A qualitative investigation of the relationship between the experience ofbodily pain and work-life balance was conducted in a sample ofmanual/non-managerial workers in the Australian construction industry.Participants were purposefully selected for the study on the basis that theyreported experiencing ongoing bodily pain. Thematic analysis of the interviewdata revealed that participants perceive their pain to have substantialimpacts on their ability to participate successfully in family life and insocial and leisure activities, indicating that the experience of bodily painhas a negative impact on the work-life balance of these manual/non-managerialconstruction workers. Participants regularly seek remedial treatment outsideof work and adapt their activities in order to cope with their pain. Resultssuggest that for workers in physically demanding jobs, work-life conflict mayextend beyond a time-, strain- and behaviour-based model and include aphysical capacity component. The research also proposes a new form oftime-based work-life conflict which occurs through an indirect pathwaythrough which pain negatively impacts time available for non-work activities.These findings suggest that organisational work-life balance initiativesshould also consider the physicality of work, which can contribute, throughmusculoskeletal pain, to work-life conflict.