Marian Baird

The Work/Life Collision: What Work is Doing to Australians and What to Do about It

Review(s) of: The Work/Life Collision: What Work is Doing to Australians and What to Do about It by Barbara Pocock, Federation Press, Leichhardt, 2003. pp. xi + 288.

Women, Work and Industrial Relations in 2009

39.95 paper.

Orientations to Paid Maternity Leave: Understanding the Australian Debate

The interplay between women’s work and family lives and public and business policies attracted considerable attention during 2009. In this review we focus on Australia’s new paid parental leave scheme, pay equity, award modernization and the lack of women in senior management and on boards. We conclude that ‘economic efficiency’ arguments to promote gender equality in the workplace became stronger during the year, sometimes displacing gender justice arguments. We also suggest that 2009 was a year of policy wins and losses for women at work and that 2010 will see more attention to gender equitable policies as political parties seek to win the ‘women’s vote’.

FATHERS’ USE OF LEAVE IN AUSTRALIA

Despite the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission’s recommendation in December 2002 for a national paid maternity leave scheme for Australia, no such scheme has yet been introduced and the concept remains contested socially, politically and industrially. The paper suggests that the explanation for this confusion and contestation may be understood in terms of the various orientations to paid maternity leave in current Australian debates. As a way of understanding the policy paralysis more clearly, the paper proposes a typology of these orientations to paid maternity leave. This typology shows that each of the existing orientations hinders the introduction of universal access to paid maternity leave for Australian working women. In order to change this and to constructively progress policy development, it is argued that a new policy orientation based on ‘social feminism’ and a ‘new equity’ is required. Unlike other orientations, this one recognises equality and difference and places the rights and needs of working women at its core.

A Pregnant Pause: Paid Maternity Leave in Australia

This paper examines Australian fathers’ use of leave at the time of the birth of a child, drawing on data from The Parental Leave in Australia Survey, conducted in 2005, and a subsequent organizational case study. Our analysis shows that although most Australian fathers take some leave for parental purposes, use of formally designated paternity or parental leave is limited. This is unsurprising given the Australian policy framework, which lacks legislative provision for paid paternity or parental leave, and does not require any of the shared unpaid parental-leave entitlement to be reserved for fathers. Use of leave is shown to be influenced primarily by fathers’ employment characteristics, with those working in small organizations or non-permanent positions least likely to utilize paternity or other forms of leave. Overall, the analysis suggests that improvements in the policy framework would increase Australian fathers’ propensity to take parental leave, but highlights barriers to usage associated with labour market divisions and career pressures that will not be solved solely by the adoption of more progressive leave policies.

Getting gender on the agenda: the tale of two organisations

Abstract It is more than 50 years since the International Labour Organisation recommended paid maternity leave for working women, yet Australia still lacks such legislation. This paper provides a context for the current debate about paid maternity leave in Australia. We argue that a discernible shift in locating the responsibility for paid maternity leave from the public arena to enterprise bargaining and further to the confidential domain of company policy has occurred in Australia. This shift is not improving the position of women in the workforce. The data presented demonstrates the limits of enterprise bargaining for equitably providing paid maternity leave. We also question the efficacy of a reliance on business case strategies. We suggest that to overcome this pregnant pause in the provision of paid maternity leave for Australian working women a broader-based approach is required. In this model, regulation strategies, both legal and industrial, play a part alongside business case strategies.

Bringing the “right to request” flexible working arrangements to life: from policies to practices

Purpose – This paper aims to explore emerging issues in the application of the “dual agenda” model of gender equitable organisational change aimed at improved work life outcomes in two large Australian organisations.Design/methodology/approach – The research project used the collaborative interactive action research (CIAR) methodology that underpins the dual agenda change approach. Within both organisations, a multi‐method approach was used, including formal interviews, focus groups and ethnographic‐style observation and interaction, as well as the analysis of a wide range of organisational documentation. The paper focuses on the challenges both for the researchers and the organisations in keeping gender on the agenda, drawing on the identification of work practices and work‐life policies that impede organisational effectiveness and gender equity and the subsequent work culture diagnosis for each organisation.Findings – The way in which the “gender problem” within an organisation is framed is strategicall...

Dynamics of parental leave in Anglophone countries: the paradox of state expansion in liberal welfare regimes

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how the “right to request” flexible working arrangements (FWAs), located in national policy and in organisational policy contexts, are brought to life in the workplace by employees and their managers. The authors seek to understand the nature and content of requests, the process followed in attending to requests, the scope of the arrangements which resulted and the implications for the work of both employees and managers. Design/methodology/approach – The authors employ a case study method, investigating how formal “right to request” FWAs policies translate to practice within two large companies in Australia. The primary data focuses on 66 in-depth interviews with line managers, employees and key organisational informants. These interviews are triangulated with legislative, company and union policy documents. Findings – Most requests were made by mothers returning from maternity leave. Typically their requests involved an attempt to move from full-time ...

Broadening the Horizons of HRM: Lessons for Australia from the US Experience

This paper evaluates parental leave policies across six Anglophone countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the UK and the USA) to assess system fit with a liberal welfare regime classification. The focus is on comparison within welfare regime classification (rather than between regimes), enabling complexity and variation to be explored. The comparative policy analysis uses national government and international Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development data sources with case studies of policy change between 2004 and 2014 in Australia and the UK. Evidence suggests that contrary to market-oriented, liberal welfare regime predictions, there has been an expanding role of the state in developing parental leave policies, extending their duration and increasing the payment level. With the exception of the USA, parental leave provision, predominately maternal in focus, is embedded in the state policies of contemporary liberal welfare countries.

An equality bargaining breakthrough: Paid domestic violence leave:

Although a ‘new generation’ of HR professionals in Australia have proclaimed that they are engaged in more ‘strategic’ issues of management than their predecessors, there are a number of emerging problems in the workplace and organisations which need to be addressed. Australian HR professionals need to be engaged in developing a new ‘social contract’ which includes greater attention to work and family issues, investment in skills development to build a ‘knowledge economy’ and new retirement policies at the national level to provide adequate incomes for the ‘greying generation’ of Australians. This requires HR professionals to broaden the agenda of issues in which they are engaged.