House of Commons - Trade and Industry

Select Committee on Trade and Industry Sixteenth Report

3 The causes of occupational segregation

11. We identified four broad areas which served to discourage young people from taking jobs in non-traditional sectors: lack of knowledge about opportunities and the advantages and disadvantages of various occupations; practical difficulties and disincentives to train in non-traditional fields; the 'culture' of certain sectors; and problems with balancing work and domestic commitments.

Lack of knowledge

12. There are three principal ways in which school pupils are given information about potential job opportunities: through careers advice, work experience, and the work of business-education partnerships (which are intended to encourage local businesses to develop relations with schools). All our witnesses agreed that the quality of these varied significantly. The EOC noted that: "No agenda is being set for schools and Connexions[17] to widen opportunities, challenge traditional choices, or address young people's natural fears and concerns about working in non-traditional areas", with the result that many advisers simply reacted to young people's choices without making a serious attempt to suggest alternatives, a practice which "perpetuates and even strengthens the division of opportunities".[18] More specifically, "Careers information on particular sectors is often given out only to the traditional sex, and often presents an inaccurate or out-of-date image."[19] This is particularly disappointing in light of the fact that, according to the Minister, those giving careers advice in schools, and especially the Connexions Service, have had "clear and explicit guidance" requiring them to challenge stereotypes.[20] The Women and Equality Unit in the Department of Trade and Industry had also produced a booklet, Does sex make a difference?, containing lesson plans and suggestions about discussion topics and activities designed to make young people think about occupational segregation, whether it was justified and its effects.[21]

13. The 14-19 Education and Skills White Paper states the need to ensure that the career options presented to young people are "… determined by their aptitudes and the needs of employers, rather than stereotypes about their gender or background."[22] The Learning and Skills Council suggested that the discussions on the White Paper gave an opportunity to consider these issues more carefully in the context of engaging with young people and motivating them to learn.[23]

14. Work experience placements provide another opportunity for young people to learn about areas of work of which they would otherwise be ignorant. However, the EOC suggested that too often, pupils were left to find their own placements, with little guidance or help; and those who could not find a placement were frequently allotted a vacancy in a sector considered "suitable" for their gender and social background, whether or not they were interested in it.[24] The Minister rebutted this suggestion, saying that this was an out-of-date view of how schools approached work experience. She argued that the local Learning and Skills Councils and local businesses were working together within business and education partnerships to bring a more coherent approach to offering work placements. She admitted that the system still needed improvement, but pointed out that the public sector could not achieve this on its own: it required employers to take work experience seriously as an opportunity to attract the widest range of possible recruits to their workforce.[25] The Learning and Skills Council said that the situation was patchy: although in some areas pupils were simply given a list of places to try or were left to find placements themselves, in others there was far more co-ordination between the local Learning and Skills Councils, education authorities and employers to establish a range of placements which could be offered to pupils.[26] It cited an example of a pilot project in Gloucestershire to place a group of Year 10 pupils in non-traditional sectors for their work experience.[27] This, it reported, had been a success in terms of challenging young people's stereotypes about certain occupations, and preliminary indications were that they were more willing to consider non-traditional careers themselves as a result. The local Learning and Skills Council was continuing to follow up this project to see what, if any, difference it had made to the career choices of these pupils.[28] However, our witnesses agreed with the Minister that more work was needed to spread best practice throughout the country, and—in industries with particular problems of skills shortages and gender imbalance—to engage the relevant Sector Skills Councils in the task of opening up more placements to a wider range of young people.[29]

15. The experience of some members of the Committee supports the EOC's contention that, though it is by no means a universal attitude, a significant number of schools seem to consider finding work experience placements an onerous addition to their core teaching work, and they try to devolve as much of the responsibility to individual pupils as possible. For both students and employers, this is a wasted opportunity.

16. We recognise that providing well structured and informative work placements is a burden on businesses, and that employers are understandably anxious about health and safety issues and other statutory responsibilities towards the young people involved. However, especially in sectors suffering from skills shortages, there is a strong argument from economic self-interest for employers to take seriously the opportunity afforded by work placements to 'sell' their industry and their company. The burden is especially acute for small businesses, and here we see a role for Sector Skills Councils and local trade associations to provide advice and support. It might, for example, be possible to co-ordinate a programme of brief 'taster' sessions in several companies to share the responsibility more widely.

17. This leads to the general question of the degree of engagement of business with schools. There is now far more emphasis on encouraging partnerships between firms and schools, so that businesses are able to communicate to schools the types of skills they need employees to have, and so that pupils are better informed of the job opportunities available and of what qualifications they will have to achieve to obtain those jobs. However, much of the responsibility for developing such links lies with local employers, and the extent of employer enthusiasm and engagement with the process varies widely from area to area.[30] We were given some very good examples of what can be achieved: employers in the IT sector, for example, are conscious that the proportion of women in the industry is falling, and they seized the opportunity presented by initiatives such as Computer Clubs for Girls to develop relations with schools by donating equipment, visiting schools to promote IT schemes and providing prizes for IT projects; while the engineering sector had a successful 'ambassadors' programme, where young employees visited schools to describe their work and promote interest in their industry.[31] Another initiative was young engineers clubs, which provide opportunities for school children to try out practical activities.[32] But these examples reflect the enthusiasm of individuals, and we doubt that they are as widely emulated as we would wish.

18. While the issue of education of 14-19 year olds is a matter for our colleagues on the Education and Skills Committee, not us, we feel it a shame that, so far, although there has been a marked improvement in the educational achievements of girls, which should have led to a greater range of career options for these girls when they leave school, the pattern of occupational choices has not changed as much as one might have expected. We are confident that the DTI and the Learning and Skills Council are giving due attention to this issue, but we have doubts about whether the message has really penetrated down to the level of individual schools, and the local businesses that might benefit from having a wider range of candidates for jobs. We are also uncertain of the extent to which the Department for Education and Skills has ensured that the challenging of gender stereotypes is fully incorporated into the curriculum and into the general approach of schools towards fitting their pupils for adult life.

19. Although there have been improvements in the provision of careers advice and work placements, and in the links between business and schools, the quality still varies too much from place to place. The critical links in the process of spreading best practice would appear to be the local Learning and Skills Councils, local education authorities, Sector Skills Councils, Regional Development Agencies, and local trade associations such as Chambers of Commerce. Until all these bodies are properly engaged in the process, it will be extremely difficult to challenge the general culture of sexual stereotyping of roles, and young people will not be given the information and encouragement necessary to step outside the stereotypes. Half the battle to improve women's pay and opportunities and to tackle skills shortages will already have been lost.

Difficulties with training

20. The work of the JIVE Partnership[33] has highlighted the continuance of a disturbingly high incidence of stereotyping and sometimes outright prejudice against women in Further Education institutions and other places where vocational training takes place.[34] JIVE has provided training on countering such attitudes to more than 500 work-based, FE and HE lecturers working in the fields of science, engineering and technology; but JIVE believes that this needs to be reinforced by the inspection regime, and has therefore called for full incorporation of the issue into the national quality initiatives for the learning and skills sector so that progress can be monitored by the inspectorate.[35] The LSC told us that it is aware of these problems and is seeking to tackle them by setting local Equality and Diversity Impact Measures (EDIMs) with training providers, with the ultimate sanction of withdrawing funding if performance is unsatisfactory.[36] JIVE has also discovered simple, practical difficulties in the way of women wishing to train in non-traditional sectors, such as inadequate provision of toilets and changing facilities for women; the rigid structure of training, which poses difficulties for people with caring responsibilities; the lack of childcare provision; and the isolation experienced by those in minority groups among trainees (which, it suggests, could be alleviated by national mentoring initiatives).[37] A number of these issues formed recurring themes in the evidence we received.

21. When we took oral evidence from the Equal Opportunities Commission, it was about to publish its final report on the segregation of men and women in training and work. Its investigation focussed on apprenticeships and work experience in five highly segregated sectors: construction, plumbing, engineering, ICT and childcare. The investigation had found that in these sectors there had been "little or no change [in the prevalence of gender segregation] … over the last 10 years" and that "apprenticeships were perpetuating rather than tackling segregation" because of "the lack of places, inflexibility, and a lack of childcare support".[38] The EOC noted that there was a particular shortage of apprenticeship places in sectors with a high proportion of small businesses and self-employment, because employers lacked adequate incentives to offer training—indeed, in some cases, welcomed skills shortages on the grounds that their own skills were in higher demand.[39] On flexibility, the EOC commented: "whilst in principle they say that there could be part-time apprenticeships, in practice we found no part-time apprenticeships"; and this, combined with the long or anti-social hours required for apprenticeships in some sectors, made appropriate childcare particularly difficult to find.[40] The EOC noted the irony of the fact that women found the flexibility of jobs such as plumbing and painting and decorating very attractive, whilst the training programmes for these jobs were remarkably inflexible.[41]

22. We were told that, in the construction sector, there were initiatives designed to address some of these problems. Two of the most promising were project-based apprenticeships, where, instead of individual firms taking on apprentices, a group of companies engaged in a single construction project jointly employed several apprentices, thus reducing the financial pressure on and supervisory duties of individual small businesses;[42] and adult apprenticeships for women, which were useful because, research showed, many women who lacked the confidence and encouragement to take up non-traditional occupations when they left school still had the desire to try such occupations later in life but training was not available.[43] However, it appears that other sectors are not yet adopting such schemes, and, indeed, the EOC suggested that the construction industry might be better placed than many to launch initiatives because of the continued existence of the Construction Industry Training Board and associated training levy.[44] The DTI suggested that the problems with apprenticeships had been acknowledged and were being tackled by Government: a review of apprenticeships in 2004 had led the Government to decide to increase flexibility by introducing an eight-week probation period and allowing apprentices to complete their apprenticeship with another employer if they needed to move.[45] However, this does not address the issue of the lack of part-time places and the general inflexibility of the working day for apprentices.

23. In contrast to its concerns about apprenticeships, the EOC was warm in its praise for Foundation Degrees, which were introduced in 2000 to tackle skills gaps at associate professional and higher technician level. The DTI notes that Foundation Degrees have flexible modes of attendance, part-time, distance and work-based learning, as well as full-time options, "in order to encourage a broader range of students into higher education".[46] The LSC also pointed to the example of flexibility given by on-line training through organisations such as Learn Direct.[47]

24. While the Modern Apprenticeships programme is a key to alleviating skills shortages in the UK and to providing young people with the means to access higher value and higher paid work, it appears that the structure of the apprenticeships may have been designed too much with the traditional school-leaver recruit in mind. The development of schemes for older people, particularly those with caring responsibilities, is vital to attracting more women into male-dominated sectors; and we therefore welcome the pilot schemes being run for older people.[48] However, we are disappointed that the Modern Apprenticeships programme seems to date to be reinforcing gender segregation among young people.

25. The example of Foundation Degrees shows that it is possible to construct training to make it accessible to the greatest range of people. We recognise the difficulty in extending this flexibility into employer-based schemes: the sole purpose of FE institutions is to provide training, while employers have to juggle the sometimes conflicting demands of efficiency and immediate productivity against providing for future skills needs via training. However, the development of flexibility should be encouraged, not hindered, by the overall requirements for Modern Apprenticeship schemes. We recommend that the Government review the structure of such apprenticeships to ensure that the maximum possible flexibility is built into them. In this context, we note the EOC's suggestion that the Government should reconsider whether the programme of Young Apprenticeships, which is aimed at 14-16 year olds, should be used actively to encourage young people to think about a wider range of job options by offering training in three sectors rather than just one.[49] We commend this suggestion.

26. The EOC also commented that there was a variation in the degree to which local Learning and Skills Councils were using Equality and Diversity Impact Measures to tackle gender segregation, and suggested that the Learning and Skills Council itself should set a national indicator to show how seriously it took this issue.[50] We think this would be useful in encouraging the wider adoption of best practice by local LSCs.

Training for older women

27. One of the main difficulties in the science, engineering and technology (SET) sector is that developments occurs so fast that those spending any time out of the labourforce—for example, to take care of dependents, or when moving to accommodate a partner's job—are likely to find their skills out of date when they return to work. The UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (UKRC) is working with other organisations on a project designed to enable women to keep up to date with new ideas and technical issues in SET.[51] Where employers provide adequate 'refresher' training—especially when this is coupled with help with childcare—they find that many valuable experienced women employees do return.[52]

28. More generally, the TUC noted that lower qualified employees were less likely to receive training, which meant that women—who have historically had lower qualifications—were disproportionately affected.[53] Amicus claimed that employers were often reluctant to give formal training to female members of their workforce as they would then have to pay the women more. However, once there was a critical mass of women in the workforce—as had happened in parts of the engineering sector—then it was difficult for employers to deny them training.[54] In contrast, Mr Caple[55] said that training in financial services was provided equally to men and women, but much of this training was to meet regulatory requirements rather than to equip the staff for more skilled work. He believed that the sector needed to invest more in two areas in order to attract and retain women: pre-employment training and skills development.[56] The EOC said that, in many employment sectors, it was impossible to move from lower level to higher level jobs because no 'conversion training' was available. It noted that some organisations—for example, the Department for Education and Skills—were considering this and trying to develop opportunities for, say, classroom assistants to receive training to become teachers.[57] Other employers have shown imagination in tailoring schemes to attract women into areas of skills shortages: one of the best known is Centrica's scheme to train lone parents as gas fitters, which proved very successful.[58]

29. Several of our witnesses also praised the Government's Employer Training Pilots—where training is given in the workplace and during work time—as having particularly benefited older women, and suggested that the nationwide adoption of this scheme through the National Employer Training Programme should help older women to close the qualification gap.[59] The LSC emphasised that "because the learning takes place in the workplace the individuals do not have to overcome barriers over childcare, travel and transport and the costs associated with that."[60]

30. We received evidence claiming that the New Deal for Lone Parents has been devised in such a rigid way as to make it inappropriate for a considerable proportion of lone parents. We were told that its principal requirements are that training must be for National Vocational Qualification ('NVQ') Level 2 awards, and must be completed within a year. However, training may be done on a part-time basis, and childcare and transport costs are subsidised. Ros Wollen, a community education worker, pointed out that many of those in most need of help would not be able to tackle an NVQ Level 2 qualification, so would automatically be excluded; furthermore, the part-time training concession was more apparent than real, as nearly all NVQ2s were designed to be undertaken in a year and done full time (that is, 33 hours a week).[61] The DTI, after consultation with the Department of Work and Pensions, sent us detailed supplementary evidence about the requirements for the New Deal for Lone Parents scheme, and other New Deal training schemes. This indicated that the requirements for the New Deal for Lone Parents were not as rigid as Ms Wollen had described them to be, and in particular that training did not have to be of NVQ2 level and that the 52 week period of entitlement to funding could encompass a number of different training courses taken over a maximum of two years, provided that the total number of weeks of training did not exceed 52. (The provisions for Basic Skills training under the New Deal for Lone Parents are more flexible.)[62]

31. Unfortunately, time constraints have limited our ability to pursue these issues further. However, the exchanges have illustrated the complexity of the requirements for qualifying for and accessing the training schemes under the New Deal umbrella. This in itself may be a deterrent to the unemployed accessing the training that would benefit both them and the UK economy.[63]

Problems with business cultures

32. Certain industrial and commercial sectors are widely acknowledged to have a culture that is unsympathetic or even, sometimes, downright hostile to women. Frequently cited examples are the long hours, hard drinking, aggressive, 'jobs for the boys' culture of some companies in the City of London; and the sexist, macho behaviour of some in the construction industry. However, other sectors, though not as notorious, also have a culture that makes it uncomfortable for women to work there. For example, UKRC summarised the barriers to women's employment in these sectors as, amongst other things, "Stereotyping and bias, poor career progression prospects, harassment and bullying, the paucity of role models at all levels, lack of women in positions of power, recruitment bias".[64]

33. We asked representatives of both employers and trades unions what they were doing to address these problems. As far as employers were concerned, Mr Caple of the Financial Services Skills Council suggested that in the City senior managers were beginning to understand the reputational damage to companies that arose from the more lurid stories about sexual discrimination and inappropriate behaviour towards women. This reputational damage also had an influence on their clients, who were starting to make it clear that they disapproved of such a culture. He also noted that, in the financial sector, ethical standards were set by the Financial Services Authority through its Conduct of Business Rules, and were being enforced.[65] Simple isolation can be a problem. The construction sector is addressing this issue: the National Construction College ensures that all women trainees have mentors, and all apprentices attend a Diversity and Equality Workshop.[66] The EOC cited examples of employers who took a firm approach to bullying and general bad behaviour, with the result that the work climate improved for everyone; but it thought that employers in general should be given better support and training in improving workplace culture.[67] Amicus told us that it had a dignity at work policy and a model agreement that it was trying to persuade employers to adopt; but: "Employers do not really want to take up these issues because they are tricky and embarrassing and they tend to be written off as personality clashes. Women are told they have to be tough enough to do the job."[68] The union would like to create a situation where anyone being victimised could report this quickly so that early action could be taken to stop it, but this was not happening at present. On the other hand, the union officials detected a growing awareness among employers that a failure to stop harassment ran the risk not only of recourse to the courts by the employee affected but also of seriously damaging morale and productivity throughout the company.[69] The LSC suggested that it had a 'lever to encourage employers to deal with these issues through its involvement in the provision of workplace training.[70]

34. Amicus explained the difficulty unions faced in influencing their members: in the sectors represented by Amicus, women formed about one-third of the workforce but only about 17 percent of union membership, so there was not "a big enough critical mass" to change the culture easily.[71] Amicus also described the fear of male workers that increasing numbers of women in the occupation would lead to its being downgraded and pay being reduced. This was not mere prejudice: it had happened, for example, in relation to the printing industry: when technology changed the traditional work of compositor to a largely keyboard-based job, women entered the occupation at a lower pay rate; and the employers used the equal pay legislation to reduce the pay rates overall, so most of the remaining men left.[72]

35. The Deputy Minister for Women agreed that there was a problem of harassment and bullying, and felt that the trade unions had a particular contribution to make in supporting workers faced with such problems. She noted the role of ACAS and, potentially, the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights in dealing with cases of discrimination or harassment. She also suggested that there was an opportunity to review the statutory provisions on discrimination and harassment and update them to reflect case law in the course of the review of legislation being undertaken to implement the EU Directive on Equal Treatment in Employment.[73] Several witnesses suggested that more efforts should be made to provide moral support and mentoring to women who were facing a difficult environment at work and felt isolated.

36. It is stating the obvious to say that the culture of industries will not be changed quickly. Both employers and trade unions could do more to tackle the overtly sexist elements of workplace culture, simply by making it clear that certain behaviour is unacceptable. We welcome the indications that some companies are now indicating that they are unwilling to do business with firms that have tolerated, let alone tacitly encouraged, harassment and discrimination.

37. The problem of the 'downgrading' of jobs which have increasingly become the preserve of women is not a new one: it happened to the clerical/secretarial sector almost 100 years ago; some argue that it has occurred in the teaching profession over the last 20-30 years; and, more recently still, there are suggestions that the status of GP is diminishing as it becomes a predominantly female profession. Dealing with this problem would require still greater cultural change: an overturning of the traditional view of caring and service (and largely female) jobs as inherently inferior—less skilled, less valuable, lower paid—to 'wealth-creating' financial, technical and manufacturing (and largely male) jobs. This is beyond the scope of our Report,[74] but we note, in passing, the example set by the Government in its re-evaluation of the work done by different occupational groups within the National Health Service in the context of its Agenda for Change programme. We would welcome moves by any other employer to undertake a similarly fundamental review of the value—and rewards—attached to the range of jobs within their business.

38. An associated issue is that of the dearth of women in senior positions in a number of sectors. Such 'vertical segregation' deprives both women of role models who might give them the confidence to try non-traditional work, and the sectors concerned of innovation, creativity and intellect. One of the sectors in which this is most obvious is science and technology, where, in both the academic and industrial areas, few women occupy senior positions.[75] This is not merely a reflection of the comparative paucity of women going into the profession. Various studies have shown that women are less likely than men to be encouraged to advance their careers: for example, despite the fact that approximately equal numbers of men and women gain doctorates in the biological sciences, after this men's careers progress while women's careers stall.[76] There are, however, encouraging exceptions: women fellows reported a positive change in the culture of their area of research when a woman was appointed CEO of the Institute of Physics.[77] One of the primary tasks set by the Government for the UKRC has been to find practical ways to encourage the appointment of more women to senior positions in science, engineering and technology.[78] The UKRC now maintains an Expert Women Database of candidates qualified for public sector SET board appointments, so that those appointing to senior positions can no longer claim that they know of no suitable candidates.[79]

39. It is only comparatively recently that women have regularly reached senior positions in professions in which they have been well established for a long time, such as the law and medicine. It is as yet too early to judge the success of the Government's Strategy for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology, which was launched in 2003. Changing the culture in areas like SET will clearly require sustained effort, but the process started by Baroness Greenfield's SET Fair report in 2002 appears to be gathering momentum.

Flexible working

40. Part-time and flexible working is not a 'women's issue'—a number of sectors of the workforce would appreciate the opportunity to change the hours they work or vary them over the course of the year. These include older workers (especially in sectors with a culture of long hours[80]), men with caring responsibilities, and fathers who would just like to spend more time with their children. However, given the fact that domestic responsibilities still fall predominantly upon women, and that many women wish to vary the hours of paid work in order to achieve 'a better work/life balance', the issue of the availability of flexible working hours currently has a greater impact on women than on men.

41. Part-time jobs are concentrated in the less skilled sectors and occupations, and, on an hourly basis, are significantly lower paid than full-time jobs.[81] Moreover, the longer an employee stays in part-time work, the greater the differential between her/his hourly rate and that of the full-time employee: for each year of part-time employment, hourly wages decrease by one percent.[82] It is widely recognised that the prevalence of women in part-time work in the UK is one of the main factors contributing to the gender pay gap.

42. One of the most striking findings from the EOC's research projects was that a significant number of women who work part-time have previously worked in jobs requiring more qualifications, skills or experience, or more responsibility for the supervision or management of staff, than their current job.[83] More specifically, those who return to work after a career break and wish to take part-time work often find that not only are they unable to return to their former job, but also that they cannot even return to their former employer.[84] Women who move from full-time to part-time work and change employer companies experience an 8.9 percent drop in pay per hour. The decrease is greater after even a short period of non-employment.[85] Furthermore, part-time employees are less likely to be offered training, or to be promoted than their full-time equivalents. Once in a part-time job, it becomes difficult for employees to advance their careers.[86]

43. The EOC is undertaking further research in this area to discover the reasons why women are taking less demanding jobs when they move to part-time working. It told us that there are four principle reasons: because of child-caring responsibilities; because there are few opportunities for advancement in their workplace; because they are simultaneously undertaking training to equip themselves for a more demanding job; and because they are seeking a better work/life balance. However, the EOC thought it difficult to draw a clear distinction between women being forced to take lower-skilled positions due to the unavailability of part-time jobs at the right level, and women choosing to do a less demanding job. Ms Wild of the EOC argued: "It feels, for most women, like it is actually a compromise between what they would really like to do and the hours. I think, for most women, they are choosing to work part-time; they are not choosing to work below their potential."[87]

44. Some sectors have a more open-minded approach to flexible working than others, with manufacturing presenting particular problems because of the prevalence of shift work; but, we were told, even here it was often possible for employers to accommodate those who wanted to work non-standard hours, if the employer was willing to think creatively.[88] In other sectors, such as printing or some IT jobs, the problem was more that of a prevalence of extremely long hours.[89] In the course of the oral evidence relating to our recent inquiry into Employment Regulation, Amicus told us that there had at first been considerable resistance from both employers and workers when the union had suggested changing work patterns to bring the industry into line with the Working Time Directive limit of a maximum 48 hour working week. However, employers and workers were satisfied with the shorter but more productive working week that had resulted.[90] E-skills UK, the sector skills council for the ICT industry, also suggested that the long hours required under some contracts for the provision of IT services served as a major disincentive for women to continue in employment in the sector—though here one of the options that they appeared to be adopting was setting up their own companies to have greater control over when and for how long they worked.[91] Women leaving employment in order to establish their own companies also appeared to be a trend within the financial services industry.[92] Intellect, the IT trade association, was aware of the problem of retention, and the industry had established a Women in IT Forum to consider ways to address it.[93] E-skills UK also pointed to a successful example of introducing flexible or part-time working even within companies that provided services such as 24-hour a day helplines: although the employers had found it difficult to organise working time, they had found the benefits greatly outweighed the difficulties, as they became the local employer of choice, were able to recruit the best staff, the quality of the service they provided improved and, as a result, so did their profitability.[94]

45. More generally, we were told that the traditional view in many industries is that part-time work is not compatible with senior positions.[95] UKRC said that this was one of the major barriers to women returners achieving senior positions within the SET sector.[96] The UKRC's view was that there was more scope for flexible working even by team leaders and people in other responsible roles than had been realised so far.[97]

46. Most of our witnesses did not favour legislation to require employers to offer part-time or flexible hours. The EOC thought that compulsion would not work.[98] Others felt that it would be better to rely on the enlightened self-interest of employers. Both representatives from Sector Skills Councils suggested that those wishing to change employers' attitudes should put the economic argument more strongly: that, if they wished to have access to the best recruits and to increase the productivity of their workforce, then part-time and flexible working could help them achieve this.[99] The Minister argued that, given the variety of flexible working practices that employees might wish to adopt, it was undesirable to introduce a statutory requirement which probably would be too rigid. The Government, she said, felt the correct approach was that adopted with respect to the parental right to request flexible working: this had been designed following discussions with the representatives of both employers and employees and allowed wide scope for reaching a mutually satisfactory outcome to requests. In addition, the Government had decided that the priority for amending this right was to extend it to other workers, such as those caring for older children or the elderly, not to introduce compulsion.[100]

47. Amicus's view was that the main change needed to the current 'right to request' was to provide some means of questioning whether any refusal of a request was based on reasonable grounds. This would allow, for example, a trade union to offer some suggestions about how to overcome any operational difficulties arising from the request.[101]

48. There is a long-established view that certain jobs—senior managerial posts, skilled manufacturing jobs, key service industry posts—are unsuited to part-time and flexible working. This view is accepted far too uncritically: there appear to be a number of good examples where it has been perfectly practicable to re-arrange working hours while maintaining—sometimes even improving—productivity and performance. There are already indications that employers are re-thinking their attitudes, not least in light of the success of the recent introduction of the parental right to request flexible working. A number of employers have already extended this and have indicated that they are willing to consider requests from any of their employees. At present, we would not recommend introducing an element of compulsion on employers: the codification of best practice seems more likely to facilitate its widespread adoption than any statutory requirement would. However, we believe it would be useful to monitor the success rate of such requests, and to examine the reasons for refusal to see whether there are any grounds for instituting the sort of mechanism to challenge an employer's decision that Amicus suggested to us.

17 Connexions is the government service designed to give information and advice (on careers, learning, health, housing, work, money, relationships and rights) to young people aged between 13 and 19 years. It employs Personal Advisers in local areas. Back

18 Appendix 5, para 22 and Qq 2-3 (EOC); Appendix 9, paras 11-12 (TUC) Back

20 Q 181 Back

21 Ibid. Back

22 Cm 6476, February 2005 Back

23 Q 147 Back

24 Appendix 5, para 22 (EOC) and Q 29 (EOC) Back

25 Qq 182-183 Back

27 The programme offered 'taster sessions' for 120 pupils in non-traditional sectors-boys went into hairdressing, childcare and care for the sick and elderly, while girls experienced engineering and electrical installation. Back

28 Q 151 and Appendix 8 Back

29 Q 150 and Appendix 3 (CBI) Back

30 Qq 32-33 (EOC) Back