FLOWS WORKING PAPER SERIES NO. 54/2014 Dagmar Kutsar, Kairi Kasearu and Avo Trumm The policy framework in Tartu FLOWS: Impact of local welfare systems on female labour force participation and social cohesion 1
FLOWS Working Paper Editor: Per H. Jensen E-mail: perh@dps.aau.dk www.flows-eu.eu Working papers may be ordered from: Inge Merete Ejsing-Duun Fibigerstræde 1 9220 Aalborg Ø E-mail: ime@dps.aau.dk Tlf: (+45) 99 40 82 18 Fax: (+45) 98 15 53 46 Aalborg 2014 ISSN 2246-4840 2
About the FLOWS project: The FLOWS project has been funded under the EU FP7 program, grant Agreement no: 266806. The project started January 1 2011 and ended April 30 2014. The FLOWS project analyses the causes and effects of women s labour market integration, which is an issue that represents a major challenge for the European Union and its member states, and is supposedly also a precondition for the sustainability of the European social model. The overall aim is to analyse (1) how local welfare systems support women s labour market participation, as well as (2) the extent to which (and under which conditions) female labour market integration has contributed to the strengthening social cohesion. The project focuses on how public and private welfare services such as care and lifelong learning intended to support women s labour market integration have been designed; on how women of different classes, qualifications, ethnicities, and geographical locations have grasped and made use of such policies, and on how the increase in women s labour market integration has affected structures of inequality and social cohesion. The study is based on in-depth analysis of eleven cities, i.e. one city in eleven different countries. The cities/countries are: Brno/Czech Republic, Aalborg/Denmark, Tartu/Estonia, Jyväskylä/Finland, Nantes/France, Hamburg/Germany, Székesfehérvar/Hungary, Dublin/Ireland, Bologna/Italy, Terrassa/Spain, and Leeds/UK. The FLOWS project is composed by 6 academic work packages: WP 1: Degree and structures of women's labour market integration WP 2: Local production systems WP 3: The local welfare system WP 4: Local policy formation/local political actors WP 5: Survey questionnaire WP 6: Women s decision making WP 7: Social structures: cohesion or cleavages and segregation This working paper series reports work conducted in the seven work packages. 3
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Table of Contents BIBLIOGRAPHY ABBREVATIONS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND OF THE DESK-RESEARCH 2.1. LEGAL FRAMEWORK 2.2 THE PROGRAM OF THE GOVERNING COALITION FOR 2011 2015 (A2 OF THE TEMPLATE) 2.3 ESTONIAN OPERATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT, 2007 2013 (A3 OF THE TEMPLATE) 3 THE TARTU CITY DEVELOPMENT PLAN FOR 2007-2013 (B OF THE TEMPLATE) 4 OVERVIEW OF THE GOVERNANCE SYSTEM (C OF THE TEMPLATE) 5 OVERVIEW OF POLICIES REGULATING CHILD AND ELDERLY CARE, LLL AND TRAINING ON THE LOCAL LEVEL (D OF THE TEMPLATE) 5
Bibliography Ainsaar, M., Soo, K. (2009). Kohalike omavalitsuste toetus lastele ja lastega peredele 2008. Tartu Ülikool, sotsioloogia ja sotsiaalpoliitika instituut. Rahvastikuministri büroo. Ainsaar, M., Soo, K., Aidarov, A. (2004). Omavalitsuste toetus lastega peredele 2002 2003. Tartu: Rahvastikuministri büroo. Järviste, L. (2010). Sooline võrdõiguslikkus ja ebavõrdsus: hoiakud ja olukord Eestis 2009. aastal. Sotsiaalministeeriumi toimetised, nr 3/2010. Tallinn: Sotsiaalministeerium. Karu, M. (2011). Fathers and parental leave: slow steps towards dual earner/dual carer family model in Estonia. Tartu University Press. Karu, M., Pall, K. (2009). Estonia: halfway from the Soviet Union to the Nordic countries, in Kamerman, S.B. and Moss, P. (Eds.) The politics of parental leave policies: Children, parenting, gender and the labour market. Bristol, UK; Portland, U.S.A: The Policy Press. Pp 69-85. Karu, M., Kasearu, K., Biin, H. (2007) Isad ja lapsehoolduspuhkus, PRAXISe toimetised 29/2007. Karu, M., Kallaste, E., Kraut, L., Rõõm, T., Turk, P., Anspal, S., (2010). Sooline palgalõhe Eestis. Poliitikameetmete analüüs, Eesti Rakendusuuringute Keskus CENTAR, Poliitikauuringute Keskus PRAXIS/Sotsiaalministeerium / Euroopa Sotsiaalfond Krusell, S. (2011). Reconciling work and family life as a task for women?, in Man s home is the world, woman s world is her home? Statistics Estonia, pp 74-82. Kutsar, D. Tiit, E-M. (2003) Changing family structures and alternative paths to family formation in Estonia, in L. Appleton and L. Hantrais (eds) Cross-National Research Papers, 6 (5), Loughborough: European Research Centre, Loughborough University, pp 52 9. Municipal Educational Institutions Development Plan of Tartu City for 2008-2013 http://www.tartu.ee/data/munitsipaaloppeasutuste%20systeemi%20ak%202008-2013.pdf National Audit Office of Estonia (2011). Overview of the impact of the decrease in revenue on the organisation of work and public services of municipalities and cities Nirk, M. (1989). Soodustusi lastega perekondadele. Normatiivaktide kogumik, Tallinn: Olion. OECD (2011). Doing Better for Families, OECD Publishing. Social Welfare Development Plan of Tartu City for 2012 http://www.tartu.ee/data/sotsiaalhoolekande%20strateegia%202012.doc Tiit, E-M. (1990). Perekonnapoliitikast tänapäeva Eestis, in Eesti perekond ja perekonnaideaal. Perekonnaprobleemid IX, Tartu: Tartu Ülikooli Kirjastus. Vainu, V., Järviste, L,. Biin, H. (2009). Soolise võrdõiguslikkuse monitooring 2009. Uuringuraport. Sotsiaalministeeriumi toimetised, nr 1/2010. Tallinn: Sotsiaalministeerium. Võrk, A., Karu, M., Tiit, E.-M. (2009). Vanemahüvitis: kasutamine ning mõjud tööturu- ja sündimuskäitumisele. 2004 2007, Tallinn: Poliitikauuringute Keskus PRAXIS. Legal acts and documents Constitution of the Republic of Estonia RT 1992, 26, 349 6
https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/633949 Local Government Organisation Act [RT I 1993, 37, 558] https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/12849896 The Employment Contract Act RT I 2009, 5, 35 https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/13120899 The Social Welfare Act RT I 1995, 21, 323 https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/103032011016 The Family Act RT I 2009, 60, 395 https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/121122010014 The Gender Equality Act RT I 2004, 27, 181 https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/13223681 Pre-school Child Care Institutions Act RT I 1999, 27, 387 https://www.riigiteataja.ee/akt/12744434 The Program of the Governing Coalition for 2011-2015 http://www.reform.ee/userfiles/valitsusliit-i.pdf Estonian Operational Programme for Human Resource Development 2007-2013 http://www.hm.ee/index.php?popup=download&id=8838 The Tartu City Development Plan 2007-2013 https://www.tartu.ee/data/arengukava%20tekst.pdf 7
Abbreviations WP work package (with the respective number) of the FLOWS project D deliverable (with the respective number) of the FLOWS project 8
1 Executive Summary The aim of the current policy mapping exercise is to contribute with desk research reviews of the selected policy documents, including relevant laws on the national and local level in Estonia keeping four life domains in the focus: (1) child care; (2) care for the elderly; and (3) life-long learning and vocational training. The analysis follows the Template developed for execution of the tasks according to the Annex of the FLOWS project. The report contributes with analyses and expert assessments (contextual interpretations) to the comparative analysis of the European sample cities (D4.3.). The sample city involved in the project is Tartu (Estonia). In the introductory chapter the social context of the desk research is presented. The authors demonstrate how the context of female labour force participation in Estonia is shaped by historical-political factors. During the Soviet time from 1940 to 1991 the female labour force participation was very high first of all for ideological reasons. Since Estonia gained independence from the collapsing Soviet Union in 1991, the whole society has been politically and economically reconstructed and the policies regulating informal family care have gone through several shifts. The authors sum up, at rhetorical and political level the Estonian welfare state has taken over several ideas from social democratic welfare regimes, however in everyday practices there are significant differences among women and men how the family policy is implemented. The family policy is still directed to childbirth and early childhood with dominating fiscal benefits and allowances over the child care services while social welfare for the elderly and disabled persons is developed towards open care and independent coping. The introductory chapter also provides with reviews of policy documents and laws on the national level. In the section A1 the overview of the Estonian legal context is presented with the focus put on the aspects which regulate the women s participation on the labour market (open /limit the access; give or leave without opportunities). More specifically, The Employment Contract Act, The Family Law Act, The Estonian Social Welfare Act and the Estonian Gender Equality Act are introduced. The review sums up that there is no act in Estonia reviewed in the report that would formally restrain women s labour force participation, although the Social Welfare Act and the Family Act declare that a person is responsible of taking care of its blood relatives, which may influence women s work behaviour as they are usually the ones doing the informal caring job. The Gender Equality Act is supporting women s labour force participation as it believes that men and women should be treated equally in all spheres of society. The section A2 of the introductory chapter focuses on the Estonian government program for 2011 2015. The authors make a critical conclusion: there is no special measure stated in the government program to support specifically women s labour market participation and thus women s employment seems not to be a policy priority for this time period. The section A3 of the introductory chapter reviews the ongoing Estonian Operational Programme for Human Resource Development in 2007 2013. Although the programme has a potential to support women s labour force participation, the message stays unspoken. Instead, the seated gender stereotypes have been over the gender awareness in the mindsets of the OP developers and in general the programme is gender neutral. The Tartu City Development Plan for 2007 2013 is reviewed in the second chapter of the report to present the local policy document. The document declares the goals in nine different areas including economy, environmental support, municipal housing and communal services, health care, culture and religion, education, social welfare, public sector services, law and order. However, it does not certify employment measures and objectives; this is why the document does not say anything about women s labour force participation or discharging them from informal care responsibilities. The third chapter is devoted to analysis of the governance system that bases on the Constitution of the Republic of Estonia. Estonia is a unitary state with a de-concentrated central government and a single-tier sub-national government. At the moment there are 13 ministers including the Prime Minister, who are responsible for policy making, and their subordinate agencies are mostly responsible for policy 9
implementation. The local governments are quite strong and independent in Estonia, and they are in charge of a wide variety of tasks. All municipalities are expected to provide the same basic services. The final chapter focuses on local policy framework that regulates the child and elderly care provision and the LLL. The Local Government Organisation Act is the main document that establishes the ruling functions, jurisdictions, responsibilities and organisational structure of local authorities, and their relationship with other local bodies and with the national government. The social welfare service provision in Tartu is under the responsibility of Department of Social Welfare; concerning the child care and elderly care the department is responsible of services and benefits provided for families and elderly people. The educational services are provided by the Department of Education, which also coordinates the work of the childcare institutions and vocational training. According to the Social Welfare Act the local governments are also responsible for helping the elderly people to cope with the later stages of life. Still, the authors of the report make a critical note saying that in the situation when 87% of the caretakers are the family members this may affect the women s labour market expectations. In the last paragraph of the chapter the learning opportunities for adult learners are overviewed. The authors focus on the LLL and training, which is supported by ESF and is implemented through open calls for proposals by INNOVE Foundation for Lifelong Learning and Development and Environmental Investment Centre. However any measure to specifically support women s LLL and training is not highlighted here. 10
2 Introduction: background of the desk research The context of female labour force participation in Estonia is shaped by historical-political factors. During the Soviet time from 1940 to 1991 the female labour force participation was very high, because according to the Constitution of the USSR working was an obligation of every citizen and women were formally declared to have equal rights with men in all areas of life: economic, social, cultural and political. Working was a precondition of being a member of the society; social security was only available to those who were working and a state pension depended on a record of continuous employment. Thus, as claimed by Tiit (1990), employment was compulsory, and not working was condemned or even punished. In case of women, it meant that they had to carry simultaneously three roles: wives, mothers and workers (Cerami 2005). The gender equality was promoted at labour market, but not in the sphere of childcare and housework, namely fathers had no rights to parental leave or access to the family benefits (Nirk 1989). The period of fully paid maternity leave increased from 56 days before and 56 days after the birth in the 1950s to 18 months flat-rate benefit based leave and unpaid leave to three years in 1989 (Karu & Pall 2009). The state provided public services for families supporting child care and elderly care. To promote the labour force participation e.g. of lone mothers, there were special state supported children s homes where the parent/s could leave their children temporarily (Kutsar & Tiit 2003). In the 1990s the whole society was politically and economically reconstructed and a liberal approach was implemented in economy. The latter also meant the ideological shift from state responsibility to personal responsibility, and the family matters became even more private area than before. Moreover, the employers were released from social responsibilities in the state regulations (tax policy, maintenance allowance for parents whose children were not in kindergartens) that encouraged mothers to stay at home with children. Discrimination against women with children in the labour market was silently accepted (Karu & Pall 2009). The next major shift in the family policy occurred in the beginning of the 2000s when more attention was paid to gender equality that opened the access to family policy measures for fathers. The relatively generous income-related parental leave scheme was introduced in 2004 1 aimed to support work and family reconciliation of both parents with children. One can witness a slowly increasing trend of the active fathering, however, the longer time paid parental benefit in the context of seated gender stereotypes obstacles women s return to the labour market in case the fathers will not get motivated to pick up the parental leave or, there would not be positive changes in childcare facilities, especially towards the increasing choices between alternative care facilities, their quality and affordability. According to analyses made by Võrk et al (2009) the scheme has positive effect on female labour market participation, namely more women than before take up work before giving birth, i.e. enter to the labour market. At the same time, although both parents are eligible for parental leave, in case of Estonia the share of mothers among the beneficiaries is about 95% (Karu 2011). As a result the relatively long period of paid parental leave may produce a gendered impact and put women into the traditional care provider s position. Thus the longterm parental leave uncovers a negative effect on the employment rate of women aged 25 to 54 years and on the gender employment gap (OECD 2011). To sum up, in the case of the Estonian welfare state, at rhetorical and political level it has taken over several ideas from social democratic welfare regimes, however in everyday practices there are significant differences among women and men how the family policy is implemented at the national level. The family policy measures how they are implemented in practice are still mother and child biased: the measures are developed for the mother s use to stay at home with a child. The aims of the measures do not refer to 1 Parental benefit is a benefit paid to one of the parents during a period from the birth of a child until the child reaches 18 months and it compensates for the loss of profit from work. Parental benefit is paid to an employed parent in the amount of 100% of the income which is subject to social tax calculated for the calendar year prior to the date on which the child was born. After the end of the period of parental benefit, childcare allowance is paid to the person on parental leave. 11
active fathering neither to the gender equality. The acknowledged problem is that the birth of a child leaves the mother out of the labour market. The family policy measures are directed to childbirth and early childhood with dominating fiscal benefits and allowances over the child care services. Social welfare for the elderly and disabled persons is organized by local governments according to the Social Welfare Act (RT I 1995, 21, 323) and is developed towards open care and independent coping thus supporting reconciliation of family carework and working of the informal carers. This concern in particular, home care services, personal assistant services, support person service, housing service, day centre service, care for disabled persons in home, and 24 hour care in welfare institutions. Also rehabilitation service provided from the state budget is to ensure independent coping of the disabled family members. Discourse of independent living and active ageing of the elderly people and people with disabilities supported by the network of care institutions and open care services have positive effect on reconciliation of work and informal care tasks for women because women as the main family informal carers can stay equally with men on the labour market. Still one big question in women s labour market participation is how to deal with three spheres: paid labour, child and elderly care and the division of informal family care, but this also concerns the aspects of life long learning opportunities if the competitiveness on the labour market is concerned. In the following overview we will focus on the existing legislation and policy documents which frame the women s labour market participation the opportunities and access. 2.1 Legal framework (A1of the template) In this section the overview of the Estonian legal context is presented with the focus put on the aspects which regulate the women s participation on the labour market (open /limit the access; give or leave without opportunities). The choice between the policy documents for the review followed the frames set in the WP4 template. In case the caring or educational needs of women are neglected / not mentioned in any of the reviewed documents, this will be critically noted. The Employment Contract Act [RT I 2009, 5, 35] regulates work relations in Estonia. The Act is in its form gender neutral as the regulations apply equally to men and women. However there are legal regulations that may influence women s employment behaviour. As an example, in the act paragraph 11 Precontractual negotiations states that and employer may not ask the person applying for employment for any data with regard to which the employer does not have any legitimate interest, especially this applies to the private life of the person applying for employment. Although this paragraph is gender neutral, its hidden aim is to hinder the discrimination of the women with small children. Previous studies among personnel managers have shown that the employers have prejudice towards women with small children and they rather prefer the others in the situation of equal candidates (Karu, Kasearu and Biin 2007). The act formally supports young women s participation in the labour market, but the wording of the paragraph is too general and uncovers this hidden message. The paragraph 18 Working conditions of pregnant employees and employees entitled to pregnancy leave and maternity leave, declares that employer has to provide the employee with work corresponding to their state of health. From the employers point of view this can be perceived as a negative argument. For young women it is rather supporting their labour force participation. The Act also regulates the employer s rights to send employees to business trips, namely pregnant women and employees raising disabled children or children less than three years of age may be sent on a business trip only with the employee s consent. Thus, the act should support the reconciliation of work and family life however, in a hidden way it rather may hinder young women s labour market and career opportunities in a longer run. There is a possibility that employers will put young mothers on so-called mommy track or women themselves prefer jobs, where they van be more flexible in combining work and family obligations, and therefore they may dismiss their career options (Karu, Kasearu & Biin 2007). Data of Estonian Labour 12
Force Survey show that almost one fourth of women compared to ten per cent of men with a child aged 0 2 in the household have reduced usual working hours at least once in a month in order to take care of a child (Krusell 2011). Thus, the women s labour market participation is shaped by labour market flexibility (time and work location flexibility). In the Employment Contract Act most of the special rights are related to the fact whether an employee has children or not, e.g. men and women, who have children up to ten years of age, have the right to demand the annual holiday at a suitable time. The Family Law Act [RT I 2009, 60, 395] establishes the rights and obligations originating from the kinship. If one person originates from another, they are direct blood relatives. Blood relatives are therefore children, grandchildren, parents and grandparents of a person. By the Family Law Act the person over 18 years old is obligated to take care of his/her blood relatives if they are in need of care. Although, this regulation is gender neutral, still the data show that most of the carers are women, e.g. among unemployed women who declare willingness to work the most important reason not to commencing work was taking care of children or adults requiring care (Krusell 2011). The Family Law Act also declares that the child's father is obligated to maintain the child's mother during eight weeks before and twelve weeks after the child birth. The same applies for three years after the child birth if the mother of the child cannot receive an income due to care giving of the children. The Estonian Social Welfare Act [RT I 1995, 21, 323] provides the organizational, economic and legal bases for social welfare and regulates the relations arising from the provision of it. One of the principles of the Act is that people are responsible of themselves and their family members subsistence. Although the Act is gender neutral we could believe that the informal caring load is legitimized. The Social Welfare Act also notes that the aim of the childcare service is to support the working of the one who is responsible of the children. Hence the childcare service is seen as a work supporting measure. The Estonian Gender Equality Act [RT I 2004, 27, 181] is intended to ensure that the constitutional principle of equal treatment is granted and to promote gender equality between men and women as a fundamental human right and public good in all areas of social life. The Act applies to all spheres of society, although it does not regulate the relations in family or private life. The gender equality in the Act is defined as equal rights, responsibilities and opportunities between women and men at the work place, in acquisition of education and in other areas of social life. The Act notes that direct gender based discrimination is also an unfavourable treatment of a person in connection with pregnancy and childbirth, parenting and family obligations. Hence we could say that the Act sees a problem in women s informal caring load. The Gender Equality Act declares that direct and indirect gender discrimination, also the order given by the organization is prohibited. The discrimination in work life is not allowed due to pregnancy, childbirth, parenting, family obligations or other circumstances related to gender. The employers are obligated to promote equality between women and men; to support both men and women running for vacant jobs; to employ women and men as equals; to create working conditions which are suitable for both women and men and strengthen the work and life reconciliation. Probably there is a sense to add a critical note here: The gender mainstreaming, equal rights and equal treatment have been topical in Estonia since mid-1995 but have met numerous obstacles on the way of putting the principles into legal frame. There are several reasons, just some of them: (1) fully formal gender equalisation by the Soviet ideology during the occupation of the Soviet Union in Estonia created strong anti-soviet sentiments related to supra-national directives; (2) no perceived barriers for women to schooling and gained higher educational level for women compared to men; (3) women s tradition of full employment; (4) paternalistic mindset of the population supported by traditional stereotypes of men and women giving apology for the gap between the family policy measures addressed to both genders and their implications in practice where mothers and fathers keep their traditional positions related to reconciliation of family and work responsibilities; (5) self-censorship of women in political and career aspirations. 13
To sum up, there is no act in Estonia reviewed above that would restrain women s labour force participation, although the Social Welfare Act and the Family Act declare that a person is responsible of taking care of its blood relatives, which may influence women s work behaviour as they are usually the ones doing the informal caring job. The Gender Equality Act (2004) established clearly that the discrimination in work life is prohibited due to pregnancy, childbirth, parenting or family obligations. Therefore the Gender Equality Act is supporting women s labour force participation as it believes that men and women should be treated equally in all spheres of society. 2.2 The Program of the Governing Coalition for 2011 2015 (A2 of the template) The Estonian government program for 2011 2015 was agreed on the 4 th of April 2011 between two coalition parties: The Pro Patria and Res Publica Union [Isamaa ja Res Publica Liit] and Estonian Reform Party [Eesti Reformierakond]. The main emphasis of the document is on economic policy, believing that we can improve living conditions of people with stable economic growth and competitive market structure. The program defines the principles for new policies including the ideas on labour market reforms saying that the main aim is to increase its flexicurity. Although the program does not say anything about the EU guidelines on female employment, the informal caring load and educational support, it only refers that in the field of LLL training the European Social Funding should be set on priority. To increase the amount of people taking part of the LLL training programs from 12% to 20% the coalition agreement promises to not take into account the costs of the training as taxable fringe benefit. However, women as a separate group for LLL training was never declared in the document, which may refer that LLL training is not seen as a policy measure for supporting mothers to return to labour market. Although in the field of active labour market policies the document emphasises the groups who have not been employed for a longer term including mothers, who have been home for child care purposes are supported to return to labour market. But it does not say how and with which measures that group is helped to re-employ again. The document says that the aim of the family policy is to create a family friendly state, however, it does not see women s informal caring load as a problem. Nevertheless it states that the paternity leave 2, which was cancelled during the economic recession, should be re-introduced. The document also states that the childcare services should be more flexible for supporting parents to return to labour market faster 3. However, this statement may be seen controversial, as the problem at the moment is not so much about the flexibility than more about the situation, when not all children are granted with a free space in a childcare facility as that the demand is bigger than the local governments can afford. It should be also noted that the government program does not say anything about the elderly care provision, which may again confirm the fact that women s informal caring load is not seen as a problem on the state level. To sum up, there is no special measure stated in the government program to support women s labour market participation and we can say that women s employment is not a policy priority for Estonia in 2011 2015. 2 14 days paid leave for fathers. 3 The return to the labour market after long break is not unproblematic: over one fourth of women perceive that it has been difficult to start working after the parental leave ends (Vainu et al. 2010). 14
2.3 Estonian Operational Programme for Human Resource Development, 2007 2013 (A3 of the template) The Operational Programme (OP) is composed for implementation of the European Social Fund (ESF) in 2007 2013 thus is directly influenced by the EU guidelines. The purpose of the initiative is to set out the supported areas of activity and to define the budget for the support required. The aim of the OP is to support the movement closer to the knowledge based economy and society through developing the actions for the 2007 2013 programming period in the following fields: education, research and development, youth work, labour market, enterprise and administrative capacity. The OP defines five supported areas of substantive action as priority axes in the Programme: 1. Lifelong learning (1 st level intermediate body Ministry of Education and Research, Ministry of the Environment) 2. Developing the human resource for research and development (1 st level intermediate body Ministry of Education and Research) 3. Good-quality and long working life (1 st level intermediate body Ministry of Social Affairs) 4. Knowledge and skills for innovative entrepreneurship (1 st level intermediate body: Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications) 5. Enhancing administrative capacity (1 st level intermediate body: State Chancellery and Ministry of Interior) The Actors. The promoter and the principal co-ordinator of the OP is the Ministry of Education and Research, who co-ordinates preparations for the OP, manages the OP Monitoring Committee, is responsible for the preparation of the OP communication plan and its presentation to the European Commission. In 2006 the Ministry of Education and Research invited together a workgroup for forming the Estonia s priorities for OP. The decision makers in the workgroup consisted of various ministries as Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Social Affairs, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communications, Ministry of the Environment, Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Agriculture. Also the Ministry without Portfolio of Population Issues [Rahvastikuministri büroo] and the State Chancellery were included. The workgroup also invited to join the partner organisations as Estonian Rectors Conference, Rectors Council of Applied Universities, Estonian Academy of Science, Estonian Association for Promoting the Vocational Training, Estonian Employers Confederation, Estonian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Association of Estonian Cities. To put the OP on open discussion the Ministry of Education and Research published the first version of OP on their website and set up meetings with different advocacy groups. On the vertical level the policy is coordinated as following: the managing authority is the Ministry of Finance, who is responsible for the implementation of all EU structural funds. The implementation of all the five supported priority axes are coordinated by various ministries and the State Chancellery, who are called 1 st level intermediate bodies, whose task is to prepare the terms and conditions of awarding and using the support for the measures within their domain. The 2nd level intermediate bodies as INNOVE Foundation for Lifelong Learning Development; Environmental Investment Centre; Archimedes Foundation; Enterprise Estonia; KREDEX; State Chancellery; Ministry of the Interior process the applications, verify the payment applications and the eligibility of the expenses, make payments, supervise and advise the aid recipients. All the five mentioned priority axes are bound with the European Community Strategic Guidelines, which are also mentioned in the OP. Concerning the women labour force participation, informal caring load and LLL the priority axes 1 and 3 are relative for this report. The priority axis 1 should support measures for LLL and training. The priority axis 3 is purposed to improving the quality of working life. The document defines the current situation of the labour market, also noting that the high gender pay gap and gender-based labour market segmentation are problems for Estonia. It also indicates that the availability of care facilities, which would support the working, is low, believing that the social welfare 15
system and employment system is not well combined. The only suggestion in the OP is to increase awareness about flexible working schemes among the population however no gender is mentioned here to whom the measures could be addressed or how different needs could be taken into the consideration. The number of people, who have received the work supported services as an indicator, is highlighted but it is not developed as gender-specific. The gender pay gap is mentioned but no indicator developed, neither gender is mentioned by two other indicators number of persons who have received job-supported services and their proportion of the all people who have received these services. The only indicator that directly relates to the reconciliation issues is the employment rate of men and women with and without children under six years old. Under the priority axis 3 Good quality and long working life the document sets the following national goals connected to female employment for 2013: - to decrease the gender pay gap from current level to the 28%; - to increase the employment rate of 20 25 year old parents compared to those who do not have children The target has been put to female employment rate 68.3% by 2010 4. To reach this target, several actions are indicated: flexible working time and form; part-time work; development of care services to decrease the caring responsibilities; measures aimed to increasing awareness of employers and employees in GM; finding ways of application GM normative documents by employers, etc. Even if the actions are not analysed by gender, they seem to be more influential for women by easing their entering/ return to the labour market and staying there being less discriminated against. However, there are also some risks for women that are not elaborated in the OP, e.g. related to flexible work schemes (just one example: working part-time increases risks of female poverty in case of a single-mother or single-earner family; less pay paves the gender pay gap; earning less increases economic vulnerability at retirement because women live longer than men and often in a single-person household, etc.). The OP declares that the possible measures to achieve the set approaches should promote gender equality on organizational level, saying that the awareness about the gender equality should be increased and the implementation of legislation on the equal treatment of men and women should be supported through manuals. 1 of the 5 measures, which the Ministry of Social Affairs created for implementing the priority axis 3 is Measure 1.3.5 Gender mainstreaming. The aim of the measure is to bring back to labour market the people who are in unfavourable position in employment, to fight against discrimination related to the advancement of employees who have already entered the labour market, and promoting acceptance of diversity in the workplace are equally important. The other measure 1.3.1 Increasing the Availability of Qualified Labour Force under the priority axis 3 promise to bring the unemployed and inactive people to the labour market, although women are not defined as a separate risk group under the measure. The issues of education and training and respective policies are integrated under the priorities Life-long learning, Development of human resources in R&D sector and Long and high quality work life of the OP. The OP tackles most of the above listed problems in general. However, gendered aspects of these problems stay carefully hidden gender is mentioned only by life-long learning priority, indicating to mothers who return to the labour market, among other policy target groups. Of course, all priorities contain a formally required equal opportunities paragraph in the section of the horizontal issues 5, but 4 According to EUROSTAT, in 2010 the overall employment rate for women in age 15-64 was 60.6%, which is two percentage points higher than the average in EU-27. The employment gap between women and men is not high, only one percentage point in favour of men (61.5%). 5 e.g. statement from the priority theme Life-long learning of the OP: During the process of updating further training and making vocational education more flexible, and in implementing the measure to increase the popularity of vocational education, and other measures, and in order to ensure equal opportunities and reduce the existent educational inequality, consideration will be made of the need to extend the professional and job choices by women and men, to have more flexible movement between the various areas and jobs in order to ensure the greater competitiveness on the labour market for groups in a less favourable situation (non- Estonian speakers, people in the risk groups, with special needs). In raising the quality level in youth work, the interests and needs 16
presented statements are exclusively not attached to any specific action. The modest priority level of gender issues in education and training can be revealed from the national report Preparation of the 2010 Joint Interim Report on the implementation of the Education and Training 2010 work programme 6 where the words gender, men, women, male, female, etc are totally missing. Neither these words are found in the programmes related to LLL and R&D priority themes; even more, the program documents do not mention the gender mainstreaming as the horizontal theme. The reasons for dealing with these priorities most often as gender neutral are clearly related to gender blind orientation of the elaborators of the priority themes and the implementation units of the themes. To conclude, in general the OP does not see women as a separate subject group. The defined risk groups, who are given priority, are non-estonian population, disabled students and young people. General critical note: The women s organisations and the Women s Round Table as the pressure group of gender equal opportunities was not involved in the preparation period of the OP. Thus the OP reflects gender neutral or even blind orientation in terms of gender mainstreaming. Each section provides with information about the current situation and evaluation how the resources of the former period of the ESF funding (2004-2006) were used. In the overview gender is rarely mentioned and data are rarely disaggregated by gender, however this would have been necessary, especially for further elaboration of the gender mainstreamed priority themes and designing the measures to promote human resources development in Estonia as the general policy objective of the OP. Instead, more attention is paid to ethnic minorities, school dropouts, persons with special needs, youth and the elderly in the cases equal opportunities are highlighted. Genders are not regarded as specific policy target groups. The main controversy here is that the OP developers have an understanding what the knowledge-based economy means, but they have not elaborated how genders could contribute to it. The main problem here the seated gender stereotypes have been over the gender awareness in the mindsets of the OP developers, and could be even further empowered during the OP implementation 3 The Tartu City Development Plan for 2007-2013 (B of the template) In 2006 Tartu City council adopted the development plan for period 2007 2013. By the statues of Tartu the City Development Plan must follow the development strategy. Therefore the present document follows the ideas of Tartu 2030. The Tartu City Development Plan analyses the current social, environmental and economic situation and sets out policies and objectives for a new planning period. The document declares the goals in nine different areas including economy, environmental support, municipal housing and communal services, health care, culture and religion, education, social welfare, public sector services, law and order. However, it does not certify employment measures and objectives, due to the fact that employment policy is developed and steered by the Ministry of Social Affairs and implemented through Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund. The regional office of Estonian Unemployment Insurance Fund regulates the Tartu City employment policy. Municipalities and cities in Estonia are more in the role of providing the first level public services. Therefore, the document does not say anything about women s labour force participation or discharging them from informal care responsibilities. of both sexes will be taken into account equally, and attempts will be made to reduce outdated gender stereotypes. Formulation of equal opportunity principles under the priority Development of human resources in R&D sector of the OP: In order to ensure equal opportunities there will be consideration of the need to balance the proportion of female and male researchers at the top level of research fields, and in the popularisation of science consideration will be made of the interests of women and men, and the need to extend these, lacks also more-detailed elaboration of respective measures. 6 http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc/natreport09/estonia_en.pdf 17
One of the bases of the Tartu City Development Plan is the sectored development plan: Social Welfare Development Plan of Tartu City for 2012. The document declares that the city values families with children and believes that the best environment for children to grow up is their family. It also notes that the elderly people are helped to restrain their independent living conditions. Hence it is a bit surprising that even the Social Welfare Development Plan for Tartu City does not see the women s informal caring load as a problem. Neither Tartu City Development Plan for 2007 2013 nor the other sectored development plan Municipal Educational Institutions Development Plan of Tartu City for 2008 2013 set objective for LLL or training as this subject is not included in those documents. The reason for that is that LLL and training is also a group of policies, which are coordinated on the state level by the Ministry of Education and Research and Ministry of the Environment. From the point of view of the women s labour force participation, one of the factors that the local government can improve is the availability of childcare services as the municipalities in Estonia are responsible for this. The Pre-school Child Care Institutions Act [RT I 1999, 27, 387] states that local governments provide all children from one and a half to seven years of age whose residence is in the administrative territory of the given municipality and whose parents so wish with the opportunity to attend a childcare institution in the catchment area (Krusell 2011). Although Plantega and Remery (2009, reference according to Järviste 2010) claim that the childcare system in Estonia is comparatively welldeveloped in comparison with the respective systems of other European countries, the biggest problem of Estonian administrative order is that the quality of public services between the different municipalities varies a lot and they have been given tasks that they are unable to implement due to their low revenue base. For parents the main problem related to childcare activities is the long waiting lists of kindergartens, and this is mainly the problem of bigger towns, inc Tartu. Ainsaar and Soo (2009: 7) noted that in year 2008, 39% of all municipalities had a queue for a place in a childcare facility. This is described also by gender employment gap, namely it is the highest among men and women whose households include children up to two years or younger. According to the Estonian Labour Force Survey in 2010, over 84% of men and only 27% of women were employed, and in case of women only 5% were looking for work while the situation was totally different among women with children aged 3-6 where 70% of mothers were employed (Krusell 2011). This suggests that on one hand it is the question of individual preferences and decisions made inside the family group, but on the other hand there is a shortage of childcare facilities for children under the age two. In the recent survey the National Audit Office of Estonia (2011: 5) declared: as a result of economic recession local governments have reduced the most in their expenditures in education and economy sphere. Nevertheless Karu et al (2010: 28) believe that the general situation of childcare services in Estonia has improved in recent years however the municipalities should develop more flexible forms of day care. To conclude, the power of creating better childcare facilities is in the hands of local governments. However, at the moment the low revenue bases do not allow municipalities to create better conditions and the support by the state would be appreciated. 4 Overview of the governance system (C of the template) Estonia is a parliamentary democratic republic with a multi-party political system where powers are distributed between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government. The legal basis and the legislation of the governance system are formed by the Constitution [RT 1992, 26, 349]. Estonia is a unitary state with a de-concentrated central government and a single-tier sub-national government. The President and the government form the executive power, although as Estonia is a parliamentary republic, the President s executive powers are limited. Therefore the supreme executive power belongs to the 18
government. According to the Constitution, the government s main responsibilities are: implementing the domestic and foreign policies of the state; proposing legislation to the Riigikogu [Parliament]; administering and implementing laws and resolutions of the Riigikogu; preparing and submitting the draft of the state budget to the Riigikogu; administering and implementing the state budget; and presenting a report on the state budget implementation to the Riigikogu. At the moment there are 13 ministers including the Prime Minister, who are responsible for policy making, and their subordinate agencies are mostly responsible for policy implementation. Each ministry develops policy independently as the Estonian governance system tries to be de-centralized. The work of the government is steered and co-ordinate by the Prime Minister and its Office. The employment and social welfare policies are the responsibility of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the education policies are created by the Ministry of Education and Research. The government is responsible to the uni-cameral parliament called Riigikog [Parliament], which has various tools and mechanisms at its disposal for influencing the executive power. Riigikogu is the state s supreme decision-making authority and its task is to represent citizens and society into policy making. It has 101 members who are elected every four years with a proportional representation voting system. The main assignment of the Riigikogu is the law making. The drafts of the Acts are presented to the Riigikogu for consideration either by a member, faction or committee of the Riigikogu or by the government. This means that the following instants are accountable for new policy objectives. The implementation of the claimed acts and new policies are the responsibility of ministries and their subordinated agencies. The Ministry of the Interior s Department of Regional and Local Affairs is accountable for general policy planning and the development of the sub-national level (counties and municipalities) in Estonia. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for local government finance and budget issues. The external control of the municipalities is the responsibility of the County Governors, the Legal Chancellor and the National Audit Office. The County Governors are the representatives of the central government at the regional level, whose tasks are to monitor municipal services, give advice to municipalities and be on charge of countrylevel planning. The aim of the Governor is to represent the interests of the state in the county, so the position allows supervising the correct enforcement of national regulations at the local level. Although the legal status of the county governments is relatively weak as almost every final decision is taken either at the central or municipal level. The local governments are quite strong and independent in Estonia. Municipal Council is elected by the municipality s residents in a secret ballot for a four-year term. The central government has delegated supplementary functions to the local government. The Constitution states that the government must cover the costs of implementing any function delegated by law. Even if they are unable to carry out their responsibilities, local governments cannot delegate their functions to the county level. Estonian municipalities are in charge of a wide variety of tasks. The most important municipal task in terms of expenditure is education (primary and secondary schooling). Other municipal tasks include culture and leisure, social services, housing services, environment protection, administration and public order and safety. All municipalities are expected to provide the same basic services. 5 Overview of policies regulating child and elderly care, LLL and training on the local level (D of the template) Local Government Organisation Act [RT I 1993, 37, 558] establishes the ruling functions, jurisdictions, responsibilities and organisational structure of local authorities, and their relationship with other local bodies and with the national government. In addition, this Act establishes the institutional structure of local authorities, where each municipality must have a municipal council, a municipal government, an auditing committee and a mayor. 19