Articulating work and family ? The gendered use of institutional measures

Bernard Fusulier examines where Belgium is situated on the continuum of societal models for work-family articulation. On indicators of women’s employment, Belgium lies nearer to the Nordic countries (at one extreme of the continuum) than Japan (at the other); the employment gap between men and women is closing, though the employment rate for men is still around 15 per centage points higher than for women and, overall, time use remains very different between men and women. Having set this scene, Fusulier goes on to examine three main support measures: Maternity, Paternity and adoption leave); reduction or suspension of work in the private sector (time credit); and so-called thematic leave (Parental leave, leave to provide care for a seriously ill relative, and palliative care leave). Particular attention is paid to the ‘time credit’ system, first introduced as a ‘career break’ scheme in 1985, which enables workers in the private sector to take at least one year off work (longer where collective agreements permit this) or to work reduced hours for any reason (a similar system – still known as ‘career breaks’ – operates in the public sector). Workers using time credit receive partial income replacement through a flat-rate benefit for one year (extended to five years if the worker takes a full-time time credit to care for children aged under eght years), reduced proportionately if they reduce their working hours. Originally introduced as a means to reduce unemployment at a time of economic crisis, that link no longer exists; paid leave is not now conditional on employers hiring an unemployed person as replacement. The time credit and career break schemes exist alongside Parental leave, and the two are not to be confused.