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Family-friendly work practices: differences within and between workplaces

An important part of the ability of men and women to balance work and family commitments is the availability of working arrangements that enable the reconciliation of work and family life. These arrangements are often referred to as 'family-friendly' work practices. This report is the first large-scale study in Australia of differences in access to family-friendly work practices amongst employees working in the same workplace. It analyses the extent to which access to family-friendly work practices is shaped by differential access within organisations as compared with differential access between organisations. The analysis draws on the Australian Workplace Industrial Relations Survey 1995 (AWIRS95). This data set allows the combining of information from both employers and employees. Four family-friendly work arrangements are analysed: (1) availability of permanent part-time employment; (2) control over start and finish times; (3) access to a telephone for family reasons; and (4) availability of the type of leave used for the care of a sick family member. For each of these practices, results indicated a great deal of variation in access among employees in the same workplace as well as between different workplaces. This variation in access is greater among employees working in the same workplace than the variation between workplaces. There are relatively few workplaces in which a high proportion of employees reported having access to each of these work practices. A multivariate regression framework is used to identify the determinants of access to family-friendly work practices. The analysis reveals that employees with the lowest levels of education, job tenure and employer-provided training are least likely to have access to these practices. The implication for policy is that availability to these practices should be increased to include all employees with particular attention to the needs of lower skilled workers. The authors suggest that government could use industrial relations regulation to regulate conditions of employment and finance information campaigns to raise the awareness of employers of the workplace benefits of offering family-friendly work practices.

An important part of the ability of men and women to balance work and family commitments is the availability of working ...  Show Full Abstract  

Authors: Gray, Matthew; Tudball, Jacqueline
Corporate authors: Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS)
Date: 2002
Geographic subjects: Oceania; Australia
Resource type: Report
Series name: Research report (Australian Institute of Family Studies)
Subjects: Culture; Equity; Management;

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