April 2002 Volume 83 Number 4
"serving the protectors"
| April 2002 Volume 83 Number 4 "serving the protectors" |
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| By Mark Carroll, PASA Assistant Secretary |
Different ways of working
The current SA Police enterprise agreement (EA) provides for the examination of the potential to provide access to voluntary flexible working arrangements issued as a determination by the Commissioner for Public Employment.
This examination – to be concluded by June 30, 2002 – will consider the issue of “career breaks”.
The flexible working arrangements are to be considered in conjunction with SAPOL’s operational needs and service delivery requirements, which may preclude some work functions accessing these arrangements. Two arrangements that might be suitable are:
Purchased leave
Purchased leave is designed to enable employees to exchange an agreed reduction in their salary in return for extra periods of leave over a specified period (usually 12 months). The salary deductions are spread evenly over the year and should total the amount paid to the employee while on purchased leave. This is a self-funded leave arrangement.
This arrangement allows the employee to have extra leave and plan to combine obligations to work and other commitments, such as parenting, study or travel.
An example of purchased leave is the “48/52 arrangement”. This allows employees to exchange salary for up to an extra four weeks purchased leave per year in return for a pro-rata reduction in the annual amount of salary (not rate of salary). For example, if an employee requests four weeks’ purchased leave for the subsequent year, earnings for 48 weeks of work are averaged over the year (52 weeks) to allow the employee to be paid during the extra four weeks’ leave. Although the income is reduced, it is steady as the employee receives the same fortnightly pay for the whole year.
Compressed Weeks
This is an arrangement where an employee does the same number of hours worked per fortnight over nine instead of ten working days. If an employee is required to work 76 hours per fortnight (over 10 working days) then he or she can choose to work the total required hours in longer periods over nine working days. An employee nominates one weekday per fortnight of non-attendance in the workplace.
This option is designed to accommodate different needs of individual employees, particularly the need to better balance work, family and other responsibilities. It is not designed to reduce or increase the total number of hours that must be worked by an employee. This arrangement is particularly aimed at making the workplace more family-friendly. It allows employees to plan to spend one weekday per fortnight to attend to family and other matters.
These working arrangements won’t suit everyone. However, if they are introduced in SAPOL, it will be on a voluntary basis. Other flexible work options included in the determination include job sharing, flexitime and working from home.
How SAPOL responds to these different ways of working will be of interest. The 24-hour, seven-day-a-week nature of the policing industry should be a significant advantage to introducing flexible work policies. However, the need to match staff at core-duties times combined with a seeming lack of staff in many areas throughout SAPOL will be obstacles to overcome.
The determination highlights considerations for managers when implementing flexible working arrangements. Some key points worthy of consideration are:
• The successful use of flexible working arrangements requires leadership and an understanding of the potential benefits for the organization.
• Clear leadership is a major driver of implementation.
• Effective leadership involves demonstrating commitment by being knowledgeable and advocating flexible working arrangements both within the local workplace and at senior management forums. Discussion and debate at this level is critical.
• Failure to introduce flexible and family-friendly policies can be very costly.
• A major expense for organizations is the costs associated with advertising, recruiting, inducting, and training new employees to replace employees who leave. (Commissioner for Public Employment Background Briefing Paper, 2000)Introducing a different way to work per the current EA will require a cultural change in how management views both itself and its employees. It will also take good planning which, as we would all remember from any course taught in SAPOL, prevents poor performance.
Unfortunately, we still have managers unaware of employees’ right to take their long service leave on application, and the process that must be adopted if that manager refuses the application – not to mention what constitutes a justifiable reason for refusal.
PASA is currently before the Industrial Relations Commission of SA disputing a SAPOL management decision not to allow a part-time worker to permanently vary one shift of her roster to balance parenting commitments. We have members denied the right to natural justice in a selection grievance. We have members forced to resign due to SAPOL refusing leave without pay.
The introduction of voluntary flexible working arrangements? This will be challenging.
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