La conciliación de la vida laboral y familiar constituye uno de los ejes esenciales del derecho a la igualdad y no discriminación por razón de sexo en asuntos de empleo y ocupación. Las actuaciones políticas y legislativas llevadas a cabo en las últimas décadas se han centrado en proporcionar a las personas trabajadoras mecanismos para resolver el conflicto entre la actividad laboral y las responsabilidades familiares, bien mediante derechos de ausencia, en una primera etapa, bien mediante derechos de presencia que operan sobre la distribución de la jornada de trabajo, más recientemente. Pese a los esfuerzos y avances innegables, la conciliación de la vida laboral y familiar continúa siendo un aspecto especialmente delicado en la carrera de las mujeres, a quienes la sociedad sigue vinculando en mayor medida con el cuidado de la familia. Además, la disolución del espacio y el tiempo de trabajo propiciada por las nuevas tecnologías o por la extensión del trabajo a distancia amenaza muchas de las conquistas conseguidas. Por estas razones urge incorporar la corresponsabilidad definitivamente a los instrumentos jurídicos ideados en pro de la conciliación. Se trata de concebir la igualdad dentro y fuera del hogar hasta sus últimas consecuencias. No obstante, es el principio gender mainstreaming el que debe presidir las nuevas medidas legislativas, así como la interpretación judicial y los instrumentos fruto de la autonomía colectiva que rigen la cotidianeidad de las relaciones laborales. Asimismo, es necesario un nuevo enfoque que ponga en valor los trabajos de cuidado y visibilice su importancia y repercusión para la propia sociedad. Persistir en la ignorancia de estos trabajos y feminizarlos contribuye a ensanchar la brecha sobre el derecho a la igualdad y a la no discriminación, como ha quedado patente en la reciente crisis sanitaria y sus consecuencias. La presente obra analiza todas estas cuestiones desde la convicción de que la igualdad no exige una mera equiparación formal entre las personas de distinto sexo, sino la auténtica garantía de poder ejercer los mismos derechos con idéntica intensidad.

This volume analyses the most important problems and challenges that health, age and the environment introduce in the labour market, and how these factors affect both the way people work and their rights. The contributions here focus on the main challenges for social security systems, lawmakers and trade unions, and provide important solutions to improve workers’ rights and guarantee the viability of public social security systems. Other topics analysed here include dress-codes and whistleblowing in companies. From the labour point of view, workers’ representatives and trade unions must take action in collective bargaining to deal with these topics and adequately protect the workforce. The authors here are drawn from countries such as Hungary, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Poland, Brazil and Colombia, providing a global perspective. The book will appeal to lawyers, legal and human resources experts, economists, judges, academics and staff from trade unions and employers’ representation. The volume features insights and contributions in different languages, with chapters in Spanish (13), English (7) and Portuguese (2).

Although proven effective in protecting pregnancy, giving birth and breastfeeding – that is, the biological differences of women related to maternity – the current European Union (EU) legislative framework on maternity leave tends to overlook the roles of both parents, especially during the post-delivery period of ‘bonding’ with the child. This framework, along with EU law on parental leave, which does not encourage an equal take-up of the leave, gives rise to serious issues of gender equality affecting both men and women. This deeply researched and urgent book proposes alternative options for future EU law on child-related leave which can be applied to both employees and self-employed workers to mitigate these limitations and side effects. Analysing the various EU Directives which, directly or indirectly, relate to maternity leave, paternity leave, adoption leave and parental leave, as well as the corresponding case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, the author uses a social risk approach and tackles the following issues: narrow focus of the legislation on the delivering mother’s incapacity to work; in practice, excessive emphasis on the protection of the delivering mother; silent assent to the unequal distribution of caring responsibilities within the family; lack of attention to women’s labour market outcomes; and the new direction followed by the recently adopted Directive on work-life balance. The research focuses on working parents (including non-delivering parents in same-sex couples or adoption) and includes a comparative analysis of the law of six countries – Belgium, Ireland, Spain, the United Kingdom, Sweden and Portugal – chosen to illustrate the variety of national schemes available and how their desirable features can be introduced into EU law. A more balanced design of child-related leave is a must in today’s society for reasons of fairness and also for economic considerations. This complete analysis of EU legislation and case law about child-related leave – including the first-ever systematic and in-depth analysis on whether maternity leave can be considered discriminatory against fathers and a review of economic literature on how child-related leave affects the situation of women in the labour market – offers forward-looking solutions for child-related leave to enhance gender equality. Practitioners and nongovernmental organisations dealing with EU and national matters related to labour and employment law, social security law and gender equality law will welcome this important book, as will academics and policymakers interested in maternity and other child-related leaves.

Including international comparative analysis alongside national case studies, this volume offers a wealth of information on the new trends which have emerged over the past decades - all of which were discussed at the recent 9th International Symposium on Working Time, Paris (2004). It looks at the increasing use of results-based employment relationships for managers and professionals, and the increasing fragmentation of time to more closely tailor staffing needs to customer requirements (e.g., short-hours, part-time work). Moreover, as operating/opening hours rapidly expand toward a 24-hour and 7-day economy, the book considers how this has resulted in a growing diversification, decentralization, and individualization of working hours, as well as an increasing tension between enterprises' business requirements and workers' needs and preferences regarding their hours. This new reality has raised some other challenging issues as well and the volume addresses those such as increasing employment insecurity and instability, time-related social inequalities, particularly in relation to gender, workers' ability to balance their paid work with their personal lives, and even the synchronization of working hours with social times, such as community activities.

This book offers a radical critique of mainstream, Marxist and feminist economic theories, ranging from the classical liberal economics of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to the feminist debates about domestic labour and patriarchy in the late twentieth century. It explores the increasing importance of household care relations, especially childcare, in shaping the domestic labour process. Trends in household gender relations and working patterns in Britain are explored in the context of political ideas and policies regarding the state, the economy, gender and care.

During his three terms as mayor of Curitiba, Brazil in the 1970s and ‘80s, architect and urbanist Jaime Lerner transformed his city into a global model of the sustainable and livable community. From the pioneering Bus Rapid Transit system to parks designed to catch runoff and reduce flooding, and the creation of pedestrian-only zones, Lerner has been the driving force behind a host of innovative urban projects. In more than forty years of work in cities around the globe, Lerner has found that changes to a community don’t need to be large-scale and expensive to have a transformative impact—in fact, one block, park, or a single person can have an outsized effect on life in the surrounding city. In Urban Acupuncture, Lerner celebrates these “pinpricks” of urbanism—projects, people, and initiatives from around the world that ripple through their communities to uplift city life. With meditative and descriptive prose, Lerner brings readers around the world to streets and neighborhoods where urban acupuncture has been practiced best, from the bustling La Boqueria market in Barcelona to the revitalization of the Cheonggyecheon River in Seoul, South Korea. Through this journey, Lerner invites us to re-examine the true building blocks of vibrant communities—the tree-lined avenues, night vendors, and songs and traditions that connect us to our cities and to one another. Urban Acupuncture is the first of Jaime Lerner’s visionary work to be published in English. It is a love letter to the elements that make a street hum with life or a neighborhood feel like home, penned by one of the world’s most successful advocates for sustainable and livable urbanism.

There is long-standing debate on how population growth affects national economies. A new report from Population Matters examines the history of this debate and synthesizes current research on the topic. The authors, led by Harvard economist David Bloom, conclude that population age structure, more than size or growth per se, affects economic development, and that reducing high fertility can create opportunities for economic growth if the right kinds of educational, health, and labor-market policies are in place. The report also examines specific regions of the world and how their differing policy environments have affected the relationship between population change and economic development.