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Building on the What Women Want Survey Report: assisting young women in the Australian Public Service access

their rights and entitlements to flexible work arrangements


Danae Bosler and Kali Yuan

Abstract
What happens when a young working woman becomes a parent? What happens when she must care for her partner, parent or friend? For a significant number of women in the Australian Public Service (APS), the rights and entitlements which enable more flexible work arrangements that better balance work and caring responsibilities are not being accessed. This paper explores why and, additionally, how access to these rights and entitlements could be improved and increased.

From qualitative interviews, we discovered young women chose not to access many of their entitlements due to a perceived impact on their career progression, financial restraints such as child-care costs and sometimes, lack of support and approval from supervisors. From discussions about these factors, a number of key recommendations arose which aim to increase the opportunities to share information and build solidarity for young carers working in the APS. Specifically, the Community and Public Sector Union PSU Group (CPSU), which represents Australias public servants, could support the formation of part-time employee discussion groups or parents groups and assist in the development of information sheets on accessing a range of flexible work arrangements. Further, the CPSU could formally train delegates on providing individual assistance to workers requesting flexible work arrangements. The CPSU could also conduct more research into the possible negative impact of accessing flexible work arrangements upon career progression for women in APS.

Introduction
Since 2005, the CPSU has undertaken an annual survey of close to 10,000 working women. This represents the largest survey project of women undertaken by any Australian trade union and provides a vital evidence base for future organising which properly recognises what working women see as important industrial issues. A key finding of the CPSU What Women Want Survey Report 2010-2011 was that too few women are accessing flexible work arrangements. This was despite the majority of women surveyed reporting that they believed their actual entitlements were adequate for balancing work and family.

This key finding of the 2010/2011 report provoked a CPSU organiser and an active CPSU member to wonder what might be the next steps in improving womens access to entitlements. As young working women ourselves, we reflected on the life choices we will make in the coming years and the choices we see our friends and colleagues make to balance their professional aspirations and family responsibilities. We wondered how things might be better and how our union, the CPSU, could be part of improving the lives of young women who

work and who care for their young children. We set out to ask our friends and colleagues working in the APS about their career aspirations, their caring responsibilities and how their experience of family and work are intersecting. We asked what next and in particular, what can our union, the CPSU, do next to improve access to entitlements. The results of our enquiry form the basis of this paper.

We chose to reflect on the experiences of young women with caring responsibilities working in the APS for two reasons. First, the public sector is widely believed by the broader community to have working conditions that are recognised as best practice for model employers. Indeed, for our interviewees, the working conditions in the APS were a key drawcard one interviewee commented she is committed to the APS for life:
Im a lifer - Ill be in the public service for life as the conditions are good. The perception of a career with the one employer appeals to me as it means no more probation and you dont have to fight your way up the chain each time you move. Plus financial stability is important when raising a family.

The rights and entitlements that support flexible work arrangements in the APS include paid maternity leave, extended maternity leave taken at half pay, an average 18 days personal leave per year, annual leave, flexible working hours, access to part-time work and, in some circumstances, access to work-from-home arrangements. These working conditions are found in union-negotiated agreements across the APS. Possibly as a result of better flexible work rights and entitlements, the APS workforce today is predominantly female. Data from the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) show in 2009-2010, there were 86,822 women or 57.4 percent of the workforce in on-going work in the APS.1

Secondly, we chose to focus our paper on young women as women aged under 35 years make up 28.3 percent of the APS workforce.2 While this is a relatively small percentage of the overall APS workforce, with an aging public service and an increasing number of expected retirements, this number is expected to rise. A better understanding of the needs of young working women will assist greatly with retention and productivity.

Methodology
Although there appears to be no settled definition of young women, we defined young women for the purpose of our paper as women aged between 20 and 35 years for two reasons. First, this age group is recognised as younger adults by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).3 Further, Australias median age currently stands at 36.9 years, which supports defining younger adults as people younger than 35 years.4

Australian Public Service Commission, State of the Service Report 2009-2010: At a glance, available at www.apsc.gov.au, 2010 p. 11 2 Australian Public Service Commission, State of the Service Report 2009-2010: At a glance, available at www.apsc.gov.au, 2010, p. 11 3 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1367.2 - State and Regional Indicators Victoria, 2009; Australian Bureau of Statistics, 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends 2006, 2006 4 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3201.0 - Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories, 2010

Secondly, this age group is also when the vast majority of women in Australia give birth to their first and subsequent children. The Australia Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) figures show in 2008, 77.1 percent of women in Australia had their first child when aged between 20 and 35 years.5 At 30.3 percent, the figures show women were most likely to have their first child when aged 25 to 29. Women aged 30 to 34 years were close behind at 27.6 percent of first time mothers.6 These women are at the cusp of or have just started a different life stage balancing work and increasing caring responsibilities and their experiences and needs require more consideration given the different industrial relations landscape of the early twenty-first century.

In considering the most effective and appropriate methodology for our paper, we adopted a common research technique known as snowball sampling. Snowball sampling is where the subjects - in our case, young working women with caring responsibilities - assist the researchers by recruiting further subjects from within their social networks.

As this paper is an extension of broader conversations we have had with work colleagues and friends, our interviewees were sourced through our workplaces and wider friendship networks. While we acknowledge that snowballing as a non-random method may return numerous biases in results, for qualitative research such as ours, it proved valuable. Snowball sampling is recognised as an accepted methodology in qualitative social research for accessing marginalised or hard to reach social groups. 7 We adopted this research method also because it is cost-effective and utilises womens networking skills. Finally, we hoped that by having conversations with our friends and cascading those conversations into their broader networks, reflective and valuable recommendations would emerge.

From the onset, we consciously sought to follow feminist research methodology when preparing our paper. We understand feminist methodology to mean that, as authors, we are reflexive, critical and seek to empower the women involved in our paper.8 We aim to be activists in our field; by this, we hope our paper will contribute to a wider debate and lead to action. In our interviews, we attempted to challenge power imbalances inherent in researcher / subject relationships. Practically, we conducted six interviews over a four week period in July and August, 2011. Our interviews were conducted in workplaces and cafs in Melbourne and Canberra, where all the interviewees lived and worked. Our interviews were semi-structured, conducted in private and recorded by hand written notes rather than tape-recorded. The interviews typically went for between one to two hours. Babysitting was provided where needed and interviews were usually followed by lunch, providing further time for our conversations to extend beyond the formal interview. After the interview, dialogue continued with the interviewees, often through e-mail as we provided a transcript of our notes and actively sought further feedback and their on-going contribution.

Australian Institute of Family Studies, Family Facts and Figures, Canberra, available at www.aifs.gov.au, 2011 Ibid. 7 C Noy, Sampling Knowledge: The Hermeneutics of Snowball Sampling in Qualitative Research, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 11:4, 2008, pp. 327-44, p. 330 8 M de Vault & G Gross, Feminist Interviewing: Experience, Talk, and Knowledge in Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis, ed. S Nagy Hesse-Biber, Sage Publications, 2006, pp. 173-97, p. 173
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The women interviewed were in their late twenties and early thirties, working either full-time, part-time or were on maternity leave. A young working father in his early thirties was also interviewed he works part-time and occasionally from home due to equal primary care of a child with his wife who also works part-time in the APS. The job classification of the interviewees ranged from entry level to middle management and the duration of their employment in the APS also varied from only a few months to over 12 years. All interviewees were employed on an on-going basis.

All interviewees had or have had caring responsibilities.

The most common caring responsibility for

interviewees was for a dependent child. This placed the interviewees as part of a comparatively small (17.1 percent) cohort of young parents in the APS.9 One of the interviewees did not have a dependent child although planned to begin a family in the next five years. She had previously provided primary care for an older relative.

Why are young women not accessing their rights and entitlements?
Our qualitative interviews revealed some of the reasons why young carers, particularly young women, lack confidence in requesting and sometimes simply choose not to fully access the rights and entitlements which enable flexible work arrangements. Some of the reasons our interviewees discussed include concerns about potential negative impacts on their career progression and development opportunities, financial restraints such as the cost of child-care and other barriers, such as supervisor approval, of their proposed flexible work arrangements.

1. A perception that accessing flexible work arrangements limits career progression

All our interviewees indicated that deciding whether to access entitlements was a deeply personal dilemma utilise your carers entitlements and limit your career opportunities, or prioritise your career before caring responsibilities. Interviewees described their career aspirations as work that was exciting, challenging, technical and supported the community in a positive way - at least one young woman aspired to an APS career in leadership that was above middle management.

However, Australian women are notably under-represented in key leadership and decision-making positions at work. In the APS, for example, women make up 37 percent of the Senior Executive Service (SES).10 Balanced against this, in Australian households, women continue to do two thirds of the unpaid caring and domestic work. 11 Over a lifetime of unequal caring responsibilities, Australian women spend less time in the paid

Ibid, p. 20 Australian Public Service Commission, State of the Service 2008-09, available at www.apsc.gov.au/stateoftheservice/index.html, 2009 11 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 4153.0 How Australians Use Their Time 2006, 2008
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workforce, work fewer hours and have interrupted career patterns in comparison to men.12 In the workplace, this translates simply into reduced career opportunities for women.

One interviewee firmly believed her caring responsibilities had impacted on her career progression more negatively than her husbands career (he started in the department at a similar level and at the same time). After a year away on maternity leave and unexpected health concerns, she was on a part-time non-ongoing secondment to act up to Executive Level (EL) 1. Her husband had not taken parental leave and worked fulltime (longer hours over four days). He was working at an ongoing EL 2 level, occasionally acting up to SES 1 level. Another interviewee also reported seeing missed opportunities in her department:
Ive seen at work, women who have been on maternity leave missing out on the acting up opportunities and men have taken on managerial roles while women have been on maternity leaveWhen I returned from maternity leave, I heard about other mothers who were part time working three days a week and were advised they had to be working at least four days per week to have Team Leading opportunities.

While flexible working arrangements can assist working women and men organise a more equitable balance of work and family responsibilities, these arrangements remain uncommon. 13 When women do access family friendly employment conditions, often it is at the expense of job quality, pay, satisfaction with hours worked and career progression.14

One interviewee, when she returned from maternity leave, was able to change her hours and work patterns regularly and as needed, despite her supervisor changing five times during the past two years. However, she explained that she chose not to take up career opportunities that might be a risk to her accessing entitlements:

I had the opportunity to work in another team, however wasnt sure of the support I would get acknowledging my family responsibilities. There were no other mothers with younger children in the team, the team leader doesnt have children, and although I wasnt sure it would be a problem, I just didnt want to take the risk or the extra stress at this time of my life, if it did become a problem.

2. Financial restraints for young families including cost of child-care

For our interviewees, combining work and family was a complicated affair. Balancing a family budget, including the cost of child-care, was weighed against opportunities for career progression and as a result, better pay. Further, the desire to minimise the time a young child is in institutional care is weighed against the need to work overtime in a demanding but deeply rewarding job. One interviewee said:

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Australian Government Office for Women, Women in Australia 2009, available at www.fahcsia.gov.a u/sa/women/pubs/general/womeninaustralia/2009/Pages/default.aspx, 2009 13 Australian Human Rights Commission, Its about time: women, men, work and family, 2007, p. 86 14 Australian Human Rights Commission, Its about time: women, men, work and family, 2007, p. 87

When I found out I was pregnant, I immediately wrote off the prospect of returning to my workplace after maternity leave. I just assumed that working in such a high-stress environment would make it impossible to care for my child adequately.

A lack of widely available, appropriate and affordable child-care remains one of the main barriers to women returning to work after having children.15 Only two interviewees reported receiving support from their family for the care of their children. One interviewee, having moved to Melbourne and away from her family recently, had no support from family or friends. Her husband also worked full time including weekends and she described their caring responsibilities as a struggle everyday is a delicate balancing act. We found almost all interviewees reported the need for quality child-care, either provided on-site by the employer or close to work.

For at least two young women interviewed, part time work (such as three days a week) was not a financial option as they earned more than their male partners and as one young woman reported, when you have a new family, money becomes everything. For the young father who chose to work part-time like his wife so that they could share primary care, working less than the current four days per week (including one day at home) would also have been financially stressful considering the costs of child-care as well as other standard costs of living, such as a mortgage.

3. Some limitations to rights and entitlements, such as getting leave approval, still exist Many interviewees expressed nervousness about seeking approval for flexible work arrangements. One

interviewee commented young women with children had trouble accessing the most basic of workplace rights, such as personal leave and annual leave, as these were dependent upon supervisor approval. Annual leave is particularly popular during peak times such as school holidays and there was a culture in her workplace that you had to wait your turn for annual leave during these times. As a result, young women who had worked for less time with that employer were less likely to get their leave approved.

For another interviewee, unforeseen health concerns further complicated balancing work and family responsibilities. She found her immediate supervisors had been consistently supportive and understanding within the limits of set entitlements. However, she was unable to access discretionary leave entitlements, which could be granted in addition to the maximum leave entitlement, as approval for these discretionary entitlements had to be sought from beyond immediate her work area and were not granted.

X Gong, R Breunig, A King, Department of the Treasury, New estimates of the relationship between female labour supply and the cost, availability, and quality of child care, Economic Roundup, Issue 1 2010; House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations, Making it Fair, available at www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ewr/payequity/report.htm, 2009

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Case study Kate


One interviewee provided real insight into why young women choose not to access their rights and entitlements. When Kate joined the APS in 2006, children were not on her mind. She planned on starting a family in her thirties. Instead, her first son arrived when Kate was 26 years not planned but very much wanted. Arranging her return to the workforce after maternity leave, Kate said she prepared for the worst:

My experience of being a young woman in the APS where I have had some terrible experiences already and I thought, now were throwing kids into this mix too. I had the perception it would be monumentally badI was prepared for the worst and thought I was going to have to fight for everything especially around personal leave and having to call in when you were sick.

It turned out for Kate to be not as bad as expected. She was able to transfer into a limited customer contact area, which gave her more flexibility with her working hours. Despite this support from her employer, Kate said her workplace had a culture where to get career opportunities, you needed to show commitment to the employer by working long hours. Kate had the expectation that her career progression would stop as her employer would now see her family responsibilities as a barrier to her commitment to her employer.

A confident woman, Kate said she was prepared to fight for her entitlements but knew it would be just that, a fight. When asked about her ideal world regarding her work arrangements, she said:

In an ideal world, I should be able to come and go from work as needed, be able to put the interests and needs of my children firsthave increased flexibility from my boss, greater access to leave entitlements like school holidays [and] my career would continue to progress through to management level unimpeded.

Kates description of an ideal world seems both realistic and attainable. Clearly, there are still many barriers both apparent and subtle - that hold back young women from accessing their full rights and entitlements.

How can the CPSU assist young women to access their rights and entitlements?
All the interviewees were intelligent, committed and well-spoken young workers. Five of the six interviewees were union members, with varying levels of confidence in negotiating their own flexible work arrangements. As we explored their experiences and thoughts during the interview, we drew to a logical close with questions about what they believed could be straight-forward, low cost, practical suggestions to help address the concerns and uncertainties of accessing flexible work arrangements. Here are their recommendations:

1. Support opportunities that build a sense of solidarity and facilitate information sharing amongst young women and young parents in the APS.

This could include APS roundtables for part-time workers and parents groups. These roundtables and parents groups would provide opportunities for people in similar circumstances to come together, network and share information about their entitlements and strategies for accessing these entitlements. These roundtables could be open to workers from a range of departments so information about different entitlements, workplace culture and strategies for accessing entitlements could be shared.

The CPSU could support these roundtables by providing the physical and/or virtual space for meetings or communications as well as a CPSU facilitator for meetings or blogs. Sharing information in this supportive and safe environment would underpin a greater sense of solidarity for people who could be missed at the workplace as a result of their part-time and/or home based work arrangements.

For one interviewee, inspiration for this recommendation came from a part-time roundtable which was instigated by a progressive First Assistant Secretary (FAS). This FAS wanted to create forums in her Division for employees who are part-time, older or people with caring responsibilities to discuss how business could be run in a more people friendly and productive way. The roundtable for part-time workers is still being used as a regular, semi-formal network for sharing information, experiences and possible solutions to be developed. While this existing initiative forms the basis of this recommendation, the key difference here is that a CPSU supported roundtable for part-time workers and/or a parents group would not be dependent on supportive management.

When this recommendation was proposed to another interviewee, there was particular interest in departmentlevel roundtables suggesting a first step in developing APS-wide roundtables is a pilot of roundtables facilitated by delegates at specific departments. For one young woman interviewed, opportunities such as roundtables that provided real examples of where women have successfully accessed their entitlements would encourage others to do so:

[CPSU could] highlight and promote examples of workplaces where flexible work arrangements have been adopted and are thriving (from employer and employee perspective). This might help to give confidence to more mums in seeking out these arrangements when they return to work.

Another opportunity that could build a sense of solidarity at the workplace level is training and support for delegates to engage with young women and young parents who are considering making a request for flexible work arrangements. There is some similarly in this option with the important, supportive role delegates play for individuals during workplace dispute resolution. However, in this case, delegates could play a more pro-active role (i.e. before a problem or dispute develops). CPSU members could turn to delegates, on an individual basis, for information, practical advice and moral support in order to make a more informed decision about access to flexible work arrangements. One interviewee recommended this form of support as she felt the individual support provided by a delegate, a colleague who is definitely on her side, is particularly important in having confidence in and a better strategy for accessing flexible work rights and entitlements.

In order to implement this practical suggestion, the CPSU would have to undertake some cost-effective measures. Specifically, some additional training and support for delegates may be required and also a small publicity campaign to inform members that delegates can provide information about and support when a carer seeks flexible work arrangements.

2. Develop a range of information sheets that broadly outlines entitlements, strategies and helpful hints for successfully requesting access to flexible work arrangements.

The information covered could include real examples of successfully requesting part-time work when the child is between three and five years old, requesting working from home arrangements and arranging lactation breaks to express milk at work.

This recommendation was developed with interviewees as a means of supporting the first suggestion for opportunities to share information about entitlements and strategies for accessing these entitlements. These information sheets could perhaps be developed as a result of CPSU supported round-table discussions or parent groups. The information sheets could then be promoted by delegates to union members in the workplace, particularly as a basis for providing one-on-one support when a member goes about requesting access to flexible work entitlements. The CPSU would be required to collate and present a selection of information on entitlements, personal experiences, strategies and helpful hints, before distributing these fact sheets.

In addition to this, another interviewee suggested an information sheet about remaining relevant to an employer for mothers on extended maternity leave so as to reduce the impact of extended leave on their careers. She explains:

One thing the union could offer is an information sheet/booklet outlining positive ways mums can stay engaged with their workplace and employer. I have personally found it difficultto keep in touch with my employer and therefore a part of the team. Obviously, this will vary by circumstance, but I still think a generalised list of what to do/what not to do would be helpful when you're on leave for a long period but wanting to remain relevant to your employer.

3. Investigate options and advocate for better access to work from home opportunities as well as employer-funded or otherwise affordable childcare facilities at or near workplaces, particularly in female-dominated government departments.

For our interviewees, the dilemma of flexible work arrangements often revolves around providing adequate care to their child and working enough to afford this standard of care. Interviewees reported that finding affordable, appropriate childcare close to the workplace or home was a particular problem. The interviewees also expressed great interest and support for more home based work as this provided an opportunity to flexibly produce work to

a deadline (and earn a high wage with fewer days in the primary workplace). Although the interviewees currently have supportive immediate supervisors, they remained cautious about higher managements support for home based work because this arrangement may complicate supervision and team dynamics. However, as one young woman explained, in her department, working from home would allow her to show commitment above and beyond to the employer:
With the advancement of technology these days, there is no reason why we shouldnt have the capacity to do your job when it suits from the office or from home. This would mean you would be more available to the employer, which in turn encourages them to progress your career and not see family as a barrier.

From the point of view of trade unions, however, increased home based work arrangements may be a complicated issue given the well documented shortcomings of home based work in the textile and garment industry.

4. Investigate possible links between accessing to flexible work entitlements and limited career progression as a basis for future advocacy work/organising.

Fundamentally, interviewees worried about requesting and accessing flexible work entitlements because of a perceived dampening effect on the number and range of opportunities for career development and progression. It would be particularly helpful to tackle this deeper, root issue and the CPSU could conduct further research to explore this. Also, once an evidence base is established, the CPSU is well placed to unmask the myths associated with the so-called uncommitted or conflicted worker who must juggle work and family, and shed some light on the realities of the multi-talented, dynamic worker who is productive in many areas of life.

Conclusion
For our paper, we drew inspiration from our unions annual survey of women, the CPSU What Women Want Survey Report 2010-11. The Survey revealed that not enough women are accessing flexible work arrangements' and that this is despite the majority of women surveyed reporting that they believe their actual entitlements are adequate for balancing work and family. The Survey suggested there is a disparity between actual entitlements and level of access. 16 It was this disparity that a CPSU organiser and active CPSU member sought to investigate.

Our enquiry began with conversations amongst friends and colleagues about their career aspirations, caring responsibilities and how they were juggling the combination of work and family. We found in some circumstances, young women choose not to access their rights and entitlements due to the cost of living and

Community and Public Sector Union, What Women Want Survey Report 2010-2011, available at www.cpsu.org.au, 2011, p. 5

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financial constraints from a lower income, fears about the potential impact on their career development and uncertainty about the support of their superiors for flexible work arrangements.

From their experiences, we found our enquiry lead to recommendations about what our union, the CPSU, could do next to support and improve the lives of young women in the APS who work and who care. Our recommendations aim to improve information sharing, build solidarity and support, and additional evidence base for future action. The recommendations include CPSU discussion groups for part-time workers and parents groups, information sheets on accessing flexible work arrangements, additional training for delegates and further research about any links between flexible work arrangements and career progression.

We hope our interviewees have provided inspiration for future action.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Australian Public Service Commission, State of the Service Report 2009-10: At a glance, Canberra, 2010, available at www.apsc.gov.au, 2010 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 3201.0 - Population by Age and Sex, Australian States and Territories, 2010 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1367.2 - State and Regional Indicators Victoria, 2009 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 4102.0 - Australian Social Trends 2006, 2006 Australian Bureau of Statistics, 4153.0 How Australians Use Their Time 2006, 2008 Australian Government Office for Women, Women in Australia 2009, www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/women/pubs/general/womeninaustralia/2009/Pages/default.aspx, 2009 Australian Human Rights Commission, Its about time: women, men, work and family, 2007 Australian Institute of Family Studies, Family Facts and Figures, available at www.aifs.gov.au, 2011 R Breunig, X Gong, A King, Department of the Treasury, New estimates of the relationship between female labour supply and the cost, availability, and quality of child care, Economic Roundup, Issue 1, 2010 Community and Public Sector Union, What Women Want Survey Report 2010-11, available at www.cpsu.org.au, 2011 C Noy, Sampling Knowledge: The Hermeneutics of Snowball Sampling in Qualitative Research, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 11:4, 2008 Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency, 2010 EOWA Australian Census of Women in Leadership Key Findings, 2010 House of Representatives Standing Committee on Employment and Workplace Relations, Making it Fair, available at www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/ewr/payequity/report.htm, 2009 M de Vault & G Gross, Feminist Interviewing: Experience, Talk, and Knowledge in Handbook of Feminist Research: Theory and Praxis, ed. Sharlene Nagy Hesse-Biber, Sage Publications, 2006 United Nations Development Programme, Gender Inequality Index, Human Development Report 2010, 2010 World Economic Forum, Global Gender Gap Report 2010, 2010 available at

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