Brussels, 08/04/2009 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Women's Rights Committee wants to make membership of social security systems compulsory for spouses working part-time for their spouse's business and also wants to give freelancers and women working part-time for their partner's business greater maternity leave rights. This is the substance of a report by Astrid Lulling (EPP-ED, Luxembourg) on application of the principle of equal treatment for men and women freelancers, amending Directive 86/613/EEC. The committee adopted the report in first reading under the codecision procedure by 23 votes with 2 abstentions at its meeting in Brussels on Tuesday 31 March 2009. The plenary will vote on the report in May 2009.
Unlike the Commission, which suggests membership of social security systems should be voluntary, the Women's Rights Committee argues that Member States should make it compulsory for spouses working part-time for their partner's business to join the same social security systems covering illness, invalidity and pensions as freelancers. It adds that the social security payments for spouses helping in their partner's business should be tax-deductible as business operating costs, as should the spouse's pay, as long as the spouse really does provide a service to the business and these services are paid at the normal rate for the job. In a statement, Lulling explains that membership of social protection systems for spouses helping in their partner's business should be made compulsory and the experience of some Member States had shown that when given the choice of whether to join, most do not, but few spouses helping in their partner's business actually realise that if they get divorced, they lose any social security protection, particularly when it comes to pension rights.
The MEPs also want the Member States to ensure that women working as freelancers and women helping in their partner's business should be entitled to maternity leave adapted to suit their needs. Upon request from the freelancer, the leave should last at least four weeks from the birth. Astrid Lulling justifies this by saying that their maternity leave should not be based on the maternity leave provided for employees because in most cases, freelancers and women helping in their partner's business cannot or do not want to stop working for weeks on end. It would therefore be desirable, she explained, for either a maternity benefit payment to be provided or proper replacement systems.
Reacting to the report, the European small business and craft association UEAPME warned that compulsory membership of a social security system would be too expensive for micro-businesses that would have to face rising costs and legal obligations. (G.B. trans fl)