The Labor Party’s recent rejection of both introducing reproductive leave as a new National Employment Standard (NES) and providing access to flexible work arrangements for reproductive health reasons is disheartening.
Out of the four Industrial Relations Bills the government has passed in the last two years, reproductive leave and flexible work would provide more tangible benefits for women than any of the recent amendments, and would steer the Fair Work Act away from being a masculine piece of legislation.
We need reproductive leave and flexible work because we know that women:
- are currently suffering in silence with their pain and symptoms;
- live with the stigma associated with having a reproductive body;
- leave the work force 7 years earlier than men (citing menopause symptoms); and
- have $1.7 billion less in their superannuation collectively.
These outcomes come at a cost not just to women but also eventually on the public purse . It is also no coincidence that women over 55 are the fastest growing demographic for homelessness in Australia.
There is no arguing that Labor’s recent tranche of updates to the Fair Work Act will help workers, including women workers. For example, casual conversion and rules around limiting fixed term contracting will help women, given they find themselves in these insecure work relationships more often than men. But what I’m more concerned with is why are there more women working in casual and insecure work?
One answer is that women are physiologically different to men. Our bodies undergo significant changes throughout our working lives, from menstruation, to enduring hormone imbalances from prescribed contraceptives, pregnancy and childbirth, perimenopause and menopause, to name a few. Some of those conditions are brought on by choice. Some are unavoidable features of being born into a female body.
Access to reproductive health leave and flexible work entitlements to accommodate those conditions can be difference between a woman applying for full-time employment over part-time, or having the confidence to apply for roles for which she is eminently qualified, but which have a propensity to be more demanding (in hours or physically).
It is a robust answer to the problem of insecure work. It will allow women to vary their hours and days of work to accommodate their symptoms without sacrificing their careers, while also balancing the operational needs of their employer.
Currently, the Fair Work Act remains silent on all the above. This means women’s bodies are still expected to behave like men’s in the workplace and they are expected to ignore – and work through – the pain and suffering that having a female reproductive body can bring.
Women make up 48 per cent of Australia’s active labour force. The Australian economy needs our labour to keep the cogs turning.
And no, I don’t believe these policies will make women un-hireable. Capitalism seems to prevail in this country so we might as well tweak it to prevent women from hurting themselves in the process of selling their labour.
Image: Jessica Heron.