These are changing times. We live in an age when high quality goods and services are demanded outside of normal working or opening hours.

Competitiveness, flexibility and quality services are key concepts in the organisation of work today – as are job security, job satisfaction and fairness.

The successful employer, private or public, has to deliver on all these. This means

• involving staff in decisions about change
• making sure their needs and aspirations are considered
• winning their commitment to new ways of working.

One of the most essential ingredients in the organisation of work is time:

• when we work
• for how long
• how we balance working time with time outside of work.

These are difficult issues which we have to resolve in the UK:

• British workers work the longest hours in Europe
• stress is the greatest cause of absence from work
• many organisations have not introduced family-friendly working, despite encouragement from government and positive reports from organisations which have.

Family-friendly concerns are not the only consideration – finding the time for learning, or taking part in community life, are equally powerful motivators for balancing life at work with life outside.

The most recent documents available in this 'TUC in action' area are:

TUC launches new guide to family friendly working
The TUC has today (Tuesday) launched a new guide on how to persuade employers of the benefits of introducing family friendly policies at work.

Changing Times News 110 Jan 2010
TUC Monthly Work/Life Balance

Changing times news 109 October 2009
TUC Monthly Work/Life Balance Newsletter. We are looking for your views on this newsletter. What is good and bad about Changing Times and how do you use the information that we provide? What more could the TUC do on work-life balance issues? We need your views to help us take decisions about our future work in this area. You can respond to the survey at http://www.cesi.org.uk/about_us/tuc_survey_oct09.htm

Skills: Recession & Recovery Project launch 19th February 2010 for Trade Union Representatives and Union Learning Reps
In response to the economic downturn, Unionlearn has set up the Skills: Recession and Recovery Project to ensure that unions have help in supporting their members through recession and redundancy and on the way to recovery. The project is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) through the Union Learning Fund (ULF) and therefore, will also add value to unions’ ULF funded projects which have adopted responding to the recession as one of the themes for their projects.