Work–life interference and gender in the mining and energy industry

Abstract

In the context of the widespread adoption of 12-hour shifts in the male-dominated mining and energy industry, and using data gathered from 2566 unionised mining and energy workers and 1915 partners, we investigate the extent and gendering of work–life interference in that industry. We ask about the ways, if any, in which work–life interference occurs; whether patterns of interference differ between male and female mineworkers; whether patterns of interference differ between mineworkers and their partners; and how working time preferences affect work–life interference among mineworkers and their partners. We find extensive interference, mitigated by predictability and ‘blocks of time’, but these are not enough to offset the impact of the length and rotation of shifts. Gendering takes several forms. The interaction between the domestic and market spheres leads female mine and energy workers to experience greater interference. Long hours and long shifts create significant work–life interference, and part of the burden is shifted to mineworkers’ (mostly female) partners, manifested in shortfalls in full-time labour force participation and in stresses upon the partner. We discuss the implications of the findings for policy and practice.

Keywords:

• work–life balance
• work–life interference
• mines
• gender
• shift-work
• working hours

Acknowledgement

This research received financial support from the Australian Research Council through its Linkage Program (Grant LP099076), in which the Mining and Energy Division of the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Division was an industry partner.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

David Peetz

David Peetz is professor of Employment Relations at Griffith University, in the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing. He previously worked in the Senior Executive Service of the then Commonwealth Department of Industrial Relations and is the author of Unions in a Contrary World (Cambridge University Press, 1998) and Brave New Workplace (Allen & Unwin, 2006) and co-author of Women of the Coal Rushes (UNSW Press, 2010), as well as numerous academic articles, papers and reports.

Georgina Murray

Georgina Murray is associate professor in Humanities at Griffith University in Brisbane, Australia, where she lectures in political economy, and in the Centre for Work, Organisation and Wellbeing. She is the author of Capitalist Networks and Social Power in Australia and New Zealand (Ashgate, 2006), co-author of Women of the Coal Rushes (UNSW Press, 2010) and co-editor of Financial Elites and Transnational Business: Who Rules the World? (Edward Elgar, 2012).

Olav Muurlink

Olav Muurlink is senior lecturer in Organizational Behaviour at Central Queensland University and senior research fellow at the Griffith Institute for Educational Research.