- New date of the conference – 14 July 2011
Prague, 30 June 2011 – The fact that women should have the possibility to raise children and, at the same time, make use of their education and abilities is already generally accepted. Nevertheless, the percentage of employed women aged 20-40 is still low. One of the reasons surely is the lack of flexible work arrangements that would facilitate women’s return to work after maternity leave. Therefore the Plenkyvpraci.cz (“Nappies at Work”) association and T-Mobile have prepared a specialised conference focused on flexible work arrangements. The conference will be held on 14 July 2011 at the T-Mobile building at Prague's Roztyly.
“The average age of T-Mobile employees is about 31 years and about half of them are women. Therefore it is logical that a large percentage of women are either on or preparing to take maternity leave. We employ the best specialists in the field, and therefore we try to do our best to make it as easy as possible for women to return to work after maternity leave,” says Barbora Stejskalová, Human Resources Director at T-Mobile, adding: “A very effective tool in this area is flexible work arrangements. For some time already, we have therefore been offering work from home, flexible working hours, shared positions and part-time work. We would like to share our positive experience with these arrangements because we believe that they are beneficial to not only women, but also the employer and the society as a whole.”
Barbora Stejskalová's words are confirmed by the findings of the government's National Economic Council (NERV): “A ten percentage-point increase in the currently low employment rate among women aged 20-40 can lead to a decrease in the PAYG pension-system deficit by more than CZK 10 billion per year, which represents more than one-third of the annual deficit in the next 20-30 years.” NERV further states: “Public budgets also lose a large amount of tax and social-security revenues as a result of female unemployment. A long absence from the labour market during parenthood leads to degradation of human capital, reducing also the life-long career opportunities of women. Awareness of these facts also makes women postpone motherhood and reduces their willingness to have more children or to have any children at all.”
The Czech Republic has a lot of progress to make in this area as work opportunities for mothers with small children are still very limited. “To resolve this issue, making appeals to the Czech government is not enough. An active approach of employers and, naturally, the willingness of female employees to return to work after giving birth are also necessary,” says Jana Vyhlídalová, founder of the Plenkyvpraci.cz association. It is clear that women with small children will require other forms of employment that will allow them to combine the childcare with their career. For this reason, Plenkyvpraci.cz, APERIO (Healthy Parenting Association) and T-Mobile have decided to draw attention to this issue in the form of specialised conferences dedicated to women on maternity leave and flexible work arrangements.
The first of these is the conference titled “Work from Home” that will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on 14 July 2011 at the T-Mobile building at Tomíčkova 1, Prague 4 – Roztyly. The conference is intended largely for people working in HR. Participants will learn for which type of companies work from home is suitable, as well as what its advantages and pitfalls are. Speakers from T-Mobile, ČSOB, Workline and LMC will share their experience with this type of employment. An interesting part of the conference will surely be a panel discussion in which not only representatives of the above-mentioned companies, but also a lawyer, and representatives of the Czech-Moravian Chamber of Trade Unions and the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic will take part.
For more information, please go to www.plenkyvpraci.cz; registration forms are available at konference@aperio.cz. Attendance is free.