Long-Term Care Policies and Statutory Care Leaves for Employees in Dutch and German Law

Summary

INTRODUCTION

Demographic developments and institutional changes in the organisation of long-term care point towards more private arrangements both in the Netherlands and in Germany. At the same time, the labour market participation of women is increasing. These developments present multiple challenges in realising two major aims of social policies: taking care of dependant persons in the long-term and a high labour market participation of both men and women. The division of responsibilities between the state, care institutions and families is shift ing towards increasing care responsibilities of family members and individuals, in particular in regard to long-term care for the elderly, disability or lasting illness of relatives, neighbours or friends. Providing longterm care might be quite challenging for employees who want to reconcile work with such care. Even if in the future forms of care provided by robots, via the internet and computer soft ware might be increasingly available, the need for care activities provided by relatives will probably expand given the ageing population. Private parties will most likely be responsible for at least some forms of informal home care of elderly.

Employees facing long-term care needs of family members can use different strategies to be able to care: a (temporary) working time reduction, adjustment of working hours, taking time off, organising care by professionals at home, or outsourcing some household tasks. This contribution is limited to possibilities to take long-term care leaves by employees to care for relatives, friends or neighbours.

This contribution first offers in Section 2 a comparison of current tendencies and social policy approaches in relation to long-term care in the Netherlands and Germany. These two EU countries currently do not differ profoundly with respect to the challenges that employees wanting to provide longterm care face and will probably be increasingly confronted with in the near future. However, the long-term care models in employment law differ in some respects. A comparison of leave facilities offered to employees who want to combine work and long-term care may offer interesting views for policy and legislative developments