FAMILY CARE AND WORKERS IN SOCIAL EUROPE
FAMILY CARE AND WORKERS IN SOCIAL EUROPE

Summary/Abstract: The communication aims to show how the increase in care needs and their limited protection and coverage is reshaping the social and European model, placing special emphasis on the labor and gender consequences that this entails. We start from the idea that the inversion of the population pyramid, labor changes, and also family changes, together with the mass incorporation of women into the labor market, has disproportionately increased the tension between employment and care, generating double or even triple shifts (work and family) for working people who are also the main providers of care and family responsibilities. On this basis, the international and European framework is examined, with special attention to the role of the ILO, the European Pillar of Social Rights, and Directive (EU) 2019/1158, highlighting its transformative potential, but also its limits, especially regarding the sufficiency of leave and the effective shared responsibility of men. Finally, we analyze the Spanish national regulations regarding the position of caregivers in the Dependency Law and in the labor regulatory framework on equality and work-life balance. To conclude, we will review the pending challenges: advancing towards a true "care pillar" in Europe, increasing public funding, genuinely recognizing family care work, and ensuring that reconciliation rights truly contribute to reducing gender inequalities and making caring and working not a penalty..

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