Use of work–life balance benefitsguaranteed by law in Poland –Do size of the enterprise and gender matter?

摘要

Background: The paper is aimed at indicating the similarities and differences in use of benefits supporting work–life balance(WLB) between women and men working in Polish small/medium and large enterprises. Material and Methods: The sampleincluded 556 workers (311 women, 245 men), aged 20–68 years old employed on the basis of employment contracts for at leasta year in Polish enterprises. The respondents completed a questionnaire on the use of benefits guaranteed by the Polish LabourCode, referring to their current workplaces. Results: Women took maternity leaves and returned to the same work position afterusing childcare leaves more often than men. Men took leaves on demand more often than women. Our results also showed thatin comparison to women working in smaller enterprises, those working in large enterprises were more likely to use almost all theanalyzed WLB benefits – paid days off to take care of others, educational leaves, leaves on demand, maternity leaves and return tothe same work position after childcare leave, reduction of business trips when pregnant or having young children and breastfeedingbreaks. The size of enterprise, however, did not differentiate the take-up of benefits among the studied men. Conclusions: Ouranalysis brought unexpected results on the lack of common availability of the WLB benefits guaranteed by the law in the caseof employees who worked on the basis of employment contracts. We also found that women used most of child rearing benefitsguaranteed by the law more often than men, which might reflect still a traditional division of child care responsibilities in Poland.Med Pr 2017;68(5):575–581