Work, social security, care and gender

Various researchers focus on topics relating to law and labour, care, gender, and family, including the elderly and law. These issues are of great importance in a changing, digitalising society that is rapidly aging.

This brings with it new legal issues, for example the increasing role of municipalities with regard to (informal) care facilities. On an EU-level, the issue of labour and care is high on the agenda. The policy, aimed particularly at increasing the participation of women in the workforce, has consequences for families and childcare responsibilities, the chronically ill and the elderly. The leave rights of employees are being expanded, as are the possibilities for adjusting the working hours, working hours and workplace.

Does this policy create a more balanced distribution of work and care between men and women? Long-term and intense informal caregiving often has a major impact upon families: what does this mean for the rights of employees, for collective agreements and employers? What are the consequences of the increased flexibility of work relationships for care responsibilities at home, including the emerging platformisation of work? These types of questions are the main focus of the research undertaken by Susanne Burri and Susanne Heeger-Hertter. Both researchers participate in the Future of Work Hub.

Femke de Kievit conducts PhD research on the legal aspects of intergenerational caregiving between family members (family care). This research is focused on the presently unclear position on the rights and duties of the family in the care for older relatives. Which responsibilities does the law attribute to families in this context? And how can a family itself organise care?

Wendy Schrama is also interested in the issues of aging and the law. She participates as an expert in the large-scale comparative project FL-EUR, which involves a new European network of family law specialists from 28 countries and concerns the empowerment and the protection of vulnerable adults. In addition, in 2020, a book will be published that Wendy Schrama has, together with prof. E. Adolfs (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), composed with contributions by various others about ‘Elderly care and upwards solidarity from a historical, sociological and legal perspective’.