9. Work–Life Balance

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Cabrelli
Keyword(s):  
Maternity Leave ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Family Friendly ◽  
The Right ◽  
Employment Rights

This chapter analyses the statutory employment ‘family-friendly’ rights contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the subordinate legislation which has a bearing on the work–life balance of employees, workers, and other individuals providing personal services. These include the protection of pregnant workers, and the statutory arrangements for maternity leave and maternity pay. It also examines family-friendly measures which seek to achieve a more equal division of family responsibilities between couples, such as the statutory rights to shared parental leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, and parental leave, as well as the right to request flexible working and right to take time off work to deal with dependants.

9. Work–Life Balance

2020 ◽  
pp. 309-346
Author(s):  
David Cabrelli
Keyword(s):  
Maternity Leave ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Personal Services ◽  
Family Friendly ◽  
Employment Rights

This chapter analyses the statutory employment ‘family-friendly’ rights contained in the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the subordinate legislation which has a bearing on the work–life balance of employees, workers, and other individuals providing personal services. These include the protection of pregnant workers, and the statutory arrangements for maternity leave and maternity pay. It also examines family-friendly measures which seek to achieve a more equal division of family responsibilities between couples, such as the statutory rights to shared parental leave, paternity leave, adoption leave, and parental leave, as well as the rights to request flexible working and to take time off work to deal with dependants.

5. The work–life balance legislation

2019 ◽  
pp. 366-429
Author(s):  
Ian Smith ◽  
Aaron Baker ◽  
Owen Warnock
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
The Law ◽  
The Right ◽  
Rest Breaks ◽  
Balance Problems

This chapter addresses a number of legislative regimes creating rights that affect the balance between work and life outside of work. Specifically, the discussion focuses on the controls over working hours and rest breaks and the right to paid annual leave in the Working Time Regulations; the law on maternity, adoption, paternity, shared parental and other parental leave; and the right to request flexible working arrangements. Although not all of these rights can claim work–life balance as their original policy driver, they have come to be seen as representing a loosely coherent programme for ensuring that the process of earning a living does not preclude any worker from enjoying other aspects of life, especially family life. The chapter considers, singly, each of these work–life rights, and the policies and legislation behind them and assesses whether the law delivers effective and useful rights. Gender inequality forms a central theme of the chapter, noting that many work–life balance problems flow from unequal gender norms in the home.

scholarly journals The right to request flexible working arrangements under the Work-life Balance Directive – A comparative perspective

2021 ◽  
pp. 203195252110382
Author(s):  
Lisa Waddington ◽  
Mark Bell
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Full Potential ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Legal Provisions ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Time Work ◽  
The Right

The 2019 Work-life Balance Directive creates a new right for parents and carers to request flexible working arrangements for caring purposes. The significance of this innovation has been heightened by the pandemic because it includes the right to request remote working arrangements. This article undertakes a contextual and comparative analysis in order to understand better the strengths, limitations and opportunities created by the Directive. It compares the right to request flexible working arrangements to provisions found in existing Directives on parental leave and part-time work, as well as protections that may be derived from EU equality law. It looks also at examples of existing legislation in two jurisdictions, the Netherlands and Australia, in order to illustrate the options available to Member States when they implement this right within domestic law. The article concludes that the full potential of this right can only be understood when it is viewed as part of a wider range of legal provisions that assist in the reconciliation of work and family life.

scholarly journals Women’s employment patterns after childbirth and the perceived access to and use of flexitime and teleworking

2017 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 47-72 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heejung Chung ◽  
Mariska van der Horst
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Working Hours ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Large Household ◽  
Family Demands ◽  
The Uk ◽  
The Right

This article sets out to investigate how flexitime and teleworking can help women maintain their careers after childbirth. Despite the increased number of women in the labour market in the UK, many significantly reduce their working hours or leave the labour market altogether after childbirth. Based on border and boundary management theories, we expect flexitime and teleworking can help mothers stay employed and maintain their working hours. We explore the UK case, where the right to request flexible working has been expanded quickly as a way to address work–life balance issues. The dataset used is Understanding Society (2009–2014), a large household panel survey with data on flexible work. We find some suggestive evidence that flexible working can help women stay in employment after the birth of their first child. More evidence is found that mothers using flexitime and with access to teleworking are less likely to reduce their working hours after childbirth. This contributes to our understanding of flexible working not only as a tool for work–life balance, but also as a tool to enhance and maintain individuals’ work capacities in periods of increased family demands. This has major implications for supporting mothers’ careers and enhancing gender equality in the labour market.

5. The work–life balance legislation

2019 ◽  
pp. 351-419
Author(s):  
Ian Smith ◽  
Aaron Baker ◽  
Owen Warnock
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Rest Breaks ◽  
Balance Problems

This chapter addresses a number of legislative regimes creating rights that affect the balance between work and life outside of work. Specifically, the discussion focuses on rights to a guaranteed minimum wage; to rest breaks, paid leave, and a maximum 48-hour working week; to maternity, paternity, adoption, and other parental leave; and to request flexible working arrangements. Although not all of these rights can claim work–life balance as their original policy driver, they have come to be seen as representing a loosely coherent programme for ensuring that the process of earning a living does not preclude any worker from enjoying other aspects of life, especially family life. The chapter considers, singly, each of these work–life rights, and the policies and legislation behind them. Gender inequality forms a central theme of the chapter, noting that many work–life balance problems flow from unequal gender norms in the home, and that legislation should be judged according to how forthrightly it tackles these inequalities.

scholarly journals Work-life balance and the legal right to request flexible working arrangements

2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
L Dancaster
Keyword(s):  
Work And Family ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
New Right ◽  
International Studies ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Family Friendly ◽  
The Government ◽  
Legal Right

In 2003, eligible employees in the United Kingdom acquired the legal right to request flexible working arrangements. The government believes that this new right will provide parents with greater choice and support in balancing work and childcare, whilst being compatible with business efficiency. This article critically appraises this new right and examines how it is applied in relation to other UK legislation on discrimination and unfair dismissal. An overview of international studies on corporate efforts to introduce family-friendly arrangements, and an overview of governmental efforts to address the reconciliation of work and family-life is provided in this article, with a view to arguing that there is a need, in South Africa, for state policy regarding work-life balance and for further research into corporate efforts to introduce family-friendly work arrangements.   

A Father’s Entitlement to Paternity and Parental Leave in Lithuania: Necessary Legislative Changes Following the Adoption of the Directive on Work–Life Balance

2021 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-202
Author(s):  
Ingrida Mačernytė-Panomariovienė ◽  
Rytis Krasauskas
Keyword(s):  
Parental Leave ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Good Work ◽  
Equal Opportunities ◽  
The European Union ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Eu Directive ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Legislative Changes

Abstract There is a great deal of legislation that has been adopted by the European Union which, in one way or another, aims at ensuring equal opportunities and a good work–life balance. One specific issue in this area relates to childcare leave. In practice, providing for equal opportunities has meant enabling women to integrate into the labor market, to advance their careers, and to have more guarantees and rights at work. In reality, thus far these measures have not been effective enough. The new Directive (EU) 2019/1158 on work–life balance for parents and carers, adopted on 20 June 2019, seeks to increase the take-up of family-related leave and flexible working arrangements by men (fathers). The purpose of this article is to assess what effects this new EU directive will have upon Lithuanian law in this area.

20. Family-friendly statutes

2019 ◽  
pp. 343-368
Author(s):  
Stephen Taylor ◽  
Astra Emir
Keyword(s):  
Maternity Leave ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Health And Safety ◽  
Safety Issues ◽  
Paternity Leave ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Family Friendly ◽  
Care Health ◽  
The Right ◽  
The Impact

This chapter looks at ‘family-friendly employment laws’ and breaks each down into its component parts. It also considers whether it is appropriate that the statute book should reflect a commitment to a ‘work-life balance’, or whether this kind of legislation in fact ignores the needs of business and therefore has a deleterious effect on the economy. It begins with a background on ‘family-friendly’ legislation. It then discusses ante-natal care, health and safety issues, maternity leave, maternity pay, paternity leave, shared parental leave, adoption leave, parental leave, time off for dependants, the right to request flexible working, the right to request time off for training and the impact of family-friendly legislation.

5. The Regulation of Terms and Conditions At Work

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Smith ◽  
Aaron Baker ◽  
Owen Warnock
Keyword(s):  
Family Life ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
Gender Norms ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Central Theme ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Flexible Working ◽  
Rest Breaks ◽  
Balance Problems

This chapter addresses a number of legislative regimes creating rights that affect the balance between work and life outside of work. Specifically, the discussion focuses on rights to a guaranteed minimum wage; to rest breaks, paid leave, and a maximum 48-hour working week; to maternity, paternity, adoption, and other parental leave; and to request flexible working arrangements. Although not all of these rights can claim work–life balance as their original policy driver, they have come to be seen as representing a loosely coherent programme for ensuring that the process of earning a living does not preclude any worker from enjoying other aspects of life, especially family life. The chapter considers, singly, each of these work–life rights, and the policies and legislation behind them. Gender inequality forms a central theme of the chapter, noting that many work–life balance problems flow from unequal gender norms in the home, and that legislation should be judged according to how forthrightly it tackles these inequalities.

scholarly journals Work–Life Balance of the Employed Population During the Emergency Situation of COVID-19 in Latvia

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jelena Lonska ◽  
Iveta Mietule ◽  
Lienite Litavniece ◽  
Iluta Arbidane ◽  
Ivars Vanadzins ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Sudden Change ◽  
Emergency Situation ◽  
Research Programme ◽  
Work Life ◽  
Private Life ◽  
Work Life Balance ◽  
Family Responsibilities ◽  
Life Balance ◽  
Work Family ◽  
The Right

All the employees face the challenge of finding the right work–life balance. The ability of employees to deal with the successful combining of work, family responsibilities, and personal life is crucial for both employers and family members of employees. During the COVID-19 emergency situation, many people around the world were forced to work remotely. Initially, there were observed some certain expectations about the possibility of working from home as a positive factor that will promote work–life balance. However, over time, negative tendencies were also revealed, as employees were only one call or message away from the employer, and uncertainty and leisure time with family often created more stress. As many organizations and individuals were not ready for this sudden change, many mistakes were made, which further raised the issue of work–life balance. The aim of the research was to evaluate the flexibility of reconciling work and private life of Latvian employees in various socio-demographic groups during the COVID-19 emergency situation in spring 2020, to investigate how family life influenced employees’ ability to perform work duties, to find out if employees had any additional housework responsibilities and how their workload changed concerning housework amount during the COVID-19 emergency situation. The research is based on the data obtained in the survey of the Latvian employed population, which was conducted within the framework of the Latvian National Research Programme Project “CoLife” in the second half of 2020. As a result, the hypothesis of the research that all groups of employees experienced work–life balance difficulties during the COVID-19 emergency situation has been partially confirmed, i.e., women in the 18–44 age group and respondents with minor children in the household more likely faced difficulties of work–life balance. The scientific research methods that were used in the research are the monographic method, content analysis, survey, data processing with SPSS to determine the mutual independence of the data from the questionnaires.

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