Flexible hours bill returns to parliament.

NZNO has welcomed the return to Parliament of Green MP Sue Kedgley's Flexible Working Hours Bill, which, it says, will be an important tool for addressing safe staffing issues in New Zealand's hospitals. The Bill was returned to Parliament with the support of the Industrial Relations and Transport Select Committee late last month.

If passed, it will ensure a consistent approach to flexible working arrangements for workers caring for children under five, for children with disabilities under 18 and for elderly dependants. Flexible work can mean flexible starting and finishing times, job sharing, compressed working weeks, working from home, work juggled around school term times or influencing one's own roster or shift.

Rigid rosters difficult

NZNO organising services manager Cee Payne-Harker said that many NZNO members--a predominately female nursing workforce--had extensive family commitments that made working to rigid rosters difficult, often deterring them from re-entering the nursing profession once they had children. "The right to more flexible working arrangements will encourage parents with essential nursing skills to return to work. Studies have shown that workplaces employing flexible working arrangements are more motivated and productive, have less absenteeism, turnover, and recruitment and retention problems. With nursing turnover in New Zealand sometimes reaching as high as 40 percent a year, creating a good working environment is an essential retention tool," she said.

However, NZNO and the Council of Trade Unions believe the legislation could achieve much more and will continue to argue strongly for the right to request flexible working arrangements be extended to all working parents.