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Office of Fair and Safe Work Queensland
Department of Justice and Attorney-General
Home > Industrial Relations > Work, family and lifestyle > Work-life Balance Information Kit

Work-life Balance Information Kit

This information kit is designed for Human Resources (HR) and Industrial Relations (IR) managers to assist with the successful implementation of work-life balance policies in organisations.

How to use this kit
What are work-life balance policies?
Why do we need to deal with work-life balance?
Work-life balance policies available in the Queensland private sector

How to use this kit

This kit provides information applicable to all Queensland workplaces, although individual workplaces may choose to customise the information to better suit their specific environments.

The content of the kit is categorised according to the three main target areas of intervention, as follows:

Interventions at the organisational level
This category outlines interventions to be undertaken by HR/IR managers to ensure conditions for effective implementation of policies are in place in the organisation. Interventions at the organisational level would affect managers and staff and would require significant support from CEOs.

Interventions at the managerial level
This category outlines interventions to be undertaken by HR/IR managers that assist managers to effectively implement work-life balance policies.

Interventions at the employee level
This category outlines interventions to be undertaken by HR/IR managers to inform employees about work-life balance policies and teach employees how to negotiate for such policies.

The resources section provides the guides, templates and information sheets that HR/IR managers can use for their own purposes and to assist managers and employees access policies more efficiently.

 

What are work-life balance policies?

Work-life balance policies can be described as policies that help employees meet the needs of both their work life and their personal life. They include a wide variety of policies including:


Why do we need to deal with work-life balance?

Attraction and Retention

Close to 10.5 million people aged 15-64 years were employed in Australia in 2008, 2.2 million of which are employed in Queensland. A relatively large proportion of Australian employees of working age (36.3 per cent) are aged between 45 and 64 years and thus likely to retire within the next decade.

Older workers generally have a wealth of experience and skills obtained through their years in the workforce. As these people retire, businesses risk losing extensive specialist knowledge and capacity. Certain industries are exposed to greater risk as they have a higher proportion of workers aged 45-64 years, such as Education (47 per cent), Health and community services (42 per cent) and Agriculture, forestry and fishing (41 per cent).

Many occupations with relatively high proportions of workers aged 45-64 years also require higher skills levels. Forty-six per cent of managers and administrators, 38 per cent of advanced clerical and service workers and 37 per cent of associate professionals were aged 45 to 64 years in 2003. Professionals represented the occupational group with the largest number of workers aged 45-64 years with 640,900 people.

Between 1980 and 2005 the proportion of the population aged 65 years and over increased by 36.5 per cent. At the same time, the proportion of children (0-14 years) decreased 22.5 per cent. It is anticipated that these trends will accelerate in the future. With a relatively large number of people approaching retirement age over the next few decades, and fewer young people entering the labour force, there is a possibility of a shortage of labour to meet future demands. This will affect businesses as the competition for staff will intensify.

Part of being an attractive, competitive employer involves the provision of work-life balance policies, which can help retain older workers, as well as attract parents who have been out of the workforce due to caring responsibilities and young workers who want to combine work and study and leisure or who are planning to have families in the short-term future.

Source: Australian Bureau of Statistics

 

Legislative obligations

There are three major pieces of legislation that provide Queensland employees with rights to access work-life balance provisions.

Industrial Relations Act 1999 (PDF, 2.1 MB)
One of the stated objectives of the Industrial Relations Act 1999 (the Act) is to help balance work and family life. The Act provides for a variety of leave entitlements that apply to all Queensland employees (excluding those covered by federal awards or agreements) which may help them balance their work, family and lifestyle commitments, including parental leave, carer’s leave, bereavement leave, and cultural leave. The Act also provides a framework to protect employees against unfair dismissal on discriminatory grounds, including family responsibilities.

Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 (PDF, 785 KB)
The Anti-Discrimination Act 1991 prohibits discrimination on the basis of certain attributes including:

Employers need to be particularly careful not to breach anti-discrimination laws when dealing with employees with family responsibilities.

Terms of employment such as starting and finish times, the requirement to work full-time and attendance requirements are not directly discriminatory, but may be indirectly discriminatory.

Employers need to treat seriously requests for part-time work, flexible work hours, telecommuting and other flexible work arrangements. It is not enough to offer an employee their full-time position after returning from parental leave and let them go if they cannot work full-time. A requirement to work full-time must pass a test of reasonableness as outlined in section 29D of the Industrial Relations Act 1999

Family Leave Award 2003
The Family Leave Award 2003 sets down the terms of a number of leave provisions, including parental leave, carer’s leave and bereavement leave. The Award also provides for part-time employment for pregnant employees and employees who are the parent of a child under the age of 2 years.


Work-life balance policies available in the Queensland private sector

Provisions for work-life balance are roughly provided in three ways, including through:

  1. The Industrial Relations Act 1999
  2. Awards
  3. At the discretion of the manager
  1. Provisions under the IR Act are provided as rights and are available to all Queensland employees (covered under the Queensland industrial relations system) and include:

  2. Awards may contain clauses providing for a variety of work-life balance provisions. The following can be found in some awards:

    3. This means that the award by which an employee is covered determines access to these policies.

  3. Provisions provided at the manager’s discretion generally include:

These provisions are not covered under the Industrial Relations Act 1999 (PDF, 1.9 MB) and are generally not provided for in awards (with some exceptions). These provisions are usually made available as an informal arrangement, a formal HR policy or a formal agreement registered or approved by an authority or tribunal.

Last updated 22 July 2009