Reaching work-life balance harder for shift workers

Latest study from Statistics Canada

A recently released study from Statistics Canada confirms what most workers know intuitively: shift work makes a work-life balance harder to reach. In the current round of bargaining, the Treasury Board had pushed for contract changes to make it easier to convert day workers into shift workers, and while the union’s negotiating team resisted this pressure, the increased use of shift work remains on the agenda of Service Canada, CIC and the IRB.

The Statistics Canada study provides more support for the union’s view that more shift work means a poorer quality of family life. Satisfaction with work-life balance was lower among shift workers (69%) than among regular day workers (76%).

Role overload – too much to do and not enough time to do it – occurred more frequently among shift workers as well, and this was even more prevalent for women as compared with men.
CEIU locals provided strong support for our bargaining team as they faced Treasury Board demands for concessions around shift work. In Quebec, members voiced their opposition clearly with the blunt words “It’s out of the question!” while members in Peterborough, Ontario spoke out against what they saw as a “real hardship” for family life.

“Thanks to our bargaining team and the support they received from our locals, we won round one in the fight against increased shift work” said National President Jeannette Meunier-McKay, “but the fight isn’t over. We will have to fight this battle in all three departments where CEIU members work.”