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  Issue No 36 Official Organ of LaborNet 22 October 1999  

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Unions

Beaten by the Clock


Ron Callus from ACIRRT counts the social cost of increased working hours.

Changing traditional working hours was going to be a win-win situation for employers and employees. Or so we were told, not just by employers but by governments of both persuasions.

However, for many employees it hasn't worked out that way. The flexibility has had to be very much on their side of the ledger, and the result has been a less predictable working life and a disrupted family life.

This is vividly illustrated by the case of Kym Wood, whose employer, Steggles Chickens, wants her to start work at 6.30am instead of 8am.

The dramatic changes to working arrangements reflect the move from an awards system that often prescribed ordinary hours of work for a whole industry, to a system of enterprise agreements where working time could be tailored to the needs of a specific organisation.

This issue has dominated enterprise bargaining since it began in 1991. Nearly 80 per cent of enterprise agreements deal with changing the times people work.

The arrangements cover the number of hours worked each week; increasing the span of ordinary hours each day or each week (so what was paid previously as overtime becomes ordinary time); annualising hours; averaging hours worked over a month,a quarter or a year; and reducing or staggering rest and meal breaks.

Enterprise bargaining has facilitated an expansion in operating hours for many organisations. About 30 per cent of all agreements allow for 12-hour spans of work and, in the wholesale and retail trade, the figure is 43 per cent.

Enterprise agreements have also given management greater discretion about how hours are to be worked.

About one-quarter of all agreements provide such discretion, while in industries like recreation, and wholesale and retail trade, the figures are well over one-third.

To complicate matters, the working week is getting longer for many full-time workers.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, in 1978 about a third of full-time workers worked more than 41 hours a week.

However, by the end of last year more than half of full-time workers worked such hours.

The predictability of hours has also fallen because 25 per cent of the workforce is now employed as casual.

On top of that, only a third of the workforce works standard hours each week.

The Wood case, however, is not so much about how many hours people work but when they work. Traditionally, standard hours for full-time employees were 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

But the desire of employers for more flexibility and the reduction or elimination of penalty payments for employees working non-standard hours means fewer full-time workers are working that traditional week.

The proponents of change argue that this is good because workers can work when it best suits them. That may be true for those who work part-time, but the advantages are less obvious for full-time workers.

Overwhelmingly, exactly when full-time employees are at work is determined by their employers, not by the workers.

It is not surprising then that a national employee survey by the Federal Government in 1995 found that nearly 30 per cent of full-time workers were less satisfied with the balance between work and family life than a year ago.

In contrast, 20 per cent of part-time workers were less satisfied with the balance.

What, then, are the often-overlooked consequences to the working time arrangements for full-time workers when changes are made in enterprise agreements?

First, with greater working time flexibility comes less predictability. Yet for many workers the need for predictable work hours outweighs the advantages of flexibility in starting and finishing times.

The Wood case demonstrates problems when hours are changed unilaterally.

It may simply not be possible to change child-care arrangements or school hours to fit the changing hours an employer needs. How many day-care centres have places for children whose parents find they have to work evenings or weekends?

Co-ordinating family activities becomes almost impossible if one or more members of the family cannot be sure what days or hours they will be required to work. Rather than making work more family-friendly, these new arrangements may further isolate people from their families.

Second, non-standard hours of work have wider implications for non-work leisure activities. People may no longer be able to commit to sports or other activities.

Team sports require a group of people who share common free time. No wonder recent ABS data shows voluntary community activities are in serious decline in Australia, although this in part reflects the changes in working time in Australia.

Third, changed working time arrangements have unintended consequences. The increasing popularity of days of 12 or more hours in the service, transport and mining industries brings potential health and safety problems.

Fatigue, mistakes and injuries, stress and ill-health are all dangers when people work longer hours and where their pattern of sleep and their non-working time are changed regularly.

Fourth, it is apparent some full-time employees have little say in when they work.

About two-thirds of all workers in a national survey reported that they had some influence over when they started and finished work. For plant and machine operators and labourers, though, the figure is about one-half, whereas for professionals and clerks it is about three-quarters.

Part of the explanation is the nature of the work, which is scheduled around using equipment or working as part of a work group within blue-collar jobs.

But the bottom line is that those workers who are more skilled are likely to have more choice about when they work.

The changing nature of working time in many organisations in Australia may mean that people are more likely to know when they will see their workmates than their families or friends.

Associate Professor Ron Callus is the director of the Australian Centre for Industrial Relations Research and Training at the University of Sydney.

This article was first published in Worksite.


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 36 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: When All�s Not WEL
Suzanne Hammond explains how the federal government�s decision to cut off funding to the Womens� Electoral Lobby wil impact on all women.
*
*  Republic: The Great Constitutional Swindle
In an upcoming book, Peter Botsman argues the blanding out of Australian consitutional history is one of the big barriers to the Republican cause.
*
*  Unions: Beaten by the Clock
Ron Callus from ACIRRT counts the social cost of increased working hours.
*
*  International: Pakistan Military Urged to Protect Workers' Rights
The ICFTU is urging General Pervez Musharraf, who yesterday seized power in a military coup, to take urgent steps to ensure a return to constitutional rule in the shortest possible time.
*
*  History: How the Cunning Fox Survived
Len Fox recently turned 94. He celebrated the event by sending out copies of his latest publication to friends; a booklet of his selected pencil and crayon sketches since 1925, with autobiographical commentaries.
*
*  Satire: Direct Electionists to Keep Voting No
Pro-direct election republicans who plan to vote �no� in the upcoming referendum have announced plans to extend their approach to every future election held in Australia.
*
*  Labour Review: What's New at the Information Centre
Read the latest issue of Labour review, a resource for union officials and students.
*
*  Review: Bowing down before Globalzilla
It is my experience that books that have the word "globalization" in the title should be avoided at all costs.
*

News
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»  Stressed Out: The Incredibly Shrinking Lunch Break
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»  Kennett Fall a Warning to Carr
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»  Combet Steps Up To The Plate
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»  Thirty Hours at the Wheel - Then Sacked for Complaining
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»  Reith�s Plan for Universities Exposed
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»  Hockey Sticks With the Banks
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»  Push to Downgrade Industrial Tribunals
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»  Peace Stalks the Gong as Matters Bows Out
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»  Rock the Republic - It�s Time
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Columns
»  Guest Report
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»  Sport
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»  Trades Hall
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»  Piers Watch
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Letters to the editor
»  Vizard Critics Peddling Lies
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»  Republic Soapbox
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»  Barbies and Kens Eye High Office
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»  Guilty! I Agree with Howard
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»  Egan Speaks - Des Moore's No Friend of Mine!
*

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