The Minister for Labour Affairs, Dara Calleary TD, has welcomed the shift in focus in the information initiatives and activities at workplace level that are being planned by employers this year in connection with “Work Life Balance Day”.
“I welcome the real-world focus of efforts being made at enterprise level to highlight the benefits of work life balance practices and alternative working arrangements in a time of economic difficulty,” the Minister said. “Implementing more flexible working arrangements can be a means of averting the threat of redundancies and job losses. All options must be kept under review by businesses to keep their enterprise going and to sustain jobs.”
Minister Calleary said that he hoped more SMEs would avail of a support scheme that is made available by his Department to assist small to medium sized enterprises in the development of a planned and systematic approach to work life balance at enterprise level. Under the scheme, an expert consultant can be made available free of charge to work with SMEs to assess both their employee and management needs, offer advice and training, and help tailor work life balance arrangements to suit the individual organisation.
“Flexible, innovative, work arrangements are not just for big companies,” the Minister added. “Too often, time and cost constraints deter small and medium enterprises from availing of advice on how to tailor work life balance arrangements to suit their company’s operations and the profile of their employees. This initiative offers some support to that category of business owner. I urge people to consider if there are flexible work arrangements that would be a win-win for both employee and business owner.”
