| Select your State Union |
 |
|
 |
Women
Work And Family
Work? Family?
The Dilemma That Shouldn't Be
By Sue Hammond
Women's Industrial Officer
Balancing work and family life still remains a dilemma for most Australian workers, particularly for women.
When we look at how our society is shaped we find that the proportion of couples with children in Australia where both parents work was 62 per cent in the year 2000. We find that most mothers return to work before their child's second birthday and that 68 per cent of Australian women aged 25-54 work. We also find only about one third of Australian women have access to paid maternity leave and about 40 per cent of mothers have no leave entitlements. Many of us also have the responsibility of caring for other members of our family. It is for all of these reasons that the union movement through its peak body the ACTU is running a Test Case in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission that aims to assist workers balance their work and family life.
At some stage we work full-time, sometimes we require part-time work, sometimes we need to cope with emergency situations, sometimes it might be convenient to buy extra leave and average out our salary. The ACTU Test Case aims to allow workers to gain greater flexibility over the different stages of their working life. In the Work and Family Test Case the ACTU seeks to extend unpaid parental leave from 12 months to 24 months, to give full-time workers returning from parental leave the right to work part-time, to allow workers the right to buy extra annual leave by averaging out their salary, to give a right to reasonable unpaid emergency leave and to allow workers to request changes to start and finish time to accommodate such things as school and child care appointments.
In a further step towards assisting workers to balance their work and family life the ACTU also adopted a Child Care policy at its Congress last year. It is no news to workers that childcare is difficult to obtain and expensive. It is estimated that between 2001 and 2002 174,000 children missed out on some form of childcare due to lack of access. Childcare cost for parents increased by 10 per cent in 2003 and when ranked with other OECD countries Australia comes in a poor 26 out of 28 in spending on early education and childcare. The ACTU policy calls for a more planned approach to the provision of childcare, a review of the taxation and benefit system that will provide affordability and flexibility for parents. The policy recommends that governments work towards achieving the objective of 15 hours free childcare for every child and that no more that 15 per cent of family income need be spent on childcare by the year 2010. The policy recommends that a single nationally agreed quality assurance scheme be developed that does not diminish any of the current standards. That childcare facilities be adequately staff and the government funding must accommodate decent wages for childcare workers. The policy also recognises the importance of integrating all services that affect children and families. The ACTU recommends the establishment of a National Advisory Body.
The resolution of work and family issues is complex and needs to be tackled in many ways. The CPSU-SPSF, through its delegates and members have played an important role in bargaining and negotiating better conditions that allow members to address their work and family needs. Our involvement as an affiliate to the ACTU working on committees and with industrial tribunals and policymakers are all important means of achieving better conditions for workers. Only when these issues are resolved will women obtain gender equality in the workforce.
|
|
| Select your State Union |
|
|
|
