal length maternity and paternity leaves;
Amendment 934 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 a (new)
Paragraph 27 a (new)
27a. Reiterates its demand that people in all employment relationships and the self-employed should be able to accumulate entitlements providing income security in circumstances such as unemployment, ill-health, old age, career breaks for child-raising or other caring situations, or for reasons of training;
Amendment 941 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 b (new)
Paragraph 27 b (new)
27b. Calls on the Member States, in close cooperation with the social partners, to shore up career pathways so as to make it easier for people to adapt to the different situations they may face in their lives, in particular via lifelong vocational training, adequate unemployment benefits, the transferability of social rights, and active, effective labour market policies;
Amendment 949 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 c (new)
Paragraph 27 c (new)
27 c. Calls on targeted revision of Directive 89 / 391 /EEC to ensure the inclusion of domestic servants within its scope.
Amendment 950 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 d (new)
Paragraph 27 d (new)
27d. Calls on Member States to remove barriers in public sector workplaces that impede unions’ ability to organise public sector workers and increase their membership. This includes eliminating barriers to union organisers being able to talk with employees on public property about the benefits of organising a union.
Amendment 952 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 e (new)
Paragraph 27 e (new)
27e. Calls on the European Commission and Member States to ensure that public contracts for care and social services are not spent on anti-union campaigns and that the anti-union campaign activities by contractors are publicly disclosed at the EU-level.
Amendment 954 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 27 f (new)
Paragraph 27 f (new)
27f. Calls on Member States to recognise COVID-19 as an occupational disease in the long-term care sector. Member States should ensure that a mandatory every care service provider has an Infection Prevention and Control programme; Member States should conduct annual infectious disease training for all workers involved in direct patient care or come into contact with patient areas, provide workers up-to-date information on infectious diseases.
Amendment 956 #
Motion for a resolution
Subheading 7
Subheading 7
Recognising, equally sharing and valuing the role of care in our societies and economies
Amendment 967 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 a (new)
Paragraph 28 a (new)
28a. Stresses the need for men to participate equally in unpaid care work. calls on the EC and Members states to promote transformative actions such as awareness campaigns on the co- responsibility of care, eradicating the stereotyped idea of women as responsible for this work;
Amendment 973 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 28 b (new)
Paragraph 28 b (new)
28b. Strongly urges all Member States to ensure that fathers are able to take up their paternity leave without fear of adverse or discriminatory conduct by their employers, which is an effective way of encouraging them to accept responsibility for looking after their children and their families and a useful means of achieving genuine gender equality;
Amendment 992 #
Motion for a resolution
Paragraph 30
Paragraph 30
30. Calls on the Member States to adopt approaches to measuring and valuing the contribution and outputs of care, in particular unpaid care and housedomestic work;