Helping mothers back to work essential in fight against poverty

Helping women return to work after childbirth is important to tackle unemployment, which is directly linked to poverty, according to the European Commissioner for Employment, László Andor.

Mr Andor highlighted the gender dimension to tackling the unemployment rate after the 10th EU Meeting of People Experiencing Poverty, held in Brussels yesterday.

To put Malta into the picture, the country ranks last in the EU for female employment, with 39.8 per cent of women in the labour market in 2009, compared to the EU average of 62.5 per cent.

“I think this is a very important point because when we discuss the need to improve the employment rate we have to express ourselves in averages but we need to focus ourselves on groups that need assistance,” Mr Andor said. He said such groups included young unemployed people and young mothers.

Many member states had to improve the supply and availability of childcare facilities, he said. In the past few years, there have been calls to improve such facilities in Malta to help women return to work after childbirth.

An EU motion late last year to extend maternity leave was unsuccessful.

Having a job did not mean a person was safe from poverty, as eight per cent of the working population in the EU were at risk of poverty, Mr Andor said.

He called on member states to consider vulnerable groups when undergoing deficit reduction. Across the EU, the statistics for poverty were worsening, and more than 80 million people were at risk, he said.

In Malta, about 61,000 people were living below the acceptable threshold in 2009, up from 59,000 in 2008.

The meeting, which continues today, is organised jointly by the Hungarian EU presidency, the European Commission and the European Anti-Poverty Network. It aims to ensure the voices and experiences of people living in poverty are heard and noted.

Mr Andor also touched upon pension reform in the context of making social protection and services more responsive to needs. A White Paper on pensions, a strategic document following four months of consultation on a Green Paper, was expected in the second half of this year, he said.

Although pensions are a national responsibility, the document aims to express the Commission’s beliefs on pension reform.

The retirement age is one of the issues expected to be tackled in the paper, he said.