‘Carer-employee’ finding new relationship with work
The “carer-employee” is a growing segment of the Canadian workforce, but their dual roles aren’t widely recognized.
A McMaster University professor hopes to see that change with 5.6 million of us trying to hold down careers while caring for older loved ones.
“People just basically start to breaking down. You just can’t carry on two full-time jobs. It’s not possible,” Allison Williams said.
Williams, who’s research chair in gender, health and caregiver friendly workplaces, has created a set of guidelines for employers to support workers in this position.
The Canadian Standards Association (CSA) is her partner in the project. The CSA Group relies on volunteer experts to help create standards and codes for the workplace.
“There are multiple wins,” Williams said.
Employers gain by reducing absenteeism, improve productivity and retention, while avoiding retraining costs. Some measures, such as flextime, shared work arrangements and unpaid leaves, don’t have to be costly to the employer, she noted.
Williams knows first-hand what’s it like to take care of an aging relative. The Hamilton resident and her cousin are looking after her 88-year-old uncle in Cambridge.
A 2012 Statistics Canada study found an estimated 8.1 million Canadians had provided care to a chronically ill, disabled or aging relative or friend.
Sixty per cent of caregivers were trying to balance paid work, with 43 per cent saying they’d been late, had to leave early, or took time off during the day to help out.
The most reported task was providing transportation (73 per cent), followed by preparing meals, cleaning and laundry (51 per cent), and outdoor housework (45 per cent).
The government offers some support, such as compassionate care benefits, which provide Employment Insurance payments for those who must take time off. Ottawa also offers relief through tax credits for caregivers.
“I don’t think the government is able to do more than it is currently doing, given the challenges it has with the health-care system,” Williams said.
A March 14 report by the Financial Accountability Office of Ontario found the Liberal government’s plan to spend $6.9 billion on health care in 2017 would still fall short of needs due to population growth, aging and inflation.
Williams believes it’s time for employers to step up. In the 1960s, parental leave started to gain currency with young workers, she noted.
“This is sort of the beginning of where we are with caregiving.” In her research, she found wellresourced workplaces, such as multinational pharmaceutical, financial or technology firms, offer decent support for workers who are caring for aging loved ones.
But many others are left in the lurch: “If you were an employee they didn’t want to keep, you’d basically be let go. I heard that time and time again.”
Williams hopes to conduct another five years of research if she and her partners secure a $1.4million grant through the Canadian Institutes for Health Research and the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
The idea is to test the effectiveness of the guidelines in workplaces in three sectors, she noted.
The guidelines are available on the CSA Group website for $100. Williams would like to see them offered gratis eventually and lead to government regulation.