Work and Family at Reworking Work

Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand conference.

By AIRAANZ

Work and famly was one of the many topics at the recent conference.

David Peetz presented some research results that he and Rebecca Loudon and Cameron Allen have been number crunching that again highlighted the impacts of the intensification of work, the increased need for more labour hours to keep the household running, and the demands that changed forms of regulation are placing on households.

Stress from work overload coupled with the increased span of hours and the lack of control over your working time was a key theme.

Hilary Charlesworth and Belinda Probert also looked at the work/family balance in a paper on Why Organisations take on family-friendly-policies, looking I particular at paid maternity leave. They argue for recasting policy and advocacy for maternity leave, away from the business case to ways to encourage more widespread provision.

AIRAANZ conference, held at Sydney University from 9-11 February 2005.