Punishing working hours ‘damaging quality of life’

IRISH workers still endure the longest working hours in Europe and are not afforded sufficient measures to improve their quality of life, SIPTU members heard yesterday.

Calling for a 30-hour week for all workers, National Equality Secretary Rosheen Callender said that despite the trade union's struggle to achieve the 40-hour week, many Irish workers still worked much more.

"Along with workers in Britain, we still have the longest working hours in Europe," she said.

"Add to that the time many of us spend getting to and from work and ensuring that our children are in good hands and in the right place at the right time while we work, and I have no doubt that we in Ireland have far less time than anyone else for other aspects of life," she said.

Introducing a conference workshop entitled There's More to Life then Work, Ms Callender said all workers should have the right to spend a reasonable amount of quality time with friends and family as well engaging in other social and leisure activities.

Yesterday's workshop debated 10 motions which are due to be voted on by the conference today.

The motions called for the inclusion of work/life issues on the agenda of future Sustaining Progress discussions and a push for more widespread family-friendly policies in the workplace.

Additional motions likely to be adopted today include a call for an additional public holiday each year and the reduction of the average working week in all sectors of the workforce.

However Ms Callender conceded that one of the objectives of SIPTU's 2001 charter of workers' rights a 30-hour working week for all was unlikely in the short-term.

"It took the trade union movement most of the 20th century to achieve the 40-hour week, or at least to believe we had achieved it, it might even take the next century to get that down to 30 hours," she said.

However, other issues such as more family-friendly work practices and increased worker flexibility could be achieved, Ms Callender said. She called for an extension of paid parental leave to everyone. "Parental leave was on top of our agenda in the last two rounds of national agreements but we haven't been terribly successful yet."