Hoje é o Dia Internacional da Família. Das Famílias, aliás, porque as há com todas as formas e feitios. Cada uma sempre original e em permamente reinvenção.
Este Dia foi escolhido em 1992 pela Assembleia Geral das Nações Unidas e desde há alguns anos que o Secretário-Geral escolhe um tema específico e prepara uma mensagem especial para a ocasião. Este ano o tema é "Ensuring work family balance". Deixo-vos as palavras de Ban Ki-moon.
"This year’s International Day of Families highlights the need for work-family balance. The aim is to help workers everywhere provide for their families financially and emotionally, while also contributing to the socio-economic development of their societies.
Current trends underscore the growing importance of work-family policies. These include greater participation by women in the labour market, and growing urbanization and mobility in search for jobs. As families become smaller and generations live apart, extended kin are less available to offer care, and employed parents face rising challenges.
Millions of people around the world lack decent working conditions and the social support to care for their families. Affordable quality childcare is rarely available in developing countries, where many parents are forced to leave their preschool children home alone. Many young children are also left in the care of older siblings who, in turn, are pulled from school.
A number of countries offer generous leave provisions for mothers and fathers. Many more, however, extend few comprehensive benefits in line with international standards. Paternity leave provisions are still rare in the majority of developing countries.
Flexible working arrangements, including staggered working hours, compressed work schedules or telecommuting, are becoming more widely available – but there is much room for improvement everywhere. I am committed to this in our own organization, where we are currently looking at our own arrangements, and seeing what we can do better.
We need to respond to the ever-changing complexities of work and family life. I welcome the establishment of family-friendly workplaces through parental leave provisions, flexible working arrangements and better childcare.
Such policies and programmes are critical to enhancing the work-family balance. These actions can also lead to better working conditions, greater employee health and productivity, and a more concerted focus on gender equality.
Work-family balance policies demonstrate both a government’s commitment to the well-being of families and the private sector’s commitment to social responsibility.
On this International Day of Families, let us renew our pledge to promote workfamily balance for the benefit of families and society at large."
Um feliz dia para todas as famílias! Não só hoje. Porque se o Natal é sempre que um homem quiser, como escreveu Ary dos Santos, então o Dia da Família também pode ser todos os outros dias do ano.
ADC