Workers plea for more leave and flexible hours

Ruth Dyson

Workers are asking for more time-off and more choice about when they work, according to a Government report released today.

More than a third of employees work extra hours in their own time to get their jobs done, with one in five workers clocking up more than 50 hours a week, the report found.

Some 40 per cent of workers say they want more flexible working hours.

The report, by Lindy Fursman of the Labour Department, looks at work/life balance and notes that workers want flexible start and finish times and more leave, both paid and unpaid.

Forty per cent of workers had difficulty getting the balance they wanted and 46 per cent experienced some degree of work-life conflict.

However, 52 per cent of workers rated their work-life balance as good to excellent, the report found.

"Workers want flexible start and finish times and more leave -- both paid and unpaid," Ms Fursman said in the report.

"They also want more choice about the way they work, including having more input into rosters and shifts and choosing the number of hours they work."

Labour Minister Ruth Dyson said work-life balance was about managing the "juggling act" between paid work and other activities important to people -- including spending time with family, taking part in sport and recreation, volunteering or undertaking further study.

She noted that 41 per cent of employees said work sometimes or often made it difficult to enjoy and spend quality time with their families, and 46 per cent sometimes or often found it hard to get home on time.

She said that with unemployment levels expected to remain under 5 per cent for the foreseeable future, workplaces needed to be more flexible to continue to attract and retain employees.

Asked about which initiatives were the most helpful to them, 79 per cent of respondents to the Labour Department report said having flexible start and finish times.

Other initiatives were knowing they could leave in an emergency (50 per cent), having minor variations in start and finish times (39 per cent) and using sick/domestic leave to look after family members (39 per cent).

The report found senior staff or management were the most likely workers to be offered work-life initiatives.

The report said working long hours, varied hours and rotating shift work made work-life balance harder to achieve. It said 19 per cent of employees worked more than 50 hours per week while 37 per cent frequently worked extra hours in their own time.

Almost 60 per cent of employees said aspects of their workplace culture made work-life balance harder to achieve, particularly the expectations of colleagues, workmates, managers and supervisors.

The report found 55 per cent of employers said there were no barriers to put them off having flexible working arrangements, although some said they needed to have everyone in the workplace at the same time (40 per cent), or that the arrangements were too complicated (33 per cent) or too expensive (17 per cent).

Green MP Sue Kedgley's Flexible Working (Employment Relations) Bill has passed its first reading in Parliament and is currently being considered by a select committee.

She said: "This research demonstrates that a lot of workplaces are still not switched on to flexible working arrangements. It's in all of our interests – for our economy and quality of life – that flexible working arrangements are as widely available as possible in New Zealand, not just to the staff of innovative organisations."

Brenda Pilott, national secretary of the Public Service Association, said improving the work/life balance of employees in the public sector was the key to improving productivity.

She added: "The long hours culture in the public sector must change. It's time that employers genuinely committed to flexible working arrangements to boost productivity and ensure employees can balance their work with their family and other commitments."

Dr Fursman looked at two national surveys, one involving 1100 employers and the other 2000 employees, for her report.

The report was launched at a forum in Wellington today hosted by the minister in association with the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust, Business New Zealand and the Council of Trade Unions.

Ms Dyson said she was heartened that employers were open to considering new ways of organising their workplaces.

Two years ago, the Government launched its Work-Life Balance Project aimed at improving the work-life balance for New Zealanders and Ms Dyson said the report and today's summit were part of that.

- NZPA