Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2000-11-15-Speech-3-319"
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"en.20001115.14.3-319"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, I want to begin by thanking the rapporteur. Allow me to state that domestic work is important. It must be respected, and it needs to be valued more highly. Those of us in the Group of the European Liberal, Democrat and Reform Party are therefore able to back most of the report’s conclusions. We shall nonetheless be voting against the report as a whole in the light of the subsidiarity principle. This is an issue for the Member States. Certain proposals are too detailed.
The following are nonetheless important points for the Member States to take into account. Attention needs to be given to situations in which women have two jobs. Domestic work is often heavy, involving many places of work. Wages are too low, there is an increase in illicit work, and a situation often prevails in which women, often immigrants, are the first to be exploited. Many end up outside the social security systems. In the interests of a social Europe, the Member States have an urgent duty to ensure that immigrant women, often from the applicant States, obtain tolerable working conditions.
A broader approach to domestic work would enable many people, including young people and immigrants, to see such work as a good way of getting into the labour market. 'Legitimate' domestic help is often too expensive nowadays when VAT and employers' charges have to be paid. Experiments involving tax deductions and ways of simplifying the system ought to be made. It must be made easier to start up and run companies which provide domestic help.
In my own country, Sweden, two main arguments are often advanced against facilitating paid domestic help. First of all, that it would militate against equality between men and women. Wrong! It would make things easier for many families and increase equality. Many women can opt to have careers and go out to work if they are given help with practical tasks – perhaps that is the case for some of the women in this Chamber.
The second argument is that it would create a B team within the labour market. Wrong! All those who are at present engaged in illicit work would obtain work with decent social conditions. There are therefore both economic and moral reasons in favour of the report's intentions, but these issues must be resolved at
rather than EU level."@en1
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