ࡱ> Z\Y5@ 02Bbjbj22 "\XX2:@@@@@@@T<X$T.nccc.......$/RO2|4.@cc4.@@I.j@@..2 *h@@+| 0TiWoR +,<_.0.+22 +TT@@@@+2@+crTccc4.4.TT 8 TT8 Flexibility and Choices The Strike the Balance is an extremely wide ranging inquiry. This submission is limited to our knowledge of and experiences working, living and researching in the mining industry. In addition, we have included some brief personal responses to some of the questions. I have been married to a mining employee for 34 years and have lived in mining towns around Australia, have been the at home partner in fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) employment and have adult children currently working in the industry. I am presently in the write-up stage of a PhD (Community Psychology) investigating the impacts of a FIFO lifestyle on the psychosocial well-being of employees and their partners. I attended the Striking the Balance Public consultation held in Perth at the YMCA and take this opportunity to address what appeared at the time to be an imbalance in the discussion about the impact of a fly-in/fly-out (FIFO) lifestyle on families. During the session I had a sense that an earlier consultation by your group with the mining industry resulted in the conclusions that all mining working hours and conditions are horrendous and impact extremely negatively on employees and their families. While I acknowledge that many of these practices do impact negatively on families, I also believe this is an over-generalisation and as such masks some current industry practices that allow some families to better balance their paid and unpaid work. The working hours and conditions offered by the mining industry depend on a number of factors including individual company policies, type of mine and particular job requirements and these vary greatly across the industry. The mining industry offers its employees and their families the choice of either residential (ie living in a mining town) or FIFO employment and this is valued by the employees [see attached Power Point presentation of Sibbel, AM, and Kaczmarek EA, (2005), When the dust settles how do families decide: Fly-in/fly-out or residential? paper presented at the Australian Human Development Association Bi-annual Conference held in Perth, July 2005.] as it offers them some flexibility and the opportunity to work within their chosen industry and also to take into account their families needs at a given time in the family life cycle. Preliminary data from my PhD research indicates that while the FIFO lifestyle and its associated compressed work schedules do present some unique stresses and issues for employees and their families, a benefit they value is the opportunity to have chunks of uninterrupted time together. This then enables FIFO employees and their families more options in sharing unpaid work in the home. The option of compressed work schedules and job sharing as practised on FIFO sites may provide one model that could be adapted to other workplaces to allow people to more effectively balance work and home. Jocastas story A fly-in fly-out life style is not for everyone. I know this because I tried it, hated it and did everything in my power to make my partner look for residential employment. We subsequently moved from Western Australia to Canberra and away from the mining industry for five years. However, here I am, six years later, with one child and another on the way, back in a fly-in fly-out situation. What's more, I am happy. My partner looks after our daughter one day a fortnight while I work, and we spend four more days together as a family. My partner spends more time, and better quality time, with my daughter than my friends' partners. When he is home, he is entirely focussed on being home - in our house you never hear 'I just need to pop into the office', 'I've just got to take this call' or 'I have to work late tonight'. We speak on the phone every night he is away and can plan to do lots of things together in the five days a fortnight he is at home. Yes, sometimes he isn't there for a birthday, or when someone is sick, but sometimes he is there, and can take much more of the burden than if he was working close to home. As with any employment situation, there are pros and cons. While we may not choose to live this way forever, for the moment it works for us. Striking the Balance is about choices and flexibility and supporting families to enable them to live the way they choose to live. Musings This discussion is all framed as though the ideal is that there should be a balance between work and family life but should it be conceptualised this way as a weighing up and measuring family life and work life? Could it be conceptualised in a more holistic and integrated way? Need to take a systemic view of it all Bronfenbrenner and aim for systemic change at all levels (ie micro, meso, macro) Not all couples both want to have paid work all of their lives but many couples need both partners work to have enough income to cover basic needs government should offer financial incentives for one parent to stay home and manage the family home especially while the children are young. This could be in the form of income splitting for tax purposes. This would also address some of the issues associated with the suitability and availability of childcare. Useful readings on health related behavioural change are: Marks, D., Murrey, M., Evans, B., Willig, C., Woodall, C., & Sykes, C. (2005). Health Psychology: Theory, Research & Practice (2nd Ed). Thousand Oaks: Sage Marks, D. (2002). The Health Psychology reader. Thousand Oaks: Sage There is a model for employing indigenous communities that allows for a contract with the whole community and a pool of possible employees and which requires a certain number of people to work each day, it doesnt matter which of those from the pool do the work. Is this a model that could be adapted and used more widely as a type of job sharing which would allow people more flexibility in fulfilling work and home obligations? Care must be taken that any wide-ranging changes do not force those who are well and happy in more traditional models of balancing paid and unpaid work into roles that will impact negatively on their individual and family well-being. Questions: 1) How do changes in arrangements for paid work in Australia affect the family responsibilities of women and men, particular groups of people or particular family types? Do women and men need different workplace arrangements to assist them to balance their paid work and family obligations? Why or why not? Would equality between men and women require a more equal sharing of paid work? Why was there so little change in the proportions of unpaid work done by men and women between 1992 and 1997? Are there signs of change since then? Does the imbalance in sharing of paid and unpaid work by men and women affect children, and if so, how? Yes, it becomes self-perpetuating because children learn that these are the cultural norms, the accepted and expected ways of doing it. The roles become stereotyped thus making change difficult. Does the amount of unpaid work done by women affect their capacity to participate in paid work, and if so how? The personal experience of our family is that our women participate in the workforce at the expense of the unpaid work. They do less unpaid work in the house, ie only do that which is necessary eg fewer clothes are ironed, the floors are vacuumed less often and easy to prepare meals are prepared. So they choose how much paid work they want/need to do and adjust the amount of unpaid work to fit in with this. They also make more demands of their partner to share unpaid work. Would equality between men and women require a more equal sharing of unpaid work? Are there particular difficulties in balancing paid work with caring for grandchildren, frail aged parents or family members with disabilities? Do the experiences of people caring for grandchildren, frail aged parents or family members with disabilities differ for men and women? Personal experience suggests experiences in caring for grandchildren depend on previous experiences as a parent and age of grandchildren babies often somehow seem more vulnerable and require more specialised care What workplace flexibilities are useful for particular types of carers? Options for working from home; flexible working hours; in-house child care; special carers leave; practical information about internal and external resources; employee needs assessment; job share registers, extended lunch breaks to visit children, minor ailments Get Well room for children; carers rooms at work; information kits to help staff integrate work and family, Are there particular difficulties in balancing paid work with volunteering, and if so, should particular workplace flexibilities be available to promote volunteering? What effects, if any, do external factors such as partner and community attitudes, social policy or workplace relations have in shaping mens and womens decisions about paid work and family arrangements? How much does our community really value and respect diversity and choice? Those people and families who currently choose non-standard options in their efforts to balance paid and unpaid work (eg FIFO families) are often subjected to public and private censor and criticism by others who opt for the norm or who might have vested interests in preserving the status quo. Families need to be supported in their decisions. The current Western Australian Minister for Regional Development is conducting a very public campaign aimed at having FIFO banned by legislation citing marriage break down and children running amok as his justification. This rhetoric is disrespectful of and can have negative impacts on the well-being of FIFO families. What are the relationship, health and other effects of paid work and family conflicts on Australian parents and carers? Do the effects differ for men and women, particular groups of people, particular family types or different types of carers? What are the effects on children where their parents have difficulty in balancing paid work with family responsibilities? Are children affected differently by mothers and fathers paid work and family conflicts? Do womens and mens different paid and unpaid work obligations affect their economic outcomes, health, relationships and life chances? Do men and women or particular groups of people experience any such effects differently? Do mens and womens paid and unpaid work arrangements have an effect on productivity in Australia? What will be the effect of the ageing population upon mens and womens willingness and abilities to undertake unpaid caring work? Are fertility rates sensitive to social and economic conditions and if so, what specific conditions and how sensitive are they to changed conditions? Is unpaid caring work important for developing social cohesion and social capital? If so, how? What effect would a balance between paid work and family responsibilities for Australias workers have on Australias productivity and international competitiveness? What effect would a more equal sharing of unpaid household work between men and women have on Australias productivity and international competitiveness? Can anti-discrimination systems assist men and women better balance their paid work and family responsibilities? Why or why not? In theory yes but only if employees and employers are aware of them, enact them, use them and have affordable, in both time and money, means of addressing breaches Why do men with family responsibilities not make more use of the family responsibilities provisions of the Sex Discrimination Act? Lack of knowledge, time, interest Should the Sex Discrimination Act be amended to give greater assistance to men and women to address any workplace disadvantage they may face on the basis of their family responsibilities? If so, what particular amendments are necessary? If not, why not? Can an individual complaints mechanism adequately deal with discrimination on the basis of family responsibilities? If not, what other changes may be necessary? Are amendments to the workplace relations system needed to give greater assistance to men and women to address any workplace disadvantage they may face on the basis of their family responsibilities? If so, what particular amendments are necessary? If not, why not? Do men make adequate use of the workplace relations system to assist them to balance their paid work with their family responsibilities? Do informal workplace policies work well to assist employees to balance their paid work and family responsibilities? Do they assist some employees more than others, and if so, is this appropriate? Have EEO policies and business case arguments produced a greater acceptance of the need for workplaces to be family-friendly? How can Australian workplaces be made more family-friendly? Is federal Government assistance to families appropriately directed? Does the cumulative effect of this government assistance facilitate choice for women and assist them to balance paid work and family roles? If not, how could this be achieved? What effects do government policies have on decisions made by individuals and families about paid and unpaid work arrangements? Are these effects appropriate? What are the best ways of incorporating and supporting the value of care into Australian society? What are the barriers to changing attitudes towards a more equal division of paid work and family responsibilities? What are the best ways of engaging men in the work of caring (for children, elders or other family members) and other unpaid work? How important are workplace cultures, as opposed to workplace structures, as a deterrent to mens more active engagement with their family responsibilities and more equitable sharing between men and women of unpaid work in the home? How can workplace cultures be encouraged to change to promote a better balance between paid work and family responsibilities? What responses to paid work and family conflict would assist to promote equality between men and women? What are the possibilities for combining the lessons learnt by the womens and the mens movements to address inequitable paid and unpaid work arrangements? What do you think should be the key goals of paid and unpaid work arrangements in Australia? What do you think should be the role for each of government, employers and families for promoting appropriate divisions of paid and unpaid work by Australian families? What options are needed for promoting appropriate change to the divisions of paid and unpaid work in Australian families? What evidence is lacking on the issues covered in this paper? What else does HREOC need to know in its consideration of these issues? The detail and impacts of the proposed changes to the Industrial Relations laws to be introduced to Parliament next week. 4?TVZt " #   E Q   : > B X g j   " # < J O j ޽Ӳ{{ӑӆ{ppphNhB*phhNhBrB*phhNhB*phhNhBB*phhNh%B*phhNhB*phhNhnB*phhNhiA]B*phhNhfL/B*phhNhe:B*phhNh1B*phhNhKxB*phhNhyB*ph,# $   `argdU 7$8$H$gdKxgdIJgdgdBrgdBgde: 7$8$H$gde:7$8$H$ $7$8$H$a$gdiA]2Bj 6Scn{XY!#%PQ  2JOZbm+=Ƚ{{{{hNh"}eB*phhNh1B*phh ueB*phhNhB6B*]phhNhBB*phhNhnB*phhNhBrB*phhNhB*phhNhB*phhNhfL/B*phhNhe:B*phhNhB*ph0=K^ar/4 79:JVtu}~!lmZ[yyuhN hNh hNh"}e hNhR1{ hNhX hNhh& hNhG hNh5XW hNh8h uehNh8B*phhNhi^VB*phhNhyB*phhNhKxB*phhIJB*phhNh%B*phhNhnB*ph+[5yz)  ! 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