Observation (CEACR) - adopted 2022, published 111st ILC session (2023)

Workers with Family Responsibilities Convention, 1981 (No. 156) - Slovakia (Ratification: 2002)

Practical application. Lack of statistical information. With regard to its previous comments, the Committee notes with regret that the Government provides no information on the progress made towards the establishment of a new central statistics system and that once again it does not provide most of the statistical information requested. The Committee once again recalls the importance of collecting and analysing sufficiently detailed statistical information in order to determine and assess the current situation of workers with family responsibilities, design appropriate responses and monitor and evaluate the impact of the measures which are being implemented. The Committee requests the Government to strengthen its efforts to collect comprehensive and sufficiently detailed data on the issues covered by the Convention, and to provide information in this regard, including on the progress made in establishing the new central statistics system. In the meantime, the Committee requests the Government to continue to provide all available information, including statistical data disaggregated by sex, any studies, surveys or reports that may enable the Committee to fully assess how the provisions of the Convention are applied in practice.

Articles 4(a) and 7 of the Convention. Measures to promote free choice of employment and integration in the labour market. In reply to the Committee’s previous comment on the impact of the presence of young children on the employment rate of men and women and on the barriers to women’s access to employment, the Government indicates, in its report, that the “Reconciliation of Family and Working Life” national project started in September 2019. Its main objective is to improve the conditions for reconciling work and family life and increase the employment of people with parental responsibilities, especially women, by allowing employers who create jobs for workers with family responsibilities to apply for a financial contribution for a maximum of 12 months, depending on the duration of the contract, to cover up to 95 per cent of the total labour costs, not exceeding €844 (which represents 1.2 times the minimum wage). The Government indicates that the project is expected to provide employment to approximately 1,000 women and that, by 2020, 694 unemployed persons had been hired, 690 of whom were women, and 377 were women with children below 6 years of age. With reference to its previous comment and its general observation on workers with family responsibilities, which was adopted in 2019, the Committee requests the Government to continue and intensify its efforts to overcome the persistent obstacles faced by workers with family responsibilities, more particularly by mothers with young children, in exercising their right to free choice of employment and entering or re-entering into the labour market and participating in vocational training. It requests the Government to provide information on the concrete measures taken to this end and the results achieved in this regard, and to specify the number of women and men with children below 6 years of age and with children between 6 and 10 years of age who have accessed employment or received other benefits under these measures. The Committee also asks the Government to continue to provide up-to-date information on the results achieved under the “Reconciliation of Family and Working Life” project in giving effect to the provisions of the Conventions. Noting the absence of information in this regard, the Committee once again requests the Government to provide a copy of any collective agreements containing specific provisions in favour of workers with family responsibilities.

Article 6. Educational programmes. With reference to its previous comments and in the absence of a reply from the Government on this point, the Committee once again requests the Government to strengthen its efforts to take effective and proactive measures, such as public awareness-raising campaigns and education initiatives, to promote a more equitable sharing of family responsibilities between men and women, as well as a broader public understanding of various aspects of employment of workers with family responsibilities. It requests the Government to provide information on any survey, studies or programmes undertaken to this end, as well as specific information on the impact of such initiatives and any follow-up measures implemented.

The Committee is raising other matters in a request addressed directly to the Government.