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E
nsuring
W
ork
-F
amily
B
alance
Best practice: Family-friendly Company certificate
The state wishes to stimulate employers to take a more active role
in making it easier to balance the professional and personal life of
parents by issuing the Family-friendly Company certificate.
The certification procedure is organized and run by the Ekvilib
Institute, which awards certificates in cooperation with the Ministry
of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities. With
the assistance of an external counsellor or appraiser, a plan
to introduce measures is devised in a company to improve the
management of working processes and the quality of the working
environment in order to make balancing professional and family life
easier. Following a positive assessment of the plan to implement
selected measures by the council of auditors, the company acquires
the Family-friendly Company certificate. An assessment is carried
out after three years, to ascertain whether the measures have
been implemented and objectives attained. If this is the case, the
company acquires the full Family-friendly Company certificate. Over
130 Slovenian companies and organizations have so far acquired
the certificate, which indicates that it motivates employers.
kindergartens, which makes them part of the public network,
and thus the same conditions apply to them as to public
kindergartens. Other private kindergartens without conces-
sions are financed by municipalities to the extent that parents
do not have to pay more for the programme than they would
pay for the same type of programme in a public kindergarten
within the municipality.
The data show a high inclusion in kindergartens, which
has been constantly rising. In 2011, 55.3 per cent of
children in the first age group (up to three years of age)
were included in kindergartens. This greatly exceeds the
Barcelona objectives of the European Union for that age
group, which anticipated 33 per cent of children by 2010.
In the second age group, we have almost met the Barcelona
objectives, which anticipate 90 per cent inclusion of chil-
dren from three years of age to the beginning of school,
with 89.3 per cent inclusion.
One of the reasons for the high inclusion of children in
kindergartens is the subsidization of programmes. The amount
parents have to pay is determined on the basis of classifying
a family into an income class. Those with lower incomes are
exempt from payment. The second advantage is that parents
who have two or more children included in kindergarten pay
30 per cent of the price of care for the second child and are
exempt from payment for each subsequent child.
The high inclusion of children in kindergartens is also
connected with the relatively well-developed and dispersed
spatial network of kindergartens, which is seen in the data
from the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of
Slovenia from 2010 showing that the majority of parents
spend less than 15 minutes on accompanying children
to kindergartens. In addition, it is characteristic of the
Slovenian environment that the inclusion of children in
kindergartens is understood as the norm. Childcare in
kindergartens is the most desired form of childcare, as
the programmes of preschool education and their positive
influence on the children’s development are considered to
be of high quality.
A lower share of children is still not included in kinder-
garten, either because there was no space for them within
the organized preschool education system or because their
parents chose not to send them. Informal support is a very
important mode of support for these parents, as private child-
care at home and baby-sitters are not often made use of. In this
respect, grandparents are especially important. Their support
is also noticeable in the temporary and holiday childcare of
preschool as well as primary school children.
Another important measure of the policy on the work-
family balance refers to the arrangement of parental leave,
of which four types are possible in Slovenia: maternity leave,
paternity leave, childcare leave and adopter’s leave.
Maternity leave is the mother’s non-transferable right
(under certain conditions, it may also be used by the child’s
father or another person). It is intended for preparation for the
birth, childcare immediately after birth, and for the protection
of the mother’s health upon the birth and after. The period
is 105 days.
Paternity leave is intended for fathers to be with a young
child and cooperate with the mother in childcare and, like
maternity leave, is non-transferable. The father is entitled to
90 days of paternity leave, the first 15 of which must be taken
before the child is six months old, while the other 75 days
may be taken before the child is three years old. This was
introduced in 2003. Since then, the number of fathers who
take paternity leave has grown significantly.
Most fathers take leave of up to 15 days, while signifi-
cantly fewer take more than 15 days. The reason is most
probably that the first 15 days of leave are fully paid (100
per cent salary compensation), while the state pays only for
social security contributions based on the minimum wage
for leave exceeding 15 days. Considering the conclusions
of the research on the effect of the applicable measures of
family policy on the decision to have children, carried out
by the Social Protection Institute of the Republic of Slovenia
in 2010, one of the reasons for not taking paternity leave
is connected with the disapproval of employers, mainly
private. In addition, fathers do not exercise this right due to
fear of losing their jobs, which is especially obvious in a time
of recession and great socioeconomic insecurity. Perhaps
the recession is the reason for the noticeable slight decline
in paternity leave in the last two years in comparison with
previous periods, when the number of fathers taking pater-
nity leave increased each year.
Childcare leave is intended for further childcare, and
may be taken by the parents immediately after the mater-
nity leave has ended. It is generally for 260 days and the
parents agree on how to use the leave. Part of the leave (a
maximum of 75 days) may be transferred and taken before
the child is eight years old.
The majority of childcare leave is taken by mothers,
as the belief that caring for small children is primarily
a woman’s task is still deeply rooted. It is encouraging,
however, that the number of fathers taking childcare leave
has been growing in recent years. According to the data of
the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal
Opportunities, 921 fathers took the leave in 2006 and as
many as 1,517 in 2012, which indicates a shift towards
practices of more active fatherhood.