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Work life balance (WLB) is recognised across the industrial world as being an effective vehicle to promoting more healthy, satisfied, equal and productive workforces while being notoriously difficult to introduce and sustain. The established wisdom, developed over the past couple of decades, is for WLB to be introduced to employers and employees through ‘champions’ who can explain the advantages of such practices and understand the many issues involved in developing effective practices. WLB is actually a bundle of measures aimed at improving the overall quality of life of the workforce. Several governments have started nationwide campaigns to foster WLB initiatives in cooperation with different stakeholders. At a supra-national level WLB, promoted by the OECD and the EU, came to the fore following the new millennium. In Europe it has been promoted in the context of Corporate Social Responsibility as well as being highlighted in several publications of the officially mandated European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. In 2000 the UK Government commissioned the first WLB Study to assess the its availability and gauge support. The Work and Families Act 2006, and subsequent regulations, introduced changes to maternity and adoption leave and pay. It added a number of additional changes to legislation aimed at improving WLB, including statutory maternity pay, paternity leave, the right to request flexible working, and enabling powers to increase employees’ annual leave entitlement. The situation in other European countries is variable, although pan European directives dealing with such issues as working time, health and safety, social protection, equality, and child care have begun to regularise some disparities between countries and cultures. As an integrating concept, however, WLB across Europe is not commonly understood or adopted. Indeed specific legislation that impacts on WLB practices can vary from region to region even within the same country. The Eurobalance project will extend education about WLB to other European countries, take account of social, cultural, legal, linguistic and financial policies in those countries, develop e-training materials for WLB peer educators/champions in each country, and cascade the information to both employers and employees. In this way the benefits of WLB will be extended throughout Europe, while reducing many of the pitfalls of its implementation. |
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.