Private sector lags behind in work-life balance

Private employers agree that there is a need to adopt measures that would help workers strike a better balance between work and life but badly lack knowledge about the kind of measures they could take, according to research commissioned by the Employment and Training Corporation.

"This lack of knowledge is a major stumbling block," research consultant Marika Fsadni said.

Ms Fsadni, herself an employer at M. Fsadni & Associates, said the ETC should promote awareness and give information and advice to employers who wanted to implement work-life balance measures.

Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi noted on Tuesday that, while the public sector had been a pioneer in family-friendly measures, the private sector was still lagging behind.

This was reiterated by Social Policy Minister John Dalli the next day in an ETC conference on work-life reconciliation. He spoke about the importance of introducing systems that would encourage women to work from home but said the private sector still had ground to cover.

The research, partly funded by the European Commission and carried out in collaboration with Cyprus, Iceland, Slovenia and Sweden, found that 77 per cent of the employers interviewed claimed to implement some form of work-life balance measures. But they identified a number of stumbling blocks in the way of putting such measures in practice, including the fact that the management often did not have the knowledge or capability to implement such measures and perceived the implementation costs to be high.

The research also found lack of knowledge and information about the benefits of work-life balance, although some employers pointed out that such measures should help retain good, talented and trained employees and boost worker motivation.

The employers believed that reduced hours led to reduced output, which would, in turn, cause logistical challenges for the company and disrupt its set-up.

The study found that employers were more likely to grant work-life balance measures to workers who needed them for family reasons rather than for reasons related to quality of life.

Mr Dalli noted that female participation in the workforce was higher among younger age groups. National Statistics Office figures show that, while the gap between men and women is a marginal 2.5 per cent for under 25-year-olds, this climbs to 45.8 per cent for those between 25 and 54.

The ETC will be launching a two-year promotional campaign, funded by the European Social Fund, to promote the benefits of sharing the family's responsibilities between both parents. The campaign will be challenging cultural stereotypes and encourage employers to offer flexible working conditions.