More flexible workplaces needed
Friday, 23 July 2010
More flexible workplaces needed
The Australian Work and Family Policy Roundtable have recently released key 2010 election recommendations relating to work and family policies.
The roundtable is made up of 19 academics from 12 universities, including Head of School of Management, Professor Rowena Barrett, and visiting academic to the Faculty of Business and Law, Professor Trish Todd.
The recommendations produced by the roundtable highlight seven policy areas of particular importance. Among these are more flexible work practices, paid parental leave, and more accessible and affordable childcare to better support carers.
The group drew emphasis to the nature in which work and family issues have appeared as key areas of policy condense in the past three Federal elections.
“While there have been important changes to work and family policy in recent years, the ‘barbecue stopper' – as John Howard termed these issues in 2001 – has not diminished in importance for many Australians,” Professor Todd says.
“We expect that these issues will again figure in the 2010 election given the pressing need to accommodate the changing nature of work and family in Australia.”
Further increasing paid parental leave also features in the Roundtable’s recommendations – including an early increase to 26 weeks paid parental leave, followed by a commitment to achieve 52 weeks paid parental leave in the longer term.
Other recommendations include:
- Better pay and conditions for childcare staff.
- All families to have access to at least 15 hours paid childcare per week in an accredited centre or service for pre-school age children.
- Provision for higher staff to child ratios – for example, at least 1:3 for 0-2 year old children.
- The current right to request flexible working arrangements be extended to all carers.
- The introduction of programs that assist companies, including small firms, to implement and assess the benefits of improved policy and action on work and family issues, including through changed supervisor practices and workplace cultures.
- The development of good practice cases and guides showing the business case for family friendly policy and practice in all firms, including smaller firms.
- The establishment of a small business advocate within Fair Work Australia to assist such firms to introduce better work and family arrangements.
- Adoption of the Henry review recommendations for combining the two childcare subsidies and the two family benefits and reducing the withdrawal rates on most benefits.
- Design income supplementation and support programs that recognise and respect most families‟ needs for financial support for both the direct costs of children and the costs of reduced access to paid work.
More information
Download the ‘Benchmarks for Work and Family Policies for Election 2010’ from the Family Policy Roundtable website.