Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 7 October 2004
64 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment if he will report on the work being carried out by the national framework committee for work life balance; the measures he intends to take to improve work-life balance in order to further the goal of making workplaces more family friendly, including the legislation he intends to introduce in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23607/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThe development of work-life balance policies in Ireland is addressed on two fronts. First, through appropriate legislative measures which provide for statutory entitlements such as maternity leave, adoptive leave, carer's leave and parental leave. Further legislation is currently being finalised by my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to enhance certain provisions of existing legislation in relation to maternity, parental and adoptive leave. The main provisions of the new legislation will include; extended adoptive leave; paid time off work to attend ante-natal classes and an entitlement to take the parental leave in separate blocks of six continuous weeks.
Second, this development is addressed through the work of the national framework committee for work life balance policies, allied to a partnership approach in the workplace between employers, employees and trade unions. The committee has been charged with supporting and facilitating the development of a package of practical measures that can be applied at the level of the enterprise. One of the tasks assigned to the committee is to examine how best to improve access to family friendly working arrangements in order to realise the potential benefits that these arrangements would offer from both an equality and competitiveness perspective.
The national framework committee has undertaken and continues to undertake a range of activities, including: the national family friendly workplace day or work life balance day — as it is now known — has been an annual event since 2001; direct financial assistance to individual organisations to assist them in implementing or enhancing work-life balance working arrangements; assistance to organisations, through the establishment and part funding of a panel of consultants who are available to provide assistance to employers in implementing new working arrangements or developing existing work-life balance working arrangements; an interactive website —www.worklifebalance.ie; resources developed by ICTU and IBEC, which are represented on the committee, to assist their members in furthering work-life balance at the level of the enterprise; other information dissemination and exchange activities, including seminars at national and regional level, the publication of newsletters, leaflets etc.; and a number of pilot projects and research projects have been commissioned by the committee or undertaken on behalf of the committee. The most recent research published by the committee was Off the Treadmill — Achieving Work-Life Balance.
The committee is in the process of arranging a cost/benefit analysis of work life balance policies. The challenge to achieving work-life balance in individual enterprises is to establish policies that reflect the reality of the workplace and meet the many diverse needs of employees. I believe that a partnership approach is the best method of addressing work-life balance policies at this level in order to achieve tailor made solutions to the benefit of the workforce and the employer.
The Government is committed to the two pronged approach to achieving the goal of making workplaces more family friendly — the provision of statutory entitlements through legislative measures, and the voluntary approach at the level of the enterprise, which is encouraged at national level by the national framework committee for work life balance policies.
