More women working. But in what kind of work?

The Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU) welcomes the announcement today by Prime Minister Helen Clark that the Labour Government will be looking at child care schemes for working parents.

“The funding of home-based childcare for working mothers would be a huge advance for working women in New Zealand.” said Darien Fenton, SFWU National Secretary

However, Ms Fenton warns that while getting women into the workforce is a hugely positive step for the individual women concerned, employers need to be looking closely at the type of pay and conditions they are offering to workers across the board.

“There is no point getting women into work if it is low-paid and low-skilled. Compared to Australia, where they have home-based childcare for working parents, conditions of work and pay rates here are too low.

We need to be encouraging workers into the workforce at the same time that we are looking to raise the level of wages and conditions for those workers.” says Ms Fenton

Work-life balance has been raised as a major concern for many working women and the Government is doing some work to address this issue by looking at childcare alternatives for working women. Now employers need to look at how they can improve their workers work-life balance by improving conditions and rates pf pay.

“We are behind much of the world in terms of childcare and rates of pay and this will be improved by a combination of Government support and employers recognising the value of their workers, especially in a tight labour market like the one we currently have.” said Ms Fenton.

© Scoop Media