HR Industry News

Government aims to strike work-life balance

— 7 November 2007 —

The government is considering plans to extend the right to flexible working to parents of children older than six years old.

The proposal, set out in the Queen’s speech yesterday, could give flexible working rights to parents of children up to the age of 17, which could be as many as 4.5 million extra parents. Currently, the right applies only to parents with children under the age of six, or disabled children under 18.

Flexible working is given a broad definition under the legislation, taking in part-time working, job sharing, flexible hours, compressed weeks and home working. A government survey suggests that 93% of employers respond favourably to flexible working requests, which can be made after 12 months’ service.

Ceridian's Paul Avis said, “Any move to support work-life balance should be encouraged, but with the spectre of P11D/Benefit in Kind charges being muted on EAPs, which have a legal support service component, there seems to be dichotomy of approaches between the HMRC and the Government about the value of supporting work-life balance initiatives.”

The government has appointed Sainsbury’s Human Resources Director Imelda Walsh to oversee the plan. She will report back in spring 2008; her report will be followed by a formal consultation.

The Conservative party yesterday claimed that Mr Brown was following the Tory agenda, claiming that they had made the same proposals in October 2006.

Whilst it is a positive move by the Government, one of my ongoing concerns is that whilst such great ambitions and initiatives are in place, are Public Sector employers practicing what they preach to the Private Sector? For example, the best work-life approach that I have seen is ‘Improving Working Lives’ in the NHS, but at an operational level, few Trusts have the capacity to cope with requests for annualised hours, sabbaticals, phased retirements etc. Their employees are also some of the most stressed and in theory the most likely to sue their employers so there is a policy-reality gap which needs addressing.Paul Avis, Corporate Development Manager, Ceridian LifeWorks

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