Women public sector workers gift millions of dollars in free labour

A new survey shows women PSA members are gifting millions of dollars worth of extra work each year, says the public sector union.

"A conservative estimate shows PSA women members gift nearly two-and-a-half million hours of work annually. The monetary value of this unremunerated work, based on the average wage for PSA women members, is around $54.5 million - that's the equivalent of 1360 full-time jobs," says PSA National Secretary Brenda Pilott. "If based on the public sector average hourly overtime rate the gift would amount to $90.3 million."

The revealing new data comes from the most comprehensive study of women in New Zealand's public services to date - a survey of women members of the PSA conducted by the Industrial Relations Centre at Victoria University.

"The survey confirms what previous workload surveys have found and highlights a working environment that's a far cry from the fictional "bloated" one Bill English and his colleagues talk of.

"Public servants work hard and are committed to getting the job done. But the extent of additional hours worked is not recognised, not valued and is probably not sustainable when it's being used to prop up under-resourced agencies and unfilled vacancies.

"The PSA represents 40,000 women who work in all parts of the public sector Half of the survey respondents reported working extra hours, but only one in 10 of those is paid for doing so," says Brenda Pilott.

Despite a growing need for flexible working arrangements the survey found that fears about job security and not wanting to burden co-workers were key reasons why flexible working arrangements were not taken up more.

"There's a clear role for unions to help ensure organisations assume responsibility for the management, and not just the provision, of flexible work arrangements at workplaces," says survey researcher Dr Sarah Proctor-Thomson of Victoria University.

Unfair management processes and high rates of bullying and discrimination were reported by the women in the survey.

"We found organisational risk factors that increased the likelihood of employees feeling victimised at work included the pressure to put in extra hours, systemic work pressure and the denial of flexible work requests," says Sarah Proctor-Thomson.

"There were some positive outcomes from the survey. The majority of women were keen to develop and progress in their careers and over half were able to discuss their career development plans with their managers. Nevertheless, women felt that career pathways were unclear and prospects for achieving their career goals were limited.

"Taken together; increasing work pressures, uncertain career pathways, the low uptake of flexible work policies and perceptions of unfair or inconsistent performance management practices pose significant risks to the health and well-being of NZ workers and to the productivity of our public sector," says Dr Sarah Proctor-Thomson.

"Copies of the survey and briefing notes have been sent to the Ministers of State Services, Labour and Women's Affairs. We hope they will use it to make a difference to the working lives of public sector workers," says Brenda Pilott.

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