熟齡婦女在家庭與工作的處境─以勞動合作社社員為例

Abstract

在台灣，已婚女性就業情況容易受到結婚、生育的影響，當婦女面臨家庭與工作的兩難時，通常傾向以家庭為優先，而影響她的工作選擇。回顧過往政府提供的婦女就業與創業政策，較難以支持婦女在面臨家庭照顧責任時，能夠穩定在職場工作，而在民間團體推動婦女就業也尚有不足之處。過去探討婦女就業，較少將勞動合作社納入考慮，然而勞動合作社不同於一般事業體，是以人為本的組織，重視社員參與組織決策，提供友善職場的可能性，故本研究場域鎖定在勞動合作社，以勞動合作社中熟齡婦女為主體，探討的研究問題有二：「熟齡婦女在就業歷程中遇到的困境與獲得的協助為何？」、「合作社與熟齡婦女就業的關係為何？」本研究運用質性研究方法的深度訪談法，對象為「年齡在30歲以上，有再就業經驗，目前具有家庭照顧責任，需要照顧子女、先生或長輩等，並在合作社工作至少2年」的婦女。受訪的10位熟齡婦女來自於兩個勞動合作社，一在新竹市從事醫院看護勞務，另一在新北市以家務清潔為主要業務。 研究發現，關於問題一，熟齡婦女會因應婚育的影響而採取「持續就業」、「中斷就業」與「未曾穩定就業」等三種就業策略，而選擇哪種策略與照顧資源的可近性有關，若婦女能取得正式或非正式資源，則更可能可以外出就業而不需中斷。這群熟齡婦女因為年齡與專業技術不足，而求職不易，而婦女自身的人際網絡為重要資源，婦女傾向透過朋友、親戚、前同事等來在找工作。在進入合作社工作後，合作社採取事先培訓或是實習讓婦女具備職場技能，在職場遇到問題時，合作社的組織工作者與社員間會彼此協助。 關於問題二，受訪者在合作社的就業經驗，分為四種特性，第一，「適切的業種選擇」，家務清潔和病患照顧這兩種業種門檻低，且對於熟齡婦女有限的工作選擇來說收入相對高；第二，「請假、排班有彈性」，婦女能夠依照家庭狀況來安排工作時間；第三，「勞動權益要自保」，合作社社員同時具備勞動者與擁有者的身分，共同討論自身勞動權益保障，在兩社僅基本的提供三節獎金與意外險，社員需自行負擔勞健保；第四，「社員關係與組織參與」程度不一，受訪熟齡婦女與其他社員的互助主要是在工作時段，較難以跟組織工作者共同討論合作社營運或決策事情。 根據研究發現，本研究建議由政府相關部會與民間團體合作，從前端法規面與宣導面來改善二度就業婦女遭受年齡歧視之問題，同時提升婦女及其家庭對於兒童照顧與長期照顧資源的可近性；針對勞動合作社則可以補助職災和健康照顧等方面的保障，好讓婦女能夠安心就業。另外，對於協助婦女就業的合作社組織，則可以加強教育訓練與舉辦活動來增進社員之間的關係與對於組織的認同，以落實普遍的參與，或是加強各種合作社之間合作來提升社員在就業和家庭等面向的多元福祉，改善目前合作社在招募社員與就業保障等面向之挑戰。

In Taiwan, married woman often leave their jobs because of marriage and child care. When women face the dilemma of family and work, they tend to give priority to the family and change their jobs. In literature review, it is known that women's employment and entrepreneurship policies and government services can't support women in balance of work and family care responsibilities and neither can the programs of non-governmental organizations. It appears that worker's co-operatives were less considered. Worker's co-operatives are different from general companies. They are people-oriented organizations which pay attention to the members' participation in decision making since each member is a shareholder of the co-operative. Such characteristics make it potentially a friendly workplaces for married women at middle age. Therefore, this research asks two questions. (1)What are the difficulties and assistance of women as family caregivers in the employment process? (2) What is experience of married women at middle age in the cooperatives? This study employs a qualitative approach. A purposive sample of 10 women were interviewed. They were aged over 30, had multiple employment experiences, had family care responsibilities for their children, husband or older family members, and had worked in cooperatives for at least 2 years. Two worker’s cooperatives were selected. One offers care work in hospitals at Shi-Chu area, and the other provides family cleaning at New Taipei City. The study found that: with regard to the first research questio, women as family caregivers adopt three work strategies, namely 'sustained employment', 'discontinuation of employment' and 'never employment instability'.Women may choose single or multiple strategies depending on alternative care resource accessibility. These women have difficulty finding a job also because of age and lack of skills. Their own social network with friends, relatives, and former colleagues is an important resource for finding jobs. Different from the other employment experiences, the women reported the cooperatives offered pre-training or internship to improve their job skills and they receive help from staff and other members of the cooperative when encountering problems in the workplace. Regarding the second research question , the work experience of the participants in the cooperatives includes four characteristics. First, the cooperatives link to suitable choice of career.There is minimum requirements for care work and house cleaning.The married women at middle age actually have limited choice of job due to education, discontinued work experience, and family care responsibilities. Even better is that they can earn relatively high income in the cooperatives. Secondly, cooperative members have flexibility in asking for temporary leave and work shift arrangement The participants are happy that they can arrange working hours according to family needs, not the opposite. Third, there is trade-off between work flexibility and benefits in the cooperatives. Cooperative members are workers and also the owner of cooperative so they are not covered in the Labor Standard Law. Some cooperatives may pay for their members’ National Health Insurance, Labor insurance and retirement pension plans if enough profits were made and members commonly agree such utilization.However, the two cases interviewed only provide three times of l bonus and casualty insurance but they don't provide labor insurance and health insurance.Fourth, membership and organizational participation vary. The interviewed members of the two cooperatives mainly meet other members during work hours. It is difficult for members to discuss any decision regarding the cooperative operation with the staff. The members mainly focused on job and have low participate in the cooperative. Based on the above findings, this study suggests that the government and NGOs should improve the age discrimination against women’s continuation of career by the enforcing the laws and their publicity. Also needed is the support for general access to child care and long-term care resources so that women and other family members can work without worries. The government may consider the cooperatives related to women by supplementing cost of work benefits. In addition, cooperatives that aim to assist women’s career can strengthen the membership education and training activities to enhance the supportive relationship among members and members’ full participation of in decision making. The collaboration among various cooperatives is another approach to overcome the current challenge of recruiting members.