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Issue No. 151 | 06 September 2002 |
Looking for the Light
Interview: Packing a Punch Bad Boss: Basher Takes Back Passage Unions: Five Star Shafting Economics: TINA � Rest In Peace International: Against Bush's "War on Terrorism" Environment: Saving the World History: A Radical Scribe Poetry: With A Little Help From My Friend Satire: Colonel Gaddafi Promotes Himself to General Review: Workplace Dictatorship
Cole Comfort: I�m Not Biased Grassroots Drives Safety Campaign Deloittes Curry Favour on Sub-Continent Rail Workers Buck Individual Contract Wage Bribe Bush Regenerators Weed Out Dodgy Deal Hairdresser Wins Fight For Wage Justice Cabin Crews Argue for �Safety in Numbers� �Slave Labour� In Insurance Industry Beattie Plods into Risky Territory
The Soapbox The Locker Room Week in Review Bosswatch Women
Charity Begins At Home
Labor Council of NSW |
Women All In the Family?
*************** On Wednesday night this week IBM Australia were presented the Gold Award in the National Work and Family Awards by Workplace Relations Minister Tony Abbott. With 10,000 employees, IBM provides 6 weeks paid maternity leave and one week of paid paternity leave, part time work, job sharing, flexible start and finish times, breastfeeding arrangements and a program to particularly help men balance their responsibilities. While IBM should be congratulated on their award there has been virtually no media coverage and I still can't find the details of who the other winners or finalists were on the web sites of ACCI or DEWRSB, the major sponsors of the awards (in fact, IBM haven't put this up on their site yet either). It may be that I have unrealistic expectations about website updates but it is particularly annoying to still not have this information given the Federal Government's focus on work and family in recent months (and in particular using work and family as a way to deflect attention from a national scheme of paid maternity leave). You'd think that the Government would be keen to promote all the wonderful initiatives happening out there in workplaces as a way of showing its support and delivering on its commitment to make things better for families. I guess this lack of information and interest sums up my frustration with these sort of awards. The recognition they provide is unfortunately still largely limited to those with a particular interest in work and family issues (and while it's a quality bunch of people there is not enough of them!) and the attention that the awards generate is fleeting as we all turn to the next issue. Such award events also give no sense of how widespread interest is in promoting and implementing various workplace practices that make a real difference to people in managing their work and family lives. Nor do they revisit previous winners 12 months or 5 years down the track to see what's happened since. On the positive side such events do provide useful ideas of what others can do. It would be nice if we could be sure that it made more than those who are committed to the idea of providing family friendly work practices think about what they could do. The sad reality is that there are way too few workplaces where work and family strategies are a fully integrated part of the workplace culture and practice. There are way too many workplaces where "flexibility" means increasingly long hours and job insecurity. Workers don't feel they are able to take their annual leave let alone refuse overtime or ask for changes to their roster so that they can meet their family responsibilities. Where they do stand up they are often threatened with the sack or find that they are overlooked for promotion or training. This is a major issue for workers and unions. The union movement has stated that these are priority issues for unions but progress is often slow and patchy. All too often its thought of as a "women's issue". Of course it's an issue for women but it's also an issue for men and all unions regardless of the industries or occupations that they cover have a role to play. It's time for all unions to organise around work and family strategies and to build on our successes. We need to do this so that there is an unstoppable momentum that will see fairer, family friendly workplaces for all working people. We may even get to the stage where we don't need awards to try and encourage the sorts of workplace practices that are long overdue.
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