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Changing Time News * Number 98 * 28 August 2008
Changing Times News is the TUC's monthly 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
CONTENTS
Union news: New bank holiday would benefit businesses * 'Dangerous' Euro working time proposals * Insecurity rife at work * Advice shortfall for vulnerable workers
Other news: Government acts on fair employment * Vulnerable work action falls short * Flexible working consultation kicks off * New group to advise on equality * Support for working mums declines * Parents positive on work role * Payout for mum fired after giving birth * Pipefitters win £20,000 payout * News in brief
Resources: TUC Organising at Work guide * Attractive workplaces for all
International news: Australia: Work-life pressure crunches families * Australia: Equality gap for Generation F * Global: Young workers and gender equality * Global round-up
UNION NEWS
New bank holiday would benefit businesses
Nearly one million UK businesses could benefit from a new bank holiday, according to a TUC report. TUC is calling for a 'Community Day' bank holiday in late October to celebrate and encourage volunteering and community activity. The TUC report - 'Why the UK can afford a Community Day' - says that many customer-facing businesses, such as those in the retail, hospitality, leisure, tourism and transport sectors, have stronger trading days on bank holidays and could benefit from a new public holiday. These sectors have grown over the last 40 years and now account for nearly a million UK businesses - over one fifth of the total - according to government VAT registrations. The report says that, as well as encouraging people to go on holidays and short breaks, bank holidays lead to more 'days out', which bring in £90 billion worth of spending a year to the economy in England alone. The TUC report also argues that all employers would benefit from the improved productivity, morale, health and well-being that it would give staff. The TUC believes these benefits vastly outweigh the cost of an extra day off work. The report was published ahead of the August bank holiday, after which workers in the UK will have a four month wait for the next bank holiday on Christmas Day. The TUC, along with leading voluntary organisations, is calling for the government to break this gap with a late October 'Community Day'. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'A new bank holiday would be very popular for Britain's workers, who have fewer public holidays than anyone else in Europe except Romania. But it could also bring in much needed revenue to around a million UK businesses.' He added: 'A Community day would encourage more people to take up volunteering for a day. In return, employers will have a healthier, happier and more productive workforce. We urge businesses, politicians and community groups to join us in our campaign for a new Community Day bank holiday.'
TUC news release. BBC News Online.
Community Day campaign. Why the UK can afford a Community Day, TUC report [pdf].
'Dangerous' Euro working time proposals
Entertainment industry union BECTU has described as 'dangerous' proposals before Europe's politicians which aim to cut working time protection for freelances. In the on-going European Union review of the Working Time Directive, proposers have suggested that there should be no protection on the length of the working week on contracts of 10 weeks or less. 'Many freelances work on short term contracts for different companies, none of which last for 10 weeks,' BECTU assistant general secretary, Martin Spence, said. 'If the proposal goes through, these freelance workers will have no legal protection against excessive hours.' The union says current rules provide freelance workers with a nominal entitlement not to work more than an average of 48 hours per week. It says in practice few benefit from this, so BECTU is fighting to get the rules strengthened. However, BECTU believes if the proposal now before European legislators goes through, the current entitlement will disappear entirely, and freelance workers 'can look forward to dangerously long hours for years to come.' BECTU said it will be working with unions across Europe to lobby for improvements, and to highlight evidence demonstrating the harmful impact of the tabled proposals. The review of the Working Time Directive is due to have its second reading in the European parliament in the autumn.
Insecurity rife at work
More than 3.3 million workers, 13 per cent of the workforce, are not confident they will still be in their job in a year's time, according to a new YouGov poll commissioned by the TUC. Workers in medium sized businesses are the least confident with 18 per cent of staff in firms with 50 to 249 workers saying they are not confident of being in their jobs in a year, compared to 12 per cent in big workplaces (more than 1,000 employees). Those in low paid jobs are less secure than those in better paid jobs, the poll found, with the least confident about keeping their job earning between £10,000 and £15,000 and the most confident earning more than £50,000. Union members were more optimistic than non-members, with 48 per cent of trade unionists very confident that they would be in their job in a year's time, compared to 40 per of workers not in a union. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber commented: 'These poll findings show just how many people are getting worried about losing their job in the current economic slowdown. Of course this does not mean that unemployment will rise by anything like three million, but it does show just how jittery people have become about the economy and their own job.' He added: 'The economy will inevitably slow this year and next, given the credit crunch and the impact of higher oil, food and commodity prices. But there is a real danger that if everyone thinks that the downturn will be deeper than it needs to be it will become a self-fulfilling prophecy. These findings add to the growing pressure on the government and economic policy makers to put growth first by doing all they can to restore confidence and boost investment.'
Advice shortfall for vulnerable workers
Hard pressed employment advisers are struggling to meet the needs of the UK's most vulnerable workers, a TUC report has revealed. Researchers from the Centre for Employment Studies Research at Bristol Business School, commissioned by the TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment (CoVE), interviewed employment advisers from Citizens Advice (CABx) and the law centres across the UK. The research highlights the extent of the problems that vulnerable workers face, frequently at the hands of 'repeat offenders'. It found 79 per cent of advisers receive reports of unfair dismissal weekly or more frequently. Two-thirds (67 per cent) receive reports of problems with pay weekly or more frequently and 60 per cent deal with problems with working time or contractual rights weekly or more frequently. These problems are concentrated in low paid sectors where most jobs are held by women, the study found, with agency workers also more likely to report problems. Advisers told the researchers that workers experiencing problems were most likely to work in private care homes, hotels and restaurants, hairdressing and beauty, wholesale and retail, or for cleaning companies. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'The study gives us a picture of vulnerable work through the lens of the two national agencies which provide free employment-rights advice and support to those without union representation. It is not a pretty picture. The TUC's Commission on Vulnerable Employment was shocked at the extent of abuses of employment rights reported by colleagues at Citizens Advice and the Law Centres. It is unacceptable that these practices exist today, and equally unfair that when they do, services to help vulnerable workers are left over-stretched and under-funded.' He said recent government moves to beef up coordination of efforts to protect vulnerable workers were welcome (see below), but added 'these positive developments also need to be accompanied by more resources - agencies need the capacity to take proactive work that prevents mistreatment at work from happening in the first place. Extending the Gangmasters Licensing Authority (GLA) to other low-paid sectors characterised by temporary work would also make a huge impact.'
TUC news release. CoVE research webpages.
OTHER NEWS
Government acts on fair employment
The government has launched a crackdown on rogue employers. Under the plan announced on 5 August, an information campaign will raise awareness of employment rights and workers will be able to call a special helpline to report mistreatment or illegal pay rates. A new Fair Employment Enforcement Board will coordinate the work of enforcement agencies that check that firms are not breaching minimum wage rules as well as those with responsibility for employment, gangmasters and health and safety. Pat McFadden, the employment relations minister, who chaired the Vulnerable Workers Enforcement Forum charged with developing the report, said: 'Compared to a decade ago there are three million more people in work in Britain and they all enjoy more employment rights than they would have in the past. Important minimum standards on wages, paid leave, maternity leave and conditions have been put in place. However, as the Forum found, there are still dark corners of the labour market where rogue employers seek to mistreat their workers and more needs to be done to safeguard people's rights.' The minister added: 'It is vital we boost awareness of employment rights and ensure those rights are properly enforced. There should be no hiding place for employers who exploit vulnerable workers and who are not prepared to obey the law. This is in the interests of workers themselves and, as was made clear by business representatives on the forum, it is in the interests of the reputable businesses who treat their workers fairly and obey the law.' Neil Carberry, CBI head of employment, said: 'This report is good news for law-abiding employers. Britain has a strong framework of employment rights and it is where these laws are flouted that employees are open to exploitation. Focusing on tackling non-compliance is the right choice for workers and businesses.'
BERR news release. CBI news release. The Guardian.
Vulnerable Workers Enforcement Forum. Vulnerable worker enforcement forum: final report and government conclusions [pdf].
Vulnerable work action falls short
Unions have welcomed the government's crackdown on exploitative employers, but say the measures do not go far enough. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said new measures, including allowing enforcement agencies such as the Health and Safety Executive and the minimum wage enforcement unit of HMRC to share data, would be helpful. But he added 'an opportunity has been missed to address the legal and regulatory flaws which keep two million workers in conditions which shame a modern economy.' He said he was also concerned at the failure to protect more workers from gangmaster exploitation. 'It is disappointing that ministers are not prepared to extend the coverage of the Gangmasters' Licensing Authority (GLA) to cover other vulnerable sectors such as construction, care and hospitality,' he said. Jim Kennedy, UCATT's national political officer and a member of the Vulnerable Workers Enforcement Forum that advised the government on the changes necessary to protect vulnerable workers, said: 'I am at a loss to understand the opposition to the licensing of gangmasters in the construction industry; we have produced a wealth of data that highlighted the endemic abuse of vulnerable workers by gangmasters in our industrial sector. UCATT is the only organisation to have produced such data with the employers' representatives (CBI and Construction Confederation) unable to counter this hard evidence.'
TUC news release. UCATT news release.
Flexible working consultation kicks off
The government has launched a consultation on proposals to extend workplace flexible working rights. The 26 August move follows the government's announcement that it would extend the right to request flexible working to parents with children who are 16 and under. Employment relations minister Pat McFadden said the consultation would seek views from business and suggest ways to reduce paperwork involved with flexible working requests. 'The right to request flexible working has worked well because it helps employees to balance their home and work lives, but at the same time gives employers the right to say no where there are legitimate business concerns,' he said. 'Parenting requirements don't end as children get older. We think it is right to extend this successful scheme and help parents of older children access the flexibility they need.' The consultation will also consider whether to scrap the requirement that employers write formally to staff to advise their request has been accepted. A campaign to increase awareness of the right to request flexible working is imminent, the government said. Sarah Jackson, chief executive of Working Families, welcomed the consultation. She said: 'The proposed extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children who are 16 or under will help many more families set up the combination of working and caring which their children need, and will also help many more employers to think and work more flexibly.'
BERR news release. The Telegraph.
BERR consultation document, closing date 18 November 2008 [pdf]. Walsh Review of the Right to Request Flexible Working [pdf]. Business Link flexible working webpages
New group to advise on equality
A new 'senior stakeholder group' is to advise the government on a new equality framework. The Government Equalities Office (GEO) said the group's brief will involve advising ministers on measures in the Equality Bill and accompanying non-legislative initiatives. The group includes senior figures from trade unions and business organisations including the CBI, the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, TUC and Press for Change. Jonathan Rees, director general of the GEO, will chair the group. He said: 'The equality agenda is for everyone: individuals and society. It is also the foundation of a strong, prosperous, and modern economy and even more important in the current economic position that we harness the abilities of all individuals, whatever their background.' He added: 'The group also embodies the commitment made when presenting our proposals in June and July to continue to engage widely with stakeholders, and to draw on their experience as we finalise our plans.' The group will meet monthly, from September 2008 until March 2009.
Cabinet Office news release. Personnel Today.
Support for working mums declines
Growing numbers of people are concerned about the impact of working mothers on family life, according to a study by Cambridge University academics. It compared results of social attitude polls from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. In 1998, 51 per cent of women and 45.9 per cent of men believed family life would not suffer if a woman went to work. This had fallen to 46 per cent of women and 42 per cent of men in 2002. The survey was conducted by Professor Jacqueline Scott from the university's department of sociology. She said the idea that support was steadily growing for women taking an equal role in the workplace, rather than their traditional role in the home, was 'clearly a myth'. She added: 'It is conceivable that opinions are shifting as the shine of the 'super-mum' syndrome wears off, and the idea of women juggling high-powered careers while also baking cookies and reading bedtime stories is increasingly seen to be unrealisable by ordinary mortals.' However, the survey also showed the numbers of people who believed it was the man's role to work and the wife's to look after the children had fallen. Jo Causon, director of corporate affairs at the Chartered Management Institute, commented: 'The British economy cannot afford not to have women in the workforce. Women make up 45 per cent of employees. In an age when we have significant skill shortages, we cannot miss out on any part of the talent pool.' Fawcett Society campaigns officer Kat Banyard said the long working hours culture and lack of flexible working means women are presented with impossible choices. She added: 'We need wholesale transformation. By making all roles flexible at every level, ending the long working hours culture, and challenging discriminatory attitudes, women and men could participate in the workplace on an equal footing and live free from stereotypes about whose role it is to do the caring. When that happens, business, the economy and society as a whole will all reap the benefits.'
University of Cambridge news release. Fawcett Society news release. BBC News Online. The Guardian. The Telegraph. The Observer. The Times.
Parents positive on work role
Seven out of ten working parents think having a job helps set a positive role model for their kids and gives them a good start in life, according to a poll undertaken by Jobcentre Plus with the readership of That's Life! magazine. The poll also found eight out of 10 mums surveyed think the main benefits of being in work are having more money to pay the bills and do things as a family. Although a third of the parents surveyed who don't work cited having to look after their children as the reason why they don't have a job, almost threequarters of parents felt that it was easy, or easier than expected, to return to work after having children. The majority responding to the poll felt skills learnt during parenthood - multitasking, organisation, time-management, problem solving and team working - were valuable in the workplace. The survey of 429 readers of That's Life! also revealed that, among other benefits, a third believe their children had a head start in school and had grown in confidence as a result of being in childcare while they were at work. As well as the benefits to their children and to family life, almost seven out of 10 parents report feeling happier in work than out of work and almost eight out of 10 parents claim that being in work makes them feel better about themselves. Over half of parents in work feel able to treat themselves with the money they are earning and have more fun and a social life with their work mates, the survey found.
Payout for mum fired after giving birth
A mother who was fired after giving birth has won more than £22,000 compensation. Louise Vickers, 36, earned more than £41,000 as payroll manager at a paper mill. But shortly after she had her third child, company officials went to her home and told her she was at risk of redundancy. She was sacked a few months later and replaced by a former student trainee who was paid just £10,000. Ms Vickers accused her bosses, Tullis Russell in Fife, of sex discrimination and firing her unfairly. On 29 July she was awarded nearly £22,500 in compensation at an employment tribunal. Her son Caiden was born by Caesarean on 5 July last year. Officials from Tullis Russell visited her at home on 17 August and she was then warned that her post could be made redundant. She was dismissed on 14 December. Her bosses had praised her work and had never previously questioned her salary. The Dundee employment tribunal noted that they had increased her pay by more than 33 per cent over five years. The tribunal ruled that Louise was a victim of sex discrimination.
Pipefitters win £20,000 payout
Five pipefitters have won a £20,000 payout after an employment agency made illegal deductions from their wages and refused them holiday pay. The men won their case at a Reading Employment Tribunal after bosses at Derby-based agency Accept failed to turn-up to contest the hearing. The tribunal ruled in August that Accept had illegally deducted money from their pay packets in 'administration fees' and had denied them holiday pay to which they were entitled. The men were working on a £200m waste for energy plant in Slough, Berkshire being built by the Japanese consortium Itochu/Takuma. One of the victorious pipefitters told trade paper Contract Journal: 'We were being exploited and decided we wouldn't stand for it anymore. They were taking money out of our wages for bogus admin fees and not giving us any holiday pay. Hopefully our win will show other lads in the industry that they don't have to put up with this.'
NEWS IN BRIEF
Unequal chance: Inequality is just as damaging to children as poverty, and harms their health, education and well-being. A TUC report, 'Poverty and inequality and children', warns that not only has this inequality in the UK grown over time, it is high compared to other European countries. TUC news release.
Bad prospects: Flexible working could soon become a casualty of the credit crunch, according to an employment expert. Julie Quinn, a partner at law firm Nabarro, commenting after BP scrapped its nine day fortnight, predicted that employers will be unable to keep offering a range of flexible working arrangements at a time when recruitment freezes and mass redundancies are sweeping across firms. Personnel Today.
Exploiting migrants: Female migrant workers are most at risk of not being paid minimum wage, according to TUC research. 'Migrant workers and vulnerable employment: a review of existing data' also found recent migrants work longer hours per week than most other workers - for example 55 per cent of recent migrants work 31-48 hours per week, and 15.4 per cent work more than 48 hours per week, compared to 48.3 per cent and 13 per cent of workers generally. TUC news release and CoVE research webpages.
Equality priority: Most employers have equality policies that go beyond the statutory requirements, according to an Employment Review survey of 150 private and public sector organisations. Flexible working was the most common measure by employers, with six in 10 offering more than is required by the law, and nearly half (47 per cent) offered to support family-friendly working. Personnel Today.
Working out: The charity Working Families is offering free help for firms whose employees could be missing out on their entitlement to tax credits. Lei Lau of Working Families said: 'In helping lower paid staff to boost their income through tax credits, employers will reduce employee stress, absence and turnover.' Working Families credits estimator.
Hard lesson: The working hours of deputy heads and heads of departments at secondary schools has increased dramatically over the last year. Data indicate hours may also soon increase for other members of the school staff, a report from the Office of Manpower Economics and the School Teachers' Review Body suggests. NUT news report.
Costly care: There has been a considerable increase in the cost of holiday childcare in almost all parts of Britain, according to the Daycare Trust's annual survey. Over half of local authorities reported that parents feel there is not enough holiday childcare, and in particular a lack of holiday childcare places for children 12 years old and over, and for disabled children. Daycare Trust news release and Facebook group.
RESOURCES
TUC Organising at Work guide
It's unions that brought you the weekend, shorter hours, better wages and leave entitlements and greater equality at work. But winning and maintaining better working conditions is only a possibility if people are organised - and that means unions recruiting new members and increasing the effectiveness of organised workplaces. 'Organising at work - Building stronger unions in the workplace' is a new organising resource from the TUC to assist workplace union reps and activists. It contains ideas to help union reps build union strength and increase the effectiveness of the union and participation in union activity by members.
TUC publication alert. Organising at work - Building stronger unions in the workplace [pdf]. Print copies can be ordered by emailing Joanne Adams in the TUC's Organisation and Recruitment Team.
Organising event: Building stronger unions: Organising the future, Tuesday, 14 October 2008, TUC, Congress House, Great Russell Street, London WC1B 3LS. To register for attendance and to receive further details of this event, email or phone Joanne Adams on 0207 467 1361.
IMF 'Precarious work affects us all' campaign websites.
Attractive workplaces for all
'Attractive workplace for all: A contribution to the Lisbon Strategy at company level', a project of the Dublin-based thinktank Eurofound, set out to identify and analyse company case studies from seven countries - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK - showing how the European Union's Lisbon strategy is being implemented on the ground at company level. It says the involvement of the social partners at company and sectoral level is a significant aspect of the development of these policies and their outcomes. The report looks at measures to improve skills, labour market participation of underemployed or excluded groups and work's rewards, and to move towards a 'balanced flexibility' and increased entrepreneurship.
Attractive workplace for all: Contributions to the Lisbon strategy at company level - publication notice, case histories and full report [pdf].
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
Australia: Work-life pressure crunches families
Long hours are hitting Australia's working families hard, a new study has found. Researchers at the University of South Australia's (UniSA) Centre for Work + Life found that men working long hours are suffering more from work life pressures, but women working the same hours as men have even worse outcomes. More than half of all those included in the representative national survey of 2,831 workers felt that work sometimes, often or almost always interfered with activities outside work. 'Work, life and workplace culture' co-author Professor Barbara Pocock commented: 'More than half of all people surveyed said they often or almost always felt rushed or pressed for time - that is six out of 10 women and seven out of 10 mothers.' She said while there seemed to be a lot of focus on work pressure for professional and managerial workers, the study results suggest low income households need attention too. The study found that workers who lack flexibility, have an unsupportive boss, are overloaded, put in long hours, or work different hours than they would prefer, have much worse work-life outcomes than others. 'What is interesting is that the much touted 'work flexibility' revolution of the past 20 years has just not delivered for many workers,' Professor Pocock said. 'We are hearing that long hours, weekend and night work, as well as casual work are delivering worse work-life outcomes.' She added: 'The strongest work-life effects arise from an unsupportive organisational culture and work overload, so employers who provide employee-centred flexibility and reasonable workloads can make a difference.'
UniSA news release. Work, life and workplace culture: the Australian work and life index 2008, Natalie Skinner and Barbara Pocock, Centre for Work + Life, University of South Australia, 2008 [pdf]. The Age. Sydney Morning Herald.
Australia: Equality gap for Generation F
Women of working age are a neglected labour resource and over one in 10 have been driven from their jobs by a lack of work-life balance, new Australian research has shown. An Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency (EOWA) report, 'Generation F: Attract, engage, retain', has identified that women aged between 16 and 65 - dubbed Generation F - remain significantly overlooked, under utilised and untapped. Despite record education levels and rising numbers of women entering the labour market, the EOWA research found that employers are failing to provide workplaces that enable women to fully participate and fuel the growth in the Australian economy. Two of the five most common reasons for women to leave their previous jobs were a difficulty in progressing (17 per cent) and lack of clear career development (15 per cent), which they rated as extremely important when choosing a workplace. A quarter of women surveyed did not feel that their current employers provide them with a career path and 16 per cent did not believe they were afforded sufficient learning and development opportunities. The study found that despite a shift in focus away from careers and towards families and work-life balance by men and women across all income, education and lifestyle groups - workplaces are still not providing the level of flexibility required. It revealed that 83 per cent of women consider organisational support of work-life balance to be important yet 45 per cent believe their organisations does not genuinely support work-life balance and 42 per cent feel that they do not have access to flexible work conditions. Over one in 10 women (12 per cent) were motivated to resign from their previous job in search of greater work-life balance, the study found.
EOWA news release [pdf]. Generation F: attract, engage, retain, full report [pdf]. Aequus Partners Diversity and Flexibility e-newsletter, July 2008.
Global: Young workers and gender equality
Despite efforts by the international community, gender stereotyping and employment barriers continue to affect millions of young women and men around the world, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) has said. Commenting on 11 August, International Youth Day, ILO director general Juan Somavia said: 'It is imperative that we work together to strengthen the productive potential of young women and men.' According to ILO, equal access to quality education and training for girls and boys remains the best start to finding decent work. However, even where young women's education levels are the same or higher than men's, young women face more difficulties in the transition to working life because of continued labour market discrimination. And when they do find a job, it is often lower paid and in the informal economy, making them more vulnerable to poverty and marginalisation. 'A key employment challenge is tackling occupational segregation of traditionally accepted 'male' and 'female' jobs, and to break the gender barriers in opening up professions to both sexes,' commented Geir Tonstol of the ILO Bureau for Gender Equality. 'In many countries young women are still encouraged to train in relatively low-skilled and poorly paid 'feminine' occupations with little prospect of upward mobility, while young men are encouraged to go into modern technology-based training and employment, which often pay better.'
ILO news release and gender and youth webzones.
GLOBAL ROUND-UP
New agenda: More than 50 US organisations advocating for women, labour, children, health care, racial and economic justice have worked together to produce an agenda of federal priorities for 2009 and beyond. Prominent on the agenda is: 'Ensure all employees have the right to greater control over their work schedules so they are not penalised for care giving responsibilities.' 9 to 5 publication alert. Family values at work: It's about time! [pdf]. Full agenda [pdf].
Aussie inequality: 'Almost 40 years have passed since it became unlawful to pay women less than their male counterparts for work of equal value and yet the gender pay gap remains a yawning gulf in many Australian workplaces,' according to Sharan Burrow, president of the national union federation ACTU. She said women are faring worse than men on key measures of equality including earnings, superannuation, under-employment, caring responsibilities and progression to top jobs. ACTU news release.
Career killer: Proof that having children is a career killer has arrived with a study showing that two-thirds of women who take maternity leave do not get promoted. The Australian Public Service Commission studied female public servants who took maternity leave in 2000-01 and checked whether they had been promoted by June 2007; It found 65 per cent of women who had taken maternity leave in 2000-01 had not received a promotion in the six years after taking maternity leave, compared with the 42 per cent of women without children who had not received a promotion. News.com.au.
European inequality: Women in Europe earn on average almost 16 per cent less than men doing similar jobs, according to new data from Eurofound's European Industrial Relations Observatory (EIRO). It suggests the gender pay gap in the EU15 countries is shrinking, but notes the pay gap between men and women doing similar jobs in the new EU member states is wider than the EU average. Eurofound news release.
Happy days: The Utah state government's 4 August implementation of a 4-day work week could result in higher job satisfaction, lower levels of work-family conflict and increased productivity, a Brigham Young University (BYU) study suggests. The researchers found that even though 4-day workweek employees work the same number of hours as their traditional counterparts, they reported being more satisfied with their jobs, compensation and benefits, and were less likely to look for employment elsewhere in the next year. Rex L Facer II and Lori Wadsworth, Alternative work schedules and work-family balance: A research note, Review of Public Personnel Administration, volume 28, pages 166-177, 2008, abstract and full paper [pdf].
Weighty problem: Sedentary occupations carry a significant risk of workers gaining weight than other occupations. A study from the University of North Carolina focused on 393 volunteers working at a call centre and found sixty-eight per cent of participants gained weight averaging 0.9 kg/month for 8 months. Robert Boyce and others. Physical activity, weight gain and occupational health among call centre employees, Occupational Medicine, volume 58, number 4, pages 238-244, 2008 [abstract].
Newsletter (5,600 words) issued 28 Aug 2008
