What About The Bosses? Employers and Extended Hours Of Work
30 October 2001
In June 2001 the ACTU lodged a claim with the Australian Industrial Relations Commission (AIRC) to establish new standards and leave entitlements for employees undertaking extended hours of work. Two agencies of the NSW Government, the Department of Industrial Relations and the WorkCover Authority, were particularly interested in finding out more about the role of employers and their attitudes to extended hours of work and how the claim might affect them. ACIRRT, University of Sydney was commissioned to undertake a small scale study into this issue.

Two questions were addressed in the study:

  • How do employers influence and structure current working time arrangements, especially those involving extended hours of work?
  • What impact is the claim likely to have on employers?

This approach allowed ACIRRT to explore a number of important questions:

  • What differences, if any, exist between employers using skilled blue collar and employers of skilled white collar workers?
  • How, if at all, do employers with 'shorter hours' differ from those operating on the basis of 'normal' extended hours in their sector?
  • If some employers (and workers) have succeeded in reducing extended hours already, why can't other employers (and workers)?
  • If reductions in hours are already possible, what role, (if any) is there for the development of new standards concerning extended hours of work?

Key findings of the report

  • Employer perceptions of the nature of current working time arrangements can sometimes be less than fully accurate.
  • There is a considerable diversity of views amongst employers on questions concerning working time.
  • Despite the divergence, some patterns in structures and practices were evident across the four sectors studied.
  • Deviations from underlying patterns are possible, but limited.
  • The forces limiting the broader diffusion of 'best practice' beyond a celebrated few cases are very powerful and may be intractable under current regulations.
  • It appears that widespread diffusion of a dramatic change in hours of work is only possible on the basis of multi-employer or coordinated agendas.
What About the Bosses? Employers and Extended Hours of Work - the report can be read online or downloaded as a PDF file.