Work and family

Christine with husband Ciro & daughters Taylor & Alana

An ACTU guide on how to juggle a career & the kids in the modern world in 3 easy steps - change the workplace, change the government & change your lives so you spend more time with
your family

Three-year-old Taylor can tell you where her mother works. It's where all the big cranes are.

Christine Romano has been a wharfie at P&O Port Botany since 1995. She's experienced first hand what a difference it makes having paid maternity leave.

Taylor was born before the union negotiated six weeks paid leave as part of the enterprise agreement. Baby Alana was born after.

"I got no leave for Taylor," said Christine. "That was hard. I guess six weeks is not that much. But it's something."

The ACTU wants a minimum 14 weeks paid maternity leave funded by the government and the taxpayer.

Most mothers want a year or more - whether it's paid or not. And like Christine they take it, even though it can make things tough financially.

"When you're used to having two wages and you have a mortgage it's not easy," said Christine. "My husband and mother are good with the kids. But I have this constant battle in my head. I want to stay home. There's no childcare as good as a mother's. I need to be here for them."

When Alana turns one at the end of the year, Christine will return to work again. She can't afford not to. But she's happy that P&O are letting her off shift work. She will only be doing clerical work. And she'll only work weekdays and evenings. It's around a $20,000 pay cut in lost penalty rates. But Christine says it is a small price to pay for the extra time she will have with her two children.

Christine is not alone. ACTU polling shows that more than half of workers feel their work is impinging on their family life.

Statistics show that 51 per cent of women take two years off after having children. The problem is that, unlike Christine, their job is often not waiting for them when they want to return.

The ACTU wants more family friendly workplaces and they are running a test case in the Australian Industrial Relations Commission to get it.

"It's all about choice," ACTU President Sharan Burrow told Congress in August. "The right for people to work when and how best it suits their families."

ACTU research shows one in four workers also care for a child, the old or the disabled. Children from single breadwinner families have joined children from single parent families in the poverty stakes. Only one in three dependant children in two parent families, and half of those in lone parent families have a 'stay at home' parent. Yet modern work hours are getting longer. Inflexible workplaces are causing havoc on families.

"Harvester man is long dead," Sharan Burrow told Congress. "But the institutions built around the days of the sole bread winner still prevail."

Research has shown double income families are better off than the old fashioned family where the dad goes to work and the mum stays at home. A double income inoculates families against job loss, it allows women to survive marriage breakdown and it has even been shown to increase fertility rates. What's more it helps companies retain skills.

Work must be built around families.

The ACTU is pushing for two years unpaid leave on top of the 14 weeks paid leave. Its test case will give workers options like the right to return to work part time, the right to change your hours of work or your place of work, unpaid leave for school holidays and emergency leave for family crisis.

Flexible hours, for example, could give parents like Christine the choice of taking four years pay over five years so she could have more time out to be with her children during school holidays or those crucial early years.

Or during family illness.

"The big problem is when the children get sick," said Christine. "We're only allowed 10 days a year. We really need more unpaid leave. When one comes down with something, it goes around the whole family. It would be nice not to get hassled when your kids are sick. I think it would be great."