WorkLife Balance Day 1st March 2010
Minister Calleary promotes flexible work patterns as a way of maintaining jobs
The Minister for Labour
Affairs, Dara Calleary, TD, today ( February 2010) welcomed the shift in focus
in the information initiatives and activities at workplace level that are being
planned by employers this year in connection with "Work Life Balance" Day, which
falls on Monday, 1st March 2010.
The Minister said
“I welcome the
real-world focus of efforts being made at enterprise level to highlight the
benefits of work life balance practices and alternative working arrangements in
a time of economic difficulty.
Implementing more flexible working arrangements can be a means of
averting the threat of redundancies and job losses. All options must be kept under review by
businesses to keep their enterprise going and to sustain
jobs.”
Minister Calleary said that he hoped
more SMEs would avail of a support scheme that is made available by his
Department to assist small to medium sized enterprises in the development of a
planned and systematic approach to work life balance at enterprise level. Under the scheme, an expert consultant
can be made available free of charge to work with SMEs to assess both their
employee and management needs, offer advice and training, and help tailor
work-life balance arrangements to suit the individual
organisation.
The Minister added
“Flexible, innovative
work arrangements are not just for big companies. Too often, time and cost
constraints deter small and medium enterprises from availing of advice on how to
tailor work-life balance arrangements to suit their company’s operations and the
profile of their employees. This
initiative offers some support to that category of business owner. I urge people to consider if there are
flexible work arrangements that would be a win-win for both employee and
business owner."
