Increased investment in care services could create 300m jobs, says ILO
22 March 2022 |
2:55 am
Bridging the gaps in care services could create almost 300 million new jobs worldwide, a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said.
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
Bridging the gaps in care services could create almost 300 million new jobs worldwide, a new report by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said.
The report, ‘Care at work: Investing in care leave and services for a more gender equal world of work’, finds that three in 10 women of reproductive age, or 649 million women, have inadequate maternity protection that does not meet the key requirements of the ILO’s Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183).
The Convention mandates 14 weeks minimum maternity leave on at least two-thirds of previous earnings, funded by social insurance or public funds.
Eighty-two of the 185 countries surveyed for the report did not meet these standards, although “paid maternity leave or maternity protection is a universal human and labour right”, the study says.
At the current pace of reform it will take at least 46 years to achieve minimum maternity leave rights in the countries analysed, which means the relevant target of the 2030 UN Sustainable Development Goals will not be met.
The report notes that more than 1.2 billion men of prime reproductive age live in countries with no entitlement to paternity leave, although it would help to balance the work and family responsibilities of both mothers and fathers.
Where there is paternity leave it remains short – a global average of nine days – creating a large ‘gender leave gap’.
The Care at work report offers a global overview of national laws, policies and practices on care, including maternity, paternity, parental, child and long-term care.
It highlights how some workers fall outside the scope of these legal protections. These include the self-employed, workers in the informal economy, migrants, and adoptive and LGBTQI+ parents. It also looks at the case for – and potential impact of – greater investment in care.
The need for long-term care services for older persons and those with disabilities has been rising steeply because of increased life expectancy and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the study finds that access to services such as residential care, community day services and in-home care, remains inaccessible to the great majority of those who need them world-wide, although “long-term care services are essential to ensure the right to healthy aging in dignity”.
The report finds ‘a strong investment case’ for creating a transformative package of care policies, based on universal access, that would create a breakthrough pathway for building a better and more gender equal world of work.
The report equally finds that investment in gender equal leave, universal childcare and long-term care services could generate up to 299 million jobs by 2035, saying closing these policy gaps would require an annual investment of $5.4 trillion by 2035, some of which could be offset by an increase in tax revenue from the additional earnings and employment.
Commenting on the findings of the report, Director, Conditions of Work and Equality Department of the ILO, Manuela Tomei, said: “We need to re-think the way we provide care policies and services so that they form a continuum of care that provides children with a good start, supports women to stay in employment and prevents families or individuals falling into poverty. Plugging these care gaps should be seen as an investment that not only supports health and livelihoods but fundamental rights, gender equity and greater representation too.”
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