Flexible Working Hours a Distant Horizon

May 2006

Fewer public servants are satisfied with their access to flexible working hours now than in 2000, according to the Career Progression and Development Survey 2005. The State Services Commission’s survey asked public servants to rate their organisations against a range of factors that impact on work-life balance. Fifty-three percent of respondents rated their job as “good” in terms of flexible working hours, down from 61 percent in 2000.

The report found that flexibility around working hours was considered the most important factor in work-life balance.

Of those who sought parental leave, those who found access “good” had also declined slightly from 58 percent to 54 percent, despite legislative changes intended to extend certain employees’ entitlements to parental leave.

Fewer than 10 percent rated their flexibility to work from home as ”good”, which the survey’s authors put down to the majority of public service roles being “face to face” or frontline jobs.

On the positive side, the survey noted a drop in the number who reported working more hours per week than they were paid for, from 76 percent in 2000 to 68 percent in 2005. The survey’s authors said that an increased focus on work-life balance as well as an increase in employee numbers may have accounted for the drop-off in staff working additional hours.

Read the survey report

Across the labour mark, evidence from the Department of Labour’s Work/Life Balance Project reported that flexible start and finish times were rated as the most important and helpful arrangement by employees.

79 percent of the employees surveyed had access to occasional minor variations in start and finish times.
55 percent had access to flexible start and finish times.
30 percent would like to work less hours than they currently do, even if it meant earning less money
32 percent believe that there are negative effects of using work/life arrangements. The most commonly reported effect was “being resented by fellow workers.”
31 percent indicated that they might feel uncomfortable discussing work/life balance issues with their manager, depending on the issue

Employers surveyed by Work/Life Balance project said:

40 percent needed to have everyone at work at the same time and
33 percent said work life balance initiatives were too complicated.

On Friday April 21, a Victoria University Institute of Policy Studies conference on work-life balance explored flexible working hours, with perspectives from international, government and trade union agencies.
Read more: Reconciling work and family: Research and Policy perspectives

Families with Dependent Children: Successful Outcomes [Families Commission study]

Meanwhile, the Transport and Employment Relations Committee has shelved further action on the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill for a year.

The committee’s interim report said the amendment had stimulated “healthy debate”. While the need for flexible working hours was agreed, the mechanism for delivering them was not, as it was a complex matter, the report said.

“Some employers have already introduced flexible working practices, but many employees submit that they are not sufficiently available,” the report said.

The select committee decided to put the matter aside for a year, requesting officials to carry out more consultation and collect more reliable information on how existing flexible work practices operate in New Zealand.

Read Interim Report

Meanwhile, Britain has just conducted a Labour Force Survey (LFS) that threw up the similar problems. The British Trades Union Congress (TUC) said the survey showed “a massive mismatch between the hours and patterns of work that employees want, and what they can get”.

Although one in ten British workers said they would like to work fewer hours even if it involved a cut in pay, they were unable to do so, the TUC said.

“Furthermore, the LFS evidence shows that just over half a million employees report that they have asked their employer if they can change their hours but have not been able to get what they want,” says the TUC.

Read the TUC analysis of the Labour Force Survey.