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Balancing Work and Family Commitments in NSW Awards & Enterprise Agreements

Introduction
Reducing absenteeism
Unlimited leave provisions

Introduction

Balancing work and family responsibilities is becoming increasingly important in today's society. Many NSW enterprise agreements and enterprise awards demonstrate how to create a working environment which supports and recognises family responsibilities.

These measures help employers to retain valued skilled staff, reduce absenteeism, increase staff morale, improve productivity and increase profits. These examples cover measures designed to assist employees to balance work and family responsibilities introduced in two recent NSW enterprise.

Reducing absenteeism

A NSW enterprise agreement covering a food manufacturing business contains a range of initiatives to assist its employees to balance work and family responsibilities.

The objectives of the agreement include developing consultative processes to reorganise the way work is performed in order to accommodate the employees' family and personal lives.

By agreement with the supervisor, if family or personal circumstances prevent attendance at work or an emergency occurs, an employee may alter shifts, rearrange start and finish times or bring forward rostered days off.

This innovative procedure is further complemented by the inclusion of a personal carers' leave clause and the unlimited accumulation of sick leave entitlement.

An Improvement Team has also been established to examine factors which contribute to absenteeism and to make recommendations designed to reduce absenteeism.

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Unlimited leave provisions

A NSW enterprise agreement covering employees in a higher education institution has a demonstrated commitment to responding flexibly to the family responsibilities of its staff.

All female employees are entitled to 12 weeks paid maternity leave.

The agreement also provides for unlimited paid carers' leave, sick leave and bereavement leave.

Carers' leave and sick leave will be granted until such time as it is evident that the employee is unable to return to work to fulfil their contract of employment. This innovative clause is being trialled during the life of the agreement and will be reviewed to determine its continued operation.

These leave provisions highlight the need to develop strategies to support all aspects of employees lives and to assist in creating a work culture which values and recognises family responsibilities.