Submission

Work-Family Balance and Federal Labour Standards:
A Community Organization's Perspective

Table of Contents

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Key recommendations

ISSUES

BACKGROUND

CONCERNS

RECOMMENDATIONS

CONCLUSION

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Work-family balance is a growing concern for Canadians today. Work-life (work-family) balance has even been acknowledged as one of the key drivers of the review of the Canada Labour Code. The Federal Labour Standards Review consultation paper states that one of the key challenges facing employers, unions and governments today is how to make it easier for Canadians to achieve a better work-life balance. The federal government needs to build on this acknowledgement by providing leadership in the area of work-family balance.

Addressing work-family balance is not just the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do. Research indicates helping employees enhance their work-family balance makes good business sense. Workplaces that address the work-family issues of their employees are better at recruiting and retaining their employees; have reduced absenteeism and stress rates; have higher productivity, increased workforce morale and greater employee commitment to the workplace. As well, there is strong evidence indicating lack of work-family balance costs our health care system. Addressing work-family balance is a win-win situation for employees, employers, families, communities and government

There are a variety of solutions to begin to deal with the problems arising from a lack of work-family balance. Not all these solutions are legislative in nature, but work on changing the broader culture and the workplace culture.

Key recommendations

Non-legislative

• We recommend the federal government provide leadership in the area of work-family balance, including the development of a pan-Canadian strategy on work-family balance.
• We recommend the federal government provide support for community partnership groups who are motivated to work on this issue.

Legislative

• We recommend the Canada Labour Code be revised to include 10 days of paid Family Responsibility Leave.
• We recommend the federal government address in the Canada Labour Code the need to support women returning to work following a maternity/parental leave with paid breastfeeding/expressing breaks.
• We recommend the federal government address in the Canada Labour Code the ability for employees to have some control over the number of hours they work in the years when their care responsibilities are the greatest (ie. the right to work part-time).
• We recommend the federal government address in the Canada Labour Code the long-hours work culture that has emerged in the last two decades.
• We recommend the federal government, through both its Labour Code and its Employment Insurance Act, address the concerns of those who utilize compassionate care leave, maternity and parental leave.

ISSUES

Since 1994, the Balancing Work and Family Alliance has been addressing the issue of work-family balance with a broad range of citizens/organizations. The outreach and awareness work in which we have been engaged has positioned us to hear what individuals are saying about their often-competing roles as employees and caregivers and to gain greater insight and understanding of the issue. Some of the themes and challenges that have emerged are:

• Lack of time for anything but work, which leads to a feeling of lack of balance in the rest of life - shortage of family/personal time;
• Little sense of control over life at work;
• Overloaded at work - too much work to do, necessitating too many hours spent in the workplace;
• New and creative ways of doing work are required in order to assist individuals to achieve more balanced work and family lives.

Our world has changed a great deal since the Canada Labour Code was enacted in 1965. Consider the impact of globalization, the demographics of our population (ageing of our workforce), the entrance en masse of mothers with young children into the labour force, the increased emphasis on extended hours of operations (open seven days a week, 24 hours a day), and the growing number of single parent families where the full-time caregiver is also in the labour force. Combine these and other factors with the lack of workplace and societal cultures that support individuals in their dual roles as employees and caregivers. These are just a few of the reasons why our work and family lives have become "out of balance". Canada's Labour Standards must be amended to properly reflect and address the realities of today's work world and population demographics to ensure all employees have the opportunity to some support and means to achieve balance between their working and their caring lives.

BACKGROUND

The Balancing Work and Family Alliance is an incorporated, non-profit community organization that formed in 1994 following a successful conference in Saskatchewan called "Workplace and Families: Partnerships for the Future." Originally called the Saskatoon Family Work Partnership (SWFP), the organization changed its name in 1999 to reflect its scope of activity and provincial engagement when it incorporated and became a non-profit group.

• address work-family issues;
• foster change in the culture of the workplace;
• and foster productivity within workplaces.

Because the Balancing Work and Family Alliance consists of individuals from a variety of sectors, we can work across sectors to build capacity to address the issue whether it be with an employer, an employee, a government agency, a community group, a union representative, etc. As we are a citizen-based group, we can engage in broad-based discussions on work-family balance and not be hampered by the constraints government, business or labour may experience if they were trying to have the same discussion on their own. Our work as an independent volunteer organization has allowed us to harness the energy of others willing to give their time to this issue and to build the volunteer capacity around it. The Balancing work and Family Alliance has provided leadership to groups in Regina and Yorkton and has assisted them in forming their own work-family organizations.

The scope and range of activities in which the Balancing Work and Family Alliance has been involved indicates the ability of this group to speak to this issue. To demonstrate the willingness of a multiplicity of sectors to work together on the issue of work-family balance, some of Balancing Work and Family Alliance activities since 1994 have included:

• Providing work-family awareness sessions at a number of conferences between 1994-1997
• Participating in the 1997-1998 Government of Saskatchewan's Balancing Work and Family Task Force
• Assisting with the organization of the 1998 conference Balancing Work and Family (received federal funding for this event to ensure lower-waged women could attend)
• Co-sponsoring a discussion evening with Sharing the Work, Sparing the Planet author Anders Hayden in February 2001 (other partners included the Work and Family Unit, Saskatchewan Labour and the Saskatchewan Environmental Society);
• Obtaining funding for small business project focused in Saskatoon and Yorkton called Work and Family: Business and Community Take Action. The project aimed to enhance the efforts of small businesses and local organizations in providing family-friendly work environments;
• Assisting the Saskatchewan Women's Institutes in preparing the 1999 document Report on Balancing Work and Family Focus Groups: Rosetown, Lanigan, Grenfell;
• Organizing with partners the public discussion The Economics of Eldercare: The Bottomline for the Workplace in Saskatoon in 2001 featuring economist Michael McCracken (partnered with the Work and Family Unit and the Saskatoon Caregiver Centre);
• Sponsoring April 2002 workshop in Saskatoon titled Family-Friendly Workplaces - Examples that Make Economic Sense with guest speaker Jane Boyd;
• Establishing in 2002 a Sector Advisory Council bringing together business, labour, community and government leaders three times a year to address work-family issues and to keep them engaged in the discourse;
• Co-sponsoring Saskatoon luncheon in March 2003 featuring Ken Dryden's presentation Towards a different future: How can we help our kids do better?
• Partnering with community-based groups in Saskatoon, Yorkton and Regina to deliver a video conference for young employees in March 2003 called Get a Life: The Quest for Work and Life Balance;
• Co-sponsoring the Leaders' Dinner in Saskatoon in March 2003 highlighting work-family balance leaders from business;
• Organizing a town hall forum in Saskatoon called Helping Kids Eat Well: Nutrition, Work-Family Balance and the Food Industry in March, 2004 - an opportunity to discuss children's nutrition in the context of the lack of work and family balance and the way the food industry is structured in Canada.

The project in which the BWFA is currently engaged is the development of a biennial educational/recognition work-family balance award in partnership with the Work and Family Unit, Saskatchewan Labour. In 2002, the Ministers Responsible for Labour from all Canadian jurisdictions released a report on work-family balance that recommended awards programs as an effective means of making progress in this area. Since that time, the Balancing Work and Family Alliance and the Work and Family Unit have worked together to create an award that will engage both employers and employees. The partners will launch the 2005 Saskatchewan Work and Family Balance Awards this September. The Balancing Work and Family Alliance has received funding for these awards from the provincial government, through the Work and Family Unit. This is an example of how leadership from government can enable and assist groups like the Balancing Work and Family Alliance to do its work.

CONCERNS

Some of our concerns include how to get individuals and workplaces to recognize the issue of work-family balance; how to get them engaged in it; and how to get them involved in the discussion of how we might better reconcile our conflicting responsibilities of work and family. How do we make the issue of lack of work-family balance a public debate? In order to make progress in this area and truly impact the culture in which we live and work, we need people to understand why the issue of work-family balance has arisen; we need people to talk about it; and we need people to determine what their vision of a balanced life is. We need to ensure we have a range of individuals and organizations involved in the formation of solutions, as these solutions need to work for families and for the workplace. Addressing work-family balance is a win-win situation for everyone involved.

Research in Canada and other countries has identified the issues of overload and lack of balance, and the impact these issues have on individuals, families and societies. The effects of overload and lack of balance are creating difficulties for more and more people in our society. They are creating pressures and stressors, negatively impacting individuals and their ability to be productive in the workplace, and increasing health care and benefits utilization.

The Balancing Work and Family Alliance has been working on finding solutions to the lack of work-family balance with few resources and would greatly benefit from some support to sustain this kind of community process in which we are involved. Our organization has benefited from having leadership in this area within the Saskatchewan government through the Work and Family Unit, Saskatchewan Labour. The Unit has provided us with professional advice and consultation to assist us in our organization's development and has partnered with us on many occasions. Without this kind of leadership, support and capacity-building from the Work and Family Unit, the kind of work we have done would not have been possible.

We know from our work since 1994, the growing numbers we see at our events and the willingness of other organizations to partner with us that there is an interest in the area of work-family balance. People want to be involved and be a part of making change, but there is currently little support for non-governmental organizations in changing the workplace and macro-culture. There is no pan-Canadian concentrated effort or strategy to address the impact that a lack of work-family balance has on employees, workplaces, communities and governments. We know from our experience here in Saskatchewan that having leadership from the government has enabled us to do the work we do. It is our belief, if there was a national work-family strategy in place, our efforts could have a much greater impact.

Another concern is the need for changes in the Canadian Labour Code. We have heard the message loud and clear that labour standards in Canada need to address in a meaningful way the changes that have occurred in the workplace, in our society and in the lives of the workers since the Code was introduced. The many community sessions in which we've been involved since 1994 have led us to believe that both employers and employees are interested in changes in labour legislation that could facilitate the development of more modern workplaces. The current lack of legislation that considers and reflects work-family issues has meant:

• There are times when children who are ill are left at home unattended or with a sibling who must skip school to provide care because a parent cannot afford to lose a day's pay or risk loss of job to stay home from work with him/her.
• There are times when a parent is unable to address issues of importance in his/her child's life because of an inability to leave work, even for a short period of time, for such things as a meeting at the child's school.
• When a mother returns to her paid employment after the birth of a child, breastfeeding is often cut short because employers do not accommodate the needs of a breastfeeding employee. This premature weaning can impact the health of the mother and child, and can have economic costs for both the employer and the taxpayer (through the health care system).
• Fragmented and 'dated' (not reflecting current context) regulations and legislation are resulting in gaps, including the lack of coverage or protection for some workers. Some individuals are vulnerable and subject to abuse. An example is the way in which our government currently supports employees in the short-term in their caring responsibilities through Employment Insurance. It is both inequitable and inadequate with narrow eligibility requirements, provisions and levels of support.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Non-legislative

1. We recommend the federal government provide leadership in the area of work-family balance, including the development of a pan-Canadian strategy on work-family balance. This could include the federal government providing to industry, business and other organizations research and information on this issue, including the benefits of creating a family-friendly work environment. The government could also provide incentives to encourage organizations to adopt approaches that would support work and family programs while promoting and enhancing productivity.
2. We recommend the federal government provide support for community partnership groups who are motivated to work on this issue. This leadership could come in the form of programming with voluntary take-up that would allow groups like the Balancing Work and Family Alliance to work on this issue by accessing funding for education and awareness work; training and community-sponsored research; and pilot projects. This would create an environment in which local groups across the country can say, "Why don't we have a conference on work-family issues every two years." The more this is happening elsewhere, the more likely it is the efforts of an organization like the Balancing Work and Family Alliance will have an effect.

Legislative

1. We recommend the Canada Labour Code be revised to include 10 days of paid Family Responsibility Leave. Family Responsibility Leave is the ability to take time away from work to deal with emergencies or sickness of children/elders/spouse. Currently, there are tremendous inequities around Family Responsibility Leave. Six jurisdictions across the country have entrenched (unpaid) Family Responsibility Leave, many union contracts provide paid days to care for ill/injured loved ones and many white collar workers and managers also have this kind of benefit. It is lower-waged, vulnerable employees who could most benefit from paid Family Responsibility Leave who do not have it.
2. We recommend the federal government address in the Canada Labour Code the need to support women returning to work following a maternity/parental leave with paid breastfeeding/expressing breaks. This includes supporting women whose breastfeeding child is under the age of two. A breastfeeding break is a period that a breastfeeding mother takes during her workday for breastfeeding her child or expressing her milk. Breastfeeding is also a form of work. Women whose infants are under 12 months need up to 60 minutes per day (three 20-minute periods) to nurse or to express/pump. The ILO revised maternity protection also recommends providing women with an additional 30 minutes per day to support the mother whose infant is older than 12 months and continues to breastfeed. Providing women with this support will allow more women to have flexibility as to when they return to paid employment and allow more fathers access to parental leave.
3. We recommend the federal government address in the Canada Labour Code the ability for employees to have some control over the number of hours they work in the years when their care responsibilities are the greatest (ie. the right to work part-time). Working less than full-time hours can be a viable option for some employees with care responsibilities, as long as those who are working these hours are not marginalized or belittled for doing so; and that they still have access to the same benefits as their full-time counterparts, but on a pro-rated basis. Other federal governments, including Great Britain, have made legislative provisions for flexible work where employees have the right to ask their employers to, at the very least, consider flexible work options.
4. We recommend the federal government address in the Canada Labour Code the long-hours work culture that has emerged in the last two decades. This could involve ensuring provisions for vacation and statutory holidays are clarified and revised so the Code requires employees to be given the time off for rest and recovery. The standard 40-hour workweek has, for many, in reality become much longer. There are ongoing surveys that indicate many groups of workers not only put in long hours at work, they also take work home (or on vacation with them), resulting even more hours of work. Not only is it the parents and the other caregivers who are tired at the end of a double-duty day. Those for whom they provide care also share in this oft times overwhelming tiredness.
5. We recommend the federal government, through both its Labour Code and its Employment Insurance Act, address the concerns of those who utilize compassionate care leave, maternity and parental leave. Enduring the two-week waiting period before benefits begin is a hardship for many people. Living without two weeks of salary is an issue for many, especially lower-waged employees. As well, as the eligibility requirements for EI currently exist, many employees cannot tap into this fund to support them in their caring responsibilities; and, even if they meet the eligibility requirements, living off the 55 per cent wage replacement rate, even with the low-income supplement, is out of the question for many. As EI currently sits, it is an inequitable program that treats employees who have care responsibilities very differently from one another.

CONCLUSION

In light of the preceding recommendations, it is important to keep in mind there are benefits to be gained by both employees and employers in creating more family-friendly workplaces. Helping employees achieve work-family balance is not simply an altruistic act of the benevolent employer; rather, it makes good business sense. Research indicates workplaces that address the work-family issues of their employees are better at recruiting and retaining their employees (which is critical to note in this day and age of impending labour shortages); have reduced absenteeism and stress rates; have higher productivity and increased workforce morale.