Memorandum by Equal Opportunities Commission
This evidence has been prepared by the Equal
Opportunities Commission. The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC)
is the statutory body for sex equality in Great Britain. The evidence
is submitted solely in relation to consideration of ensuring compatibility
between work and family life rather than the other issues raised
in the European Commission consultation on the EU Working Time
Directive.
SUMMARY
— This evidence outlines the ways in
which excessive hours in the UK, especially among male full-time
workers, discourage a more equitable sharing of caring responsibilities
and have a negative impact on the progression of part time female
employees.
— The EOC considers the existence of
the opt out from the 48 hour weekly limit is a significant barrier
to rebalancing working hours and conflicts with the message sent
out by the right to request flexible working.
— The EOC recommends that, in the short
term, the Working Time Regulations are more stringently enforced
and that, in the longer term, the opt out is ended (subject to
a transition period).
INTRODUCTION
1. The Working Time Directive was implemented
in the UK through the Working Time Regulations that came into
force on 1 October 1998. The regulations limit working time to
an average of 48 hours per week. An individual can "opt-out""
of the 48 hour weekly limit by signing an agreement in writing
with their employer. The employer has no obligation to keep records
other than "by reason of the fact that the employer has obtained
the workers agreement," in other words a copy of the agreement.
There are no official figures on the use of the opt-out but the
DTI estimates that around 3 million have either signed one or
should have because of the long hours they regularly work. The
TUC estimate this figure to be 4 million.
GENDER EQUALITY
AND WORKING
HOURS
2. Working hours in the UK are characterised
by a polarisation between excessive hours done predominantly by
men, and part time work done predominantly by women. This mismatch
means that the long hours that are common in full time employment
exacerbate the tendency of women working part-time hours to face
large inequalities in pay, job opportunities and overall life-time
earnings. Long hours also act against the more equal distribution
of caring responsibilities because fathers who work long hours
are less able to participate actively in the care of their children.
The scarcity of part time work at managerial levels exacerbates
both these effects.
THE POLARISATION
OF HOURS
BETWEEN MEN
AND WOMEN
AND THE
RELATIONSHIP TO
THE PAY
GAP
3. Working hours in the UK average around
38 hours, similar to the EU average.[1]
This headline figure disguises a significant polarisation, between
full time and part time workers, and between men and women, that
distinguishes the UK labour market from other EU countries. If
the full time hours of UK workers are compared with other EU countries
the UK far outstrips the EU average for the proportion of full
time workers doing over 48 hours a week. (Table 1)
4. According to the Spring 2002 quarter
of the Labour Force Survey (LFS), 21 per cent (3.8 million) of
full-time employees reported usually working over 48 hours a week
in the UK, this includes paid and unpaid overtime (equivalent
to 16 per cent of all employees).
5. While 26 per cent of full time male workers
stated that they usually worked over 48 hours (compared with 10
per cent across other Member States), 11 per cent of full time
female workers did so. While the number of women working long
hours has risen, this is mainly because of the growth in the number
of women in managerial and professional occupations.
6. The UK has a much higher proportion of
part time workers than most other EU countries. About a quarter
of employees work part time, four fifths of whom are women.[2]
Table 2 demonstrates the "dualist and highly gender differentiated
dispersal of working hours" in the UK.[3]
7. The impact of hours polarisation on women's
status and earnings in the labour market is to reinforce barriers
to the progression of part time workers, and more generally for
people with caring responsibilities who cannot sign up to the
open-ended hours commitment that full time work in the UK can
entail. The work done by Jill Rubery found that in firms with
engrained patterns of excessive working hours amongst men, there
was likely to be stronger gender segregation patterns between
those roles that were performed by part time female workers and
jobs done by men that involved longer hours.
8. The expectation that full-time work involves
working far in excess of contracted hours makes it more difficult
for mothers to re-enter full-time work after maternity leave,
and because more women are likely to continue to want to work
part time because of caring responsibilities, the lack of part
time working options and the prevalence of excessive hours amongst
managerial posts acts as a strong disincentive for women who are
working part time to balance with family responsibilities to seek
to progress and increase their earning capacity.
9. There is some evidence from part time
employees for a desire for more hours, not less. The TUC's About
Time report found that while over 10 million employees said
that they would like to work shorter hours, over 2 million said
that they need more paid working hours. Part timers accounted
for more than half of this group even though they constitute only
a quarter of the employee workforce. While overall 8 per cent
of the workers in the survey said that they wanted to work longer
hours in their current jobs, this rose higher for occupations
with a large number of women working part time for low wages (eg
13 per cent in personal services and 14 per cent in both sales
and customer services and "less skilled" occupations.[4]
LONG WORKING
HOURS AND
THE IMPACT
OF CARING
RESPONSIBILITIES
10. The ability of parents to reach their
full potential at work has been helped significantly by the new
framework of parental rights that the Government has introduced.
However the length of the working week is also a key factor in
enabling both mothers and fathers to balance work and family responsibilities.
11. There are currently 5.2 million carers
in England and Wales, with 1.6 million of these providing at least
some unpaid care to an older or disabled person, as well as working
full-time. Projections indicate that more than one in 10 women
in the next generation will at the age of 45 be simultaneously
caring for both a parent and a child under 18.
12. Excessive hours reinforce the unequal
allocations of caring responsibilities. More than 30 per cent
of fathers routinely work more than 48 hours a week, compared
to 6 per cent of mothers. Where mothers are working long hours
surveys indicate that they still carry the burden for the main
household and caring tasks.[5]
And where fathers work long hours, they are least likely to be
involved in the care of their children.[6]
13. The 2000 DfES Worklife Balance Survey
found that while over 80 per cent of fathers were generally happy
with their worklife balance, this dropped to 60 per cent for those
working over 48 hours a week and 50 per cent for those working
60 or more hours. Excessive hours amongst men and particularly
fathers cement the status quo on caring responsibilities and prevent
parents in particular from balancing work and family life effectively.
WOMEN WHO
WORK LONG
HOURS
14. There is some evidence that the number
of women who are working excessive hours is growing, particularly
amongst women in managerial roles. While the proportion of men
working over 48 hours a week has dropped slightly since 1998-99,
the proportion of women doing so has remained the same (LFS) or
even risen according to other surveys. A joint DTI/Management
Today Survey published in August 2002 found that women who said
they were working more than 60 hours per week had more than doubled
from 6 per cent to 13 per cent from 2000 to 2002.[7]
So although the general pattern is one of men generally working
longer hours than women, there is a core group of women who are
working excessive hours. These are most likely to be professional
or managerial women, a group that has grown over the last few
years.
RECOMMENDATIONS
15. Tackling the long hours culture in the
UK is a complex problem and there are no clear or simple solutions.
There are many ways however in which employers, unions and government
can take action to tackle excessive working hours.
16. The existence of the opt-out from the
WTD sends out a message which conflicts with the message sent
out by the right to request flexible working. This is going to
make it harder to achieve the culture change necessary to get
resistant employers to see for themselves that allowing individual
employees more choice in their hours and patterns of work will
not damage their business and may even benefit it.
17. Increases in long hours of work, particularly
among the more highly qualified, run counter to the development
of work-life balance policies in the workplace. Long hours working
continues, despite the challenges, not only because of business
pressures and employee acceptance of these, but also because accurate
measures of productivity are hard to construct.
18. The EOC wants to see the emphasis on
high productivity per hours worked, rather than on working long
hours and more publicity made of the fact that it is possible
for individual employees to opt back into the Working Time Directive.
19. In the short term the EOC recommends
that the Working Time Regulations, and particularly the use of
the individual opt-out, are enforced more stringently. There is
some evidence for a free choice being exercised amongst some,
particularly professional employees. A recent survey published
by the CIPD found that 29 per cent of respondents who already
work more than 48 hours a week describe their attitude to long
working hours as "totally own choice—don't mind working
long hours."
20. However the TUC point to evidence of
widespread abuse of the opt-out provision as indicative of a lack
of real choice for many workers. A recent TUC survey found that
350,000 people were not given a choice about signing an individual
opt-out form, and that most people who work over 48 hours a week
have not actually been asked to sign one.
21. In the long term the EOC wants the opt-out
from the 48 hour week to be removed from the Working Time Directive,
with a transition period for the UK in order for firms and employees
to adapt. The long hours culture has proved intractable despite
the introduction of the Working Time Regulations and there is
persuasive evidence that the effectiveness of the Regulations
has been undermined by the ability of individuals to opt-out of
the working time limits. The CBI's Employment Trends Survey indicated
that on average 33 per cent of employees of the sample of 400
employers had signed an individual opt-out. The analysis of the
opt-out in the UK commissioned by the EU earlier this year concluded
that "the familiar features of the system remain largely
intact notwithstanding the bringing in of the Working Time Directive."[8]
In some firms the opt-out provision has delayed employers taking
action to tackle long hours working despite acknowledging that
excessive working time is damaging to their performance.
CONCLUSION
22. While the opt-out continues to be widely
used, it is unlikely that the 48 hour limit on weekly hours will
have any real effect on excessive working hours in the UK. With
its removal, there will continue to be other ways in which employers
can seek flexibility through averaging periods and through the
exemption for the "unmeasured working time"" of
senior managers. However the issue of financial motivation and
concerns from employers that removing the opt-out will damage
performance are issues that need addressing.
23. There are valid and widespread employer
concerns about the removal of the individual opt-out. Employers
have expressed concerns about the ability to meet customer demand
and to respond to new commercial opportunities. Also, if employees
are able to lessen their hours without damaging earnings, a period
of adaptation in the workplace will need to be allowed for and
attention paid to sectors such as the NHS where the removal of
the opt-out could have a negative impact on flexible working patterns
that have already been agreed.
20 February 2004
1 Long hours working in the UK; a summary of statistical
information, DTI, April 2003. Unless stated, figures throughout
this paper are "actual working hours" figures from the
UK Labour Force Survey. Back
2
DTI, Full and Fulfilling Employment; The Labour Market of
the Future (Sept 2002). Back
3
Fagan and Lallement, Working Time Regimes and Transitions
in Comparative Perspective 2001. Back
4
TUC, About Time, p 6. Back
5
DTI working time research note, 2002. Back
6
JRF, Families and Work in the 21st Century. Back
7
DTI/Management Today. Back
8
The Use and Necessity p 30. Back
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