Keeping balance under change : a tough job for coal employees?

The paper identifies work-life balance issues resulting from the changing work conditions in the coal industry of Central Queensland. It addresses three areas of concern: 1) why work-life balance issues are important; 2) what workplace changes occurred in the past decade would have an impact on coal employees’ ability to balance their work and family life; and 3) what strategies could be used to improve work-life balance in the coal industry. It is concluded that work-life balance issues appear to be important, and further research is required to identify the industry’s work-life balance benchmark.