AUSTRALIA has become one of the most overworked nations in the world, which is leading to increased strains on family life and less time for religious worship, community events and recreation, warned a letter to mark the feast of St Joseph the Worker last Tuesday.
Spending time together is every family’s right and Australia’s political leaders need to put work in its proper perspective to avoid any further encroachment into family time, said the pastoral letter.
The letter’s author and chairman of the Australian Social Justice Council, Bishop Christopher Saunders of Broome, said work was an expression of God-given talents and an opportunity for contributing to the common good. He said work was not meant to be an end in itself.
“The Feast of St Joseph the Worker invites us to consider the ways in which we can establish the proper place for work and the necessary pay and conditions so that family life is supported now and for future generations,” Bishop Saunders wrote.
In the letter titled “Keeping Time – Australian families and the culture of overwork“, Bishop Saunders said an increasing number of families were juggling their work and family commitments.
Bishop Saunders said recent studies by the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission and Relationships Australia confirmed more than 20 years of labour market deregulation, with its consequences of working longer and more irregular hours, had upset the work and family balance.
He outlined figures showing Australia is second only to Japan in average working hours and almost a third of the labour force regularly works on weekends, with 2 million Australians working on Sundays.
