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Fallout over flexible working

It’s been an interesting week for the UK’s new business secretary. After announcing on Monday that flexible working plans were to be ‘reconsidered’, Lord Peter Mandelson came under fire from various workers’ groups and family organisations, despite receiving the backing of many business bodies.

No 10 said Business Secretary Lord Mandelson was looking at “all regulations due to come into force”, given the uncertainty in the economy. The flexible working scheme was due to be extended to parents of children up to the age of 16 from next April. The postponement of the new regulations was said to be necessary to preserve job stability in the economic downturn.

First out of the gate was the TUC, whose General Secretary Brendan Barber had a fired-up response: “We find these reports hard to believe. Postponing a simple right to request flexible working would not save a single job in the small business sector. If such a request harms the business, the owner can say no.

“This would be an astonishingly irrelevant response to the severe economic downturn that we face and, in addition, would run the risk of sending a message to working parents that the Government is not on their side.”

On the other side of the divide, the CBI backed the government’s approach. Katja Hall, CBI Director of Employment Policy, said: “We welcome the government’s decision to look again at new employment rules such as extending the right to request flexible working. Business has accepted the extension as a long-term aim, but in the short-term it is not right to be putting extra burdens on businesses in the current economic climate. We need to be doing all we can to help them.”

North East takes the middle ground

In the North East, one organisation in particular was walking the fine line between the two camps. The Work Wise North East campaign, which aims to promote ‘smarter’ working practices, emphasised that flexible working is already prominent in the region.

Simon Roberson, chairman of WWNE, said: “It’s important to realise that no decisions have yet been made regarding the extension of flexible working rights.

“Whatever the decision, it is worth noting that these are only the statutory requirements and many organisations throughout the North East can still take advantage of the benefits of smarter working including flexible working.”

Mid-week attack

Mandelson’s woes weren’t over, however. On Wednesday parenting groups Mumsnet.com and Dad Info said a survey of more than 3,000 parents showed seven out of 10 did not have the working arrangements they wanted.

A third of mothers and one in five fathers said they did not believe their employer would allow them to work flexibly and most of those questioned said they felt frustrated at the Government’s review of the extension of rights.

Justine Roberts, co-founder of Mumsnet, said: “If the Government are supposed to be on the side of hard-working families then this is a funny way of showing it. Mums and dads are saying loud and clear that they need the option of flexible working to make family life work.

“It would be short-sighted of the Government to renege on its promises on flexible working as in effect they are delaying an investment in the parenting of our children, children who, after all, are the country’s future workforce.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .