Women in the federal public sector are finding staffing constraints are stopping their workplaces from being flexible, a new report shows.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A survey found a lack of staff had emerged as a fast-growing roadblock to women trying to work flexibly.
The main public sector union's survey found most women wanted flexibility to work from home in normal work hours but many felt unable to do so.
The issue was large enough for the greatest share of the survey's 6,400 respondents to name it the top priority for the union.
Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Melissa Donnelly said its report, What Women Want, detailed women's journey to equality across the public and private sector.
The findings showed the need for government action on gender equity, she said.
"The survey found that flexible work arrangements continue to be a key issue for women, whether that's negotiating part-time work, or accessing leave when you need it," Ms Donnelly said.
"These issues are crucial to women's working lives."
Nearly all the women working in the Commonwealth, ACT and Northern Territory public services who responded to the union's survey said accessing leave and having flexible work hours was important to them.
Almost 90 per cent who asked for flexible work arrangements in the last 12 months had their request granted.
But when requests were denied, staffing constraints were the reason in a third of cases, up from 25 per cent in 2017.
Major roadblocks also included workload constraints, and other operational reasons.
Nine in ten women had gone to work sick in the last 12 months, the report said.
"Workload pressures and the belief they were not sick enough to stay at home were the main reasons women went to work while sick," it said.
About 70 per cent of women working full time said they worked additional hours, but more than half said either they were only sometimes compensated for this, or never received compensation.
MORE PUBLIC SERVICE NEWS:
The union's report found workplaces were more likely to contact women outside work hours compared to 2011. About half of the survey's respondents said they were getting calls from work outside business hours, a result the union said reflected increasing workloads and staffing cuts.
It said expectations from bosses that extra hours would not be compensated remained unacceptably high, at 22 per cent for staff who worked additional time, a rate largely unchanged since 2015.
A similar percentage of women also found their workplaces frowned upon taking time out for family and personal matters.
The Australian Public Service Commission overseeing the largest group of survey respondents - Commonwealth bureaucrats - was contacted for comment.