Changing Times News * Number 96 * 30 June 2008
CONTENTS
Changing Times News is the TUC's fortnightly online bulletin on work-life balance issues. Visit the website at http://www.tuc.org.uk/changingtimes
Edited by Rory O'Neill of Hazards magazine. Comments to Jo Morris. To unsubscribe or subscribe to this bulletin, click here. Past issues are available
Union news: Promising future for union equality reps * Unions back enhanced equality rep role * Action call on women's poverty pay * Diversity pays at work * Unwelcome return of the long hours culture * Mixed progress on agency and hours laws
Other news: Harman reveals equality action plan * Equality measures get a warm response * Big break for working carers * Forum helps employers to support carers * Work-life balance better than cash * News in brief
Resources: The value of women's work * Interactive online guide to flexible working
International news: Australia: Workers get flexible working rights * Canada: Government gets failing grade on childcare * Global: ILO launches gender equality campaign * USA: McCain crosses 'Magnificently overqualified mothers' * Global round-up
UNION NEWS
Promising future for union equality reps
The government has 'great hopes' for union equality reps, a cabinet minister has said. Harriet Harman, minister for women and equality, was speaking at a joint government/TUC conference on 24 June. According to the government, projects funded with more than £1million of cash from the Union Modernisation Fund 'are showing that equality reps deliver results and are helping people achieve fairness in the workplace.' Speaking at the conference, Harriet Harman said: 'I have great hopes for the role of trade union equality reps in the workplace.' She added: 'Today's conference is to hear about the good work already being developed on the ground and see how we can further support equality reps.' TUC Brendan Barber said: 'From fighting child poverty to helping more women break through the glass ceiling, union equality reps are making a difference where it really matters - in workplaces across the UK. Thanks to government funding, more workers are now benefiting from the specialised help that equality reps provide. Over the next few months, the TUC will train our growing army of equality reps to achieve even greater changes at work.' TUC says union equality reps perform vital workplace functions including promoting equality and diversity issues, helping to carry out equal pay audits and helping to create a more equitable work-life balance.
Government Equalities Office news release.
Unions back enhanced equality rep role
Unions attending a joint government and TUC organised conference on the role of equality reps have praised their innovative role. Speaking at the 24 June event, Unite assistant general secretary Diana Holland said: 'Our extensive experience is that union equality reps are a breakthrough for equality in the workplace. They help turn rights into equality, and fairness and flexible working into action at work.' She added: 'In workplaces throughout Britain and Ireland, Unite union equality reps are making a difference for men and women seeking to balance work and family life. They help to tackle harassment and bullying at work as well as promoting disability equality, fair pay and equal access to training.' Lianne Venner, UNISON head of membership participation,' commented: 'Equality reps have a key role in spotting problems in the workplace early on and preventing escalation of issues.' But she added: 'Our view is that to bring about proper change in the workplace, equality reps need statutory time off.' UNISON is working to further develop the role of equality reps, Ms Venner said. 'In particular, we see they could have a key role in tackling the growing crisis of women who are not getting equal pay because of systemic pay discrimination.'
Unite news release. UNISON news release.
Action call on women's poverty pay
Tackling women's low pay is key to ending child poverty in the UK, according to a new TUC report. 'The iron triangle' draws together research from the TUC, the End Child Poverty coalition and the Fawcett Society and concludes women's low pay not only causes their poverty, but also has huge implications for their children's living standards. It says half of all poor children - 1.4 million - are being raised in working households, and a clear majority of children in poverty (57 per cent) live in a family where one or more adults have jobs, with working women far more likely than men to be in low paid jobs. The TUC briefing reveals that 30 per cent of working women have an income of less than £100 a week, compared to just 14 per cent of men. Women are also far more likely to work in poorly paid part-time jobs - more than 75 per cent of part-time workers are female - with an average hourly wage of £9.65, and a 35.6 per cent pay gap with male part-timers. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The government has promised to end child poverty by 2020. But the number of children in poverty has risen over the last two years. It's vital the government tackles low pay and takes action to stop discrimination against mothers now.' Mr Barber added: 'This is why we are calling on unions to support the End Child Poverty coalition's national demonstration - Keep the Promise - on 4 October.'
TUC news release and report, The iron triangle [pdf]. Campaign to End Child Poverty. TUC Commission on Vulnerable Employment.
Diversity pays at work
Companies that encourage diversity in the workplace can reap big business benefits including tackling skills shortages, boosting morale and productivity, and cutting recruitment costs, according to a new report backed by unions and employers. 'Talent not tokenism', a joint TUC/CBI report says employers prepared to employ staff on the basis of ability and potential, regardless of age, sex, race, religion, disability or sexual orientation, also gain a better understanding of customers' needs and the ability to reach untapped markets. In addition, the TUC/CBI report says they benefit from higher morale and productivity, improved retention rates and lower recruitment costs. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The issue is not whether business can afford to diversify, but whether it can afford not to.' He added: 'Employers wanting to diversify the workplace will always find unions a willing ally. Diversity policies work best when the entire workplace is involved. Our growing network of equality reps in workplaces across the UK are helping deliver diversity from the boardroom to the shop floor.' Minister for equality Harriet Harman commented: 'I welcome the work that the TUC and the CBI have done together on this guide. Equality and diversity is not just right in principle, but is necessary for Britain to be a modern and successful economy. This guide will be important and I look forward to seeing it used by businesses and public services alike.'
TUC news release. CBI news release. Talent not tokenism: The business benefits of workforce diversity [pdf].
Equality and Human Rights Commission news release. The Guardian. Personnel Today. Pink News. People Management. Western Mail.
Unwelcome return of the long hours culture
An extra 180,000 people across the UK are now working more than 48 hours a week, according to a TUC analysis of official statistics. The figures, included in a new TUC report, 'The return of the long hours culture', show the number of people working long hours has increased at a faster rate over the last year than the decline in excessive working between 1998 and 2006. In the first quarter of 2008, the total number of people working long hours increased by 0.5 per cent -180,000 people - to 3.3 million, the report says. It argues that the recent increase in the number of people working long hours is due to the challenging economic climate, which has made employers more reluctant to recruit new staff and instead work existing employees harder. The analysis also finds that 85 per cent of new long hours workers are male. The TUC believes that this trend, in which senior jobs are increasingly reliant on long hours, could hamper efforts to close the pay gap, as women with childcare responsibilities are likely to be excluded from these roles. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber commented: 'After slow but steady progress over the last decade, long hours working is making its way back into Britain's workplaces. Employees across the UK already work the longest hours in Western Europe and the recent increase will mean lower productivity, more stress and less time to have a life outside the office with friends and family.'
TUC news release and report, The return of the long hours culture [pdf]. The Guardian.
Mixed progress on agency and hours laws
The UK government will keep its opt-out from the European Union's 48 hour weekly work ceiling, but has agreed a series of improvements to working time rules. A June meeting of the EU's Employment and Social Affairs Council also reached an agreement on the agency workers directive, which provides new protection for temporary workers. The UK agency workers' rights will be based on an agreement struck in May by the government, the CBI and the TUC. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the deal agreed at the June meeting of EU ministers, which now goes before the European Parliament, 'adds up to good news for people at work in the UK. The agreement on agency work is a major step forward in delivering a fair deal at work for UK agency workers and a real breakthrough on an issue that has been stalled at EU level for many years.' He added: 'While we are disappointed that the UK opt-out on the 48 hour working week remains, there has been real progress on other working time issues. Employers will no longer be able to put pressure on staff to sign away their working time protection for four weeks and there will be an absolute limit of a 60 hour average week for most of the workforce - affecting more than 400,000 workers. All these measures have been opposed by employer lobby groups. Nor has the UK government won a permanent opt-out, despite its energetic campaign. The opt-out will be reviewed again in the future. While there will need to be detailed negotiations, and attention to the small print, the EU has once again proved an important route to better working conditions and employment rights.' The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) and the Socialist Group of MEPs in the European Parliament have both said they will challenge the working time compromise. Socialist Group spokesperson Stephen Hughes described the deal as 'a setback for Europe'. Alejandro Cercas, socialist rapporteur on the working time directive, added that ministers had 'failed to take on board demands from European trades unions and civil society organisations that asked for working time to be organised in a way that protects the health and safety of workers and allows the reconciliation of the family and professional life.'
TUC news release and briefing on changes to working time rules. ETUC news release. Socialist Group of MEPs news release. BERR news release. CBI news release. The Guardian.
OTHER NEWS
Harman reveals equality action plan
Equality minister Harriet Harman has set out plans to allow firms to discriminate in favour of female and ethnic minority job candidates. The new Equalities Bill will also force public sector employers to disclose the gender pay gap in their organisation, but places no equivalent duty on private firms. The plans, which will be adopted in England, Wales and Scotland, will also ban age discrimination. The new act will bring together all previous discrimination law into a single piece of legislation. The government says legislation is needed because inequality and discrimination still exist. It says women are paid on average 12.6 per cent less per hour than men; disabled people are two and a half times more likely to be out of work, and ethnic minorities a fifth less likely to find work; and two thirds of over-fifties feel that they are turned down for a job because they are too old. In a statement to the Commons, Ms Harman said the proposed bill would increase fairness and diversity. Allowing 'positive action' would help organisations such as the police better reflect the communities they serve by recruiting more female and ethnic minority officers, said Ms Harman. The new law will also give women the right to breastfeed in public and outlaw 'homophobic bullying' in the workplace. Ms Harman said: 'We have made progress on tackling unfairness against women and black and Asian people and people with disabilities. But we want to do more. This is why we're introducing the Equality Bill, which will streamline and strengthen the law.' She added: 'Equality is not just right in principle, but is necessary for Britain to be a modern and thriving economy; diversity makes us outward facing and helps us compete in the global economy.'
Government Equalities Office news release. Equality Bill, Hansard, 26 June 2008. Framework for a fairer future [pdf].
BBC News Online. Daily Mail. The Scotsman.
Equality measures get a warm response
The government's Equality Bill has been generally well received by union, policy and employers' organisations. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said the legislation 'if implemented fully, will help millions of people to reach their potential at work.' He added: 'Beefing up the equality duties to include all major forms of discrimination will give unions the tools they need to deliver real equality where it really matters, on the shop floor. Using procurement to promote equality - an industry now worth £150 billion a year - should also have a major impact on the private sector, where the gender pay gap is nearly nine percentage points higher.' STUC assistant secretary Mary Senior said the bill was 'very welcome', but added: 'It is disappointing that there is to be no requirement on all employers to conduct an equal pay audit to expose any discrimination in pay systems... The STUC also wanted to see statutory rights for trade union equality reps, so as they can work effectively with employers to combat discrimination and promote equality.' Cath Speight, acting head of equalities at Unite, said: 'Our workplaces need to look like our communities, reflecting the skills and diversities that can be seen there.' She added: 'These proposals are about making the most of the talents we have in our population and for this they are to be applauded.' CBI deputy director general John Cridland said 'the government's plans rightly concentrate on non-legal means of moving forward on equality - such as better use of public procurement and promoting positive action - and the CBI welcomes this.'
TUC news release. STUC news release. Unite news release. CIPD news release. CBI news release.
Big break for working carers
Unions and campaigners have welcomed a government initiative which will give carers more help with employment and more frequent short breaks. The revised National Carers Strategy commits the government to spending £255 million in the short term to improve the lives of carers. The package includes an extra £150 million to enable more carers to take planned breaks. The strategy also sets out the government's longer term vision including a commitment to tackling financial hardship and making it easier for carers to combine paid work with their caring role. Equalities minister Harriet Harman said: 'It's important that people caring for older or disabled family members don't have to give up their job. Only 7 per cent of people know that carers have the right to request flexible working. That's why [the government] will launch a major awareness raising campaign later this year.' Carers have had the right to request flexible working since April 2007. Some advocacy organisations are calling for more from the government, including making Carers' Allowance available to more low income workers. Retail union Usdaw wants the rate of benefit to be improved and changes to the earnings rule so that working carers don't lose their entire entitlement where they earn over £95 a week. John Hannett, Usdaw general secretary and a member of the Standing Commission on Carers, said: 'The government recognises that there is more to be done in the areas in which Usdaw has been campaigning and we will continue to press for an increase in the £50 per week Carers' Allowance, which is currently the lowest benefit of its kind in the UK, and push for it to be tapered so that low income carers in paid work will continue to be able to claim.' Imelda Redmond, chief executive of charity Carers UK, said: 'This is an important step forward for carers, backed up with more than £255m of new investment and groundbreaking new initiatives. However, we are disappointed there is no immediate financial help for the hundreds of thousands of carers who rely on benefits.'
Department of Health news release and National Strategy for Carers. Usdaw news release. Carers UK news release and Right care, Right deal campaign. Personnel Today. BBC News Online.
Forum helps employers to support carers
A new national forum is aiming to help employers meet the needs of working carers. Employers for Carers will work with the national charity Carers UK to develop a service for employers seeking to support the one in seven members of the UK workforce who are also carers. The forum will promote the business benefits of supporting carers in the workplace. It will also seek to influence employment policy and practice to create a culture which supports carers in and into work and will work with the government on help implement the new National Strategy for Carers. Imelda Redmond, chief executive of Carers UK, said: 'Currently 1 in 5 carers give up work to care, but in a competitive world we cannot afford to have men and women who want to work unable to carry on. Employers who support carers in their workforce will be rewarded with the loyalty and hard work of a talented group of people. Employers for Carers will show them how to do this.'
Carers UK news release. Employers for Carers. Personnel Today.
Work-life balance better than cash
A strong interest in the job and a good work-life balance are more important to workers than the size of their pay packet, a survey suggests. In a City and Guilds survey of 1,000 people, 57 per cent said they had remained with their present employer because they had a strong interest in what they did. A similar proportion (56 per cent) stay because of good relationships with colleagues and almost half (48 per cent) of the UK's workforce appreciates their work-life balance. All three factors came ahead of pay, with only 44 per cent saying they stayed in a job for the salary. 'With a clear impact on the bottom line, improving workplace happiness is rising up the business agenda and employers cannot afford to ignore it,' said City and Guilds managing director Bob Coates. 'Companies can no longer rely on those established reward and recognition policies that fail to resonate with employees and do little to combat stress levels in the workplace. By taking such a blinkered approach, they risk the rise of an unmotivated and unproductive workforce, and even potentially losing their staff to competitors.' Lancaster University work organisation expert Professor Cary Cooper worked with City and Guilds to analyse the findings. 'The City & Guilds Happiness Index provides a call to action for the business community to rethink its reward and recognition strategies and consider employees' needs on an individual basis,' he said. 'From now on a flexible approach is needed if businesses are to create a happy, and by association productive, workforce.'
City and Guilds news release and 2008 Happiness Index. BBC News Online.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Train time: The TUC has welcomed government plans that should see workers in England given a new legal right to request time to train at work. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'If it proves as successful as the right to request flexible working has been, then millions of workers across the UK could find themselves on courses that will update their skills, making them not only more productive, but also in a better position to move on up into more highly paid, better skilled jobs.' Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills news release. TUC news release. BBC News Online.
Childcare vouchers: Threequarters of organisations now offer childcare voucher schemes, but staff take-up remains low due to poor communication. A Personnel Today survey found that in half of the 700 organisations who responded to the survey take-up of childcare vouchers was less than 6 per cent and only 9 per cent of organisations reported more than 30 per cent staff take-up of the vouchers. Personnel Today.
Vulnerable workers: The TUC Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE) met with prime minister Gordon Brown on 4 June to present the Commission's final report to the government. Speaking after the meeting, TUC general secretary and CoVE chair Brendan Barber said he hoped to see the government introduce 'practical actions' to address problems, adding: 'The prime minister clearly acknowledged that these unacceptable abuses have to be tackled.' TUC news release. CoVE website.
University challenge: Lecturers have agreed to 'name and shame' any universities and colleges which fail to implement anti-discrimination law. Delegates to the May conference of lecturers' union UCU also agreed that discrimination watchdog the Equality and Human Rights Commission should be pressed to serve compliance notices on the worst offenders and see they are prosecuted if fail to introduce race, gender and disability equality schemes and action plans as required by law. UCU news release.
Pay time: Teaching union NUT says a proper work-life balance for every teacher is good for staff and good for the children they teach but is hampered by long hours and low pay. Acting general secretary Christine Blower said: 'Excessive workload and the erosion of teachers' pay are issues which affect every teacher and can unite the teaching profession.' NUT news release.
Depressing overload: If you work a lot of overtime, especially on low income or doing heavy manual labour, you're at increased risk of anxiety and depression. Norwegian researchers found the problems increased from 9 per cent for regular hours to 12.5 per cent for long hours; for women, depression increased from 7 per cent to 12 per cent with overtime. Elisabeth Kleppa, Bjarte Sanne and Grethe S Tell. Working overtime is associated with anxiety and depression: The Hordaland Health Study, Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, volume 50, number 6, pages 658-666, June 2008 [abstract]. Philadelphia Enquirer.
You loos: A meat company supplying Tesco has been accused of 'Dickensian employment practices' by making workers clock off when they go the toilet. The union Unite is now calling on Tesco to intervene to stamp out the practice at Dumfriesshire-based Brown Brothers. Unite news release. BBC News Online. Hazards magazine toilet breaks webpages
Start caring: Employment conciliation service ACAS is urging employers to help carers within their companies or organisations. Head of training Gill Trevelyan said: 'Employers should be aware of anyone in their organisation who has caring responsibilities and make sure they are familiar with the regulations and any company policies that apply to carers.' ACAS news release.
Cyberslacking works: Checking personal emails in the office and even researching a holiday on company time can make employees happier and more productive at work. R Kelly Garrett, a professor of communications at Ohio State University, said: 'It's appropriate to just avoid the knee-jerk response that all personal internet use is detrimental.' The Telegraph.
Work seen: A survey of UK office workers commissioned by Microsoft Windows Mobile found the number of employers offering mobile working had fallen by 10 per cent to under half all firms surveyed. 'With fears over jobs and the economy, more workers - especially middle managers and below - are shunning mobile working, preferring to be seen in the office regardless of whether that is the best location for them to work,' said Microsoft spokesperson James McCarthy. Personnel Today.
RESOURCES
The value of women's work
'Winning Equal Pay: the value of women's work' is a new part of 'The Union Makes Us Strong website'. Created by London Metropolitan University and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), the learning resource includes teachers' notes and a Unionlearn tutors' pack. The website includes filmed interviews with women who fought for and won equal pay, hundreds of images and documents from the TUC library collections, plus contributions from historians and other experts.
Winning Equal Pay website. Equality and Human Rights Commission news release.
Interactive online guide to flexible working
A new web tool designed to help senior professionals and their managers has been launched by the charity Working Families. It says 'Work Re-tune' is an interactive website designed to help senior employees and their employers to understand, negotiate and, where possible, implement more flexibility in their roles. There are two 'views', one for employees and one for managers. These include advice on types of flexible arrangement, negotiation and implementation, rights and responsibilities, the legal position and case studies. Users work through a series of questions which help them to assess opportunities, barriers and concerns, both personal and professional, when considering a change to their work patterns. The initiative to help senior managers is backed by government cash. Barbara Follett, deputy minister for women and equalities, said: 'Flexible working allows people to make real choices in their work and family life. There are already 14 million people working flexibly in the United Kingdom and we expect an extra 4.5 million to do so after the government's recent announcement that the right to request will be extended to parents with children up to the age of 16.' Work Re-tune is worth taking a look at, even if you aren't at the already better served loftier levels in your firm - remember, what's sauce for the goose...
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australia: Workers get flexible working rights
A tranche of new family-friendly work rights in Australia will include a right for mums and dads to claim up to two years of shared parental leave and still get their old jobs back. Under new employment standards, both parents will now get the right to 12 months' unpaid parental leave, as long as they don't take it at the same time. From January 2010, employers will have to hold their jobs open and will not be able to refuse requests. The Rudd government's National Employment Standards, published on 16 June, guarantee 10 basic rights to all workers. These include: maximum weekly hours of work; a right to request flexible working arrangements; parental leave and related entitlements; and personal, carers' and compassionate leave. 'These new national employment standards are a real safety net for working Australians which cannot be stripped away - fairer for workers, simpler for employers,' prime minister Kevin Rudd said. Union federation ACTU said the changes were a win for families. 'Unions have been pushing for parents to have access to two years of leave after the birth of a child and to be able to work flexibly or part-time,' ACTU secretary Jeff Lawrence said. 'It's good to see Australian families will soon be able to do this.' He added, however, 'ACTU believes the government could have gone further by putting an onus on employers to give fair consideration to the requests of employees and for workers to be able to appeal unreasonable refusals.' He said: 'In the future, unions will be looking for improvements to these minimum standards. We will particularly be looking for a new basic entitlement of paid maternity leave for women workers.'
ACTU news release. Herald Sun. New Employment Standards.
Canada: Government gets failing grade on childcare
Canada's federal government has been given a failing grade for its lack of action on providing working parents with more access to affordable, quality childcare spaces. Barbara Byers, executive vice-president of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), commented: 'They aren't getting the job done for working parents. Fees are going up. New spaces are being created at a much slower pace than before. Wages for childcare workers continue to range from fair to far too low. Provincial governments could do so much more if the federal government was there with stable, predictable funding and support.' She added: 'It's an undeniable fact: the vast majority of today's Canadian moms are working moms. More than 65 per cent of women with children under three years old work outside the home. Meanwhile, 75 per cent of women with pre-school kids (between three and five years old) are in the paid workforce.' Despite this clear demand for services, said Byers, only 16 per cent of children in Canada had access to a regulated child care space in 2004. The CLC's childcare report cards are part of its 'Equality! Once and for all!' campaign.
CLC news release and childcare report car report [pdf]. Equality! Once and for all! campaign.
Global: ILO launches gender equality campaign
The International Labour Organisation (ILO) has launched a one-year global campaign to promote gender equality at work. It says its campaign is built around 12 different 'decent work' themes, examining how the world of work may affect women and men in different ways. 'Mainstreaming gender equality is central to the ILO's Decent Work Agenda,' said ILO director-general Juan Somavia. 'Although progress is being made, gender equality is still lagging behind in the rapidly changing world of work. By increasing overall awareness and understanding of gender equality issues, we can actively contribute to securing Decent Work for all women and men.' The campaign will culminate with a discussion on the issue at the International Labour Conference in June 2009. 'During the next 12 months we will actively reach out to our constituents and other international partners, provide information on different themes and facilitate access to a body of material that the ILO has developed on gender equality around the world,' said Evy Messell, director of the ILO's Bureau for Gender Equality.
ILO news release and Gender equality at the heart of decent work, Campaign 2008-2009 webpages. ILO Bureau for Gender Equality.
USA: McCain crosses 'Magnificently overqualified mothers'
Ten women, some accompanied by their children, delivered a big message to senator John McCain on 17 March. The Washington DC-area mothers, all sporting 'Magnificently Overqualified Mother' sashes, handed more than 9,000 résumés to McCain's office on Capitol Hill to show him that women are well-trained, highly educated and qualified and should be paid the same as men for doing the same work. In late April, McCain didn't even bother to show up when a minority of primarily Republican senators once again made it harder for women workers to overcome pay discrimination, when a fair pay bill was blocked. Senator McCain said instead of legislation, women just need 'education and training.' The campaign to educate senator McCain, headed by women at MomsRising.org, called on women to sign a petition and send in their résumés to the presidential candidate. More than 20,000 women signed the petition and 9,000 sent in résumés. MomsRising.org executive director Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner commented: 'It's a shame that senator McCain doesn't understand that pay discrimination is not about qualifications or education. But our members are happy to let him know that there are millions of women who are extremely qualified and well trained who simply aren't being treated fairly in the workplace.'
MomsRising.org campaign. AFL-CIO Now.
GLOBAL ROUND-UP
Lab mothers: Women in science and engineering in the US are seeing their careers damaged when they have children. A new book, 'Motherhood, the elephant in the laboratory', aims to show though case histories how women can succeed in the highly competitive and often male dominated laboratory environment. Motherhood, the elephant in the laboratory: Women scientists speak out, Emily Monosson (Editor), ISBN: 978-0-8014-4664-1, ILR Press.
Casual progress: New Zealand's government has announced its intention to beef up employment protection for temporary and casual workers and to run an awareness campaign to make sure casuals were aware of their rights. Helen Kelly, president of the union federation NZCTU, welcomed the move, adding it 'will be a real help for casual and temporary workers to get the rights at work that the rest of the workforce have won.' NZCTU news release.
Break call: Increased provisions for meal, refreshment and breastfeeding breaks would improve the rights at work for Kiwi workers, the New Zealand's Council of Trade Unions told a May select committee. CTU secretary Carol Beaumont said many employers still denied workers meal and rest breaks, and added 'while some employers have come on board with breaks and facilities for breastfeeding mums, a guaranteed work right will help ensure this is more accessible.' NZCTU news release.
Woolworth praise: Australian union federation ACTU has praised supermarket chain Woolworths for its plans to introduce paid maternity leave for staff. From July, women who have held permanent positions for at least two years will be entitled to up to eight weeks' leave at full pay, prompting ACTU president Sharan Burrow to comment: 'This is good news, good news for the women, good news for their families of course, but also good news for Woolworths and the economy more broadly, as women are more easily able to return to work knowing that they've had a period of job security.' ACTU news release. ABC News. Herald Sun.
Failing fathers: Nearly one-third of US fathers feel they don't have the same level of access to work-life benefits as their colleagues. Recruitment specialists Adecco found that 70 per cent of fathers felt their access to a proper work-life balance was equal to that of their non-parent counterparts, and more than half felt employers need to do more to help them attain it. Adecco news release. Personnel Today.
Dutch dads: Two out of five fathers in Holland do not claim their statutory right to parental leave because they think it will hurt their career, according to new research from the national statistics office CBS. Women who did not take the extra leave said it was because it was financially disadvantageous - in total, one in 10 parents did not take the time off to which they were entitled. Dutch News.
Overwork killer: Toyota is taking steps to deal with a corporate culture that has been linked to deaths from overwork at the firm. The company is to pay workers overtime for attending out-of-hours 'kaizen' or quality control (QC) circle meetings; it had previously only allowed workers to claim two hours' overtime a month for such 'voluntary' activities. Asahi Shimbun. BBC News Online. More on karoshi and karojisatsu.
Newsletter (5,800 words) issued 30 Jun 2008
