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Work: how flexible would you like it
If you share a household with someone under the age of 14, over the last two weeks you have probably been asked when you will be purchasing a copy of the latest Pixar creation, The Incredibles.
It's a movie about a family of super heroes. Dad is super strong, daughter can become invisible (and has a force field), son can run so fast he can dash across water, baby can transmogrify, and mum is Elastigirl, the most flexible woman in the universe.
Perhaps if New Zealand's employment legislation had a mascot, it would be Elastigirl.
Over the last three years, employers have been challenged to become more flexible about employment relationships. First, the parental leave legislation was bolstered by providing a paid entitlement. Next, the holidays legislation was changed, to provide more benefits for those required to work on public holidays. Added to that, of course, the legislature introduced changes to recognise stress and fatigue as workplace hazards.
Taken together, all of these different changes represent a determined effort by our Government to promote what is now commonly referred to in newspeak as "work-life balance".
And now, if a Green Party initiative is carried through, there will be another change.
Rod Donald has proposed a Member's Bill, titled the "Flexible Working Hours Amendment". The purpose of the Bill is to provide encouragement for employees with young and dependent children to remain in the workforce.
It works like this: if you have recently become a parent, you are entitled to make a request of your employer to vary the hours that you would work. It may be, for example, that you only want to work on certain days – or that you want to reduce your hours on each day that you would normally work. You are given the right to nominate the situation that would work best for you. The employer then has an obligation to consider your proposal, and may only refuse your requested arrangement on limited grounds (including an inability to recruit additional staff to cover for the arrangement, detrimental effects on quality or performance, or a general inability to restructure to accommodate it). The employer's right to seek a flexible arrangement lasts until the child is five years old (or, if the child is disabled, 18 years old).
The legislation would be of equal application to any parent of a child – although it is expressly aimed at addressing what is considered to be an unacceptably high rate of removal from the workforce by women with dependent children below school age.
Perhaps predictably, opinion about the proposed law is split.
On the one hand, employee groups (particularly including unions) have applauded the additional protection that would be offered to employees by way of this legislation. Some employers have added support also, stating that they already consider it an obligation to explore flexible working arrangements for their employees.
On the other hand, Business New Zealand has described the proposed law as unnecessary, and has suggested that it will not work in practice.
Internationally, legislation of this type is not completely unknown. In fact, the Green party has based its Bill on similar legislation passed by the Blair Government in the United Kingdom.
Equally, however, legislation of this type is virtually unknown in other first world economies (such as the United States).
Will Elastigirl prevail in this country? Watch this space.
