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Communiqué, issue 6, 2004

Special Foundation Forum 2004

• Time to re-think work-life balance: Second Foundation Forum debates key issues
• Do we need to work longer hours?
• Time and flexibility
• Investing in work-life balance – a win-win situation?
• Work and care - payback for the elderly or investment in a new generation?
• Keynote round-up
• An economy or a society: where do we live and work?

Articles

• Focusing firmly on the year ahead
• Foundation forges closer ties with the EP
• Disability and social exclusion: Reversing the trend
• Europe ‘not losing jobs’ due to outsourcing of ICT services

Previous issues of Communiqué

• Contents listing
  
  

‘It would seem more appropriate to establish a balance between all the various facets of our lives: our work; our family responsibilities; our leisure interests; and our health and well-being. A good work-life balance will be one that allows us to manage all of these components together, instead of focusing on one or two aspects to the detriment of others.’
Bertie Ahern, An Taoiseach

An Taoiseach, Bertie Ahern, with the Foundation’s Acting Director, Willy Buschak, at the opening of the Forum

Finding new ways to approach the work-life balance issue was the one of the central themes of Foundation Forum 2004, which took place on 3 and 4 November 2004 in Dublin.

The aim of the second bi-annual Forum, which brought together high-level practitioners, politicians and experts from different EU Member States and beyond, was to focus on the different facets of the work-life balance issue and to provide a platform for debate and the exchange of experiences.

In his opening speech, Willy Buschak, Acting Director of the Foundation, highlighted the need for re-thinking the way people balance their personal and work lives.

‘Our notion of time and how we allocate it between our work and personal lives is being challenged by two main developments,’ he said.

‘On one hand, globalisation is introducing more diverse and complex working time arrangements and organisational paradigms. At the same time, people want and need greater autonomy and choice of when they work, in order to accommodate the growing diversity of their lifestyles and family arrangements,’ he stressed.

Willy Buschak added that the old notion of time being neatly segmented into work and social activities was becoming increasingly irrelevant for many people. He concluded that a more holistic approach that views time arrangements over the course of an individual’s life was required.

Also speaking at this year’s Forum, An Taoiseach Bertie Ahern moved to dispel some of the misconceptions surrounding the work-life balance debate.
‘I am slightly uneasy with the way the current debate seems to imply making a choice between something called “work” and something called “life”,’ he said.

‘It’s also clear that work-life balance is not simply a case of limiting the number of hours spent at work. It is rather one of giving people a degree of autonomy as to how their working time is managed. To do this effectively will require us all – employers, workers, trade unionists and Government – to devise a long-term approach. This should take account of changes in our individual priorities as careers progress and personal circumstances alter,’ the Taoiseach highlighted.

In his key-note address Vlado Dimovski, Minister of Labour, Family and Social Affairs from the Republic of Slovenia, focused on the role of ‘human capital’.

‘Human capital is the key driver of productivity in a modern, knowledge-based society. However human capital isn’t just produced in the education system, it is also produced in firms and in families. Unfortunately, a lot of this knowledge remains locked in families, due to the absence of affordable childcare, lack of working time flexibility and other obstacles,’ Mr Dimovski said.

‘Converting this personal and tacit knowledge into organisational knowledge is one of the big challenges and why reconciling work and family life is so important. Employers should find more creative ways to balance flexibility with security and social protection,’ he added.