Restricting long hours and weekend working ‘will help parents to put families first’

Government intervention to reduce the demand for weekend working and for long hours that breach the European Union’s Working Time Directive would be welcomed by parents who are currently struggling to balance their work and family responsibilities. A Joseph Rowntree Foundation report argues that parents of both sexes support action to help them put their families first, and that stereotyped images of child-centred mothers and work-focused fathers are increasingly out-of-date.

Assessing the key findings from 19 separate research studies, the report also concludes that the Government’s well-intentioned efforts to tackle family poverty by persuading more parents to find work risks sending an unwelcome signal that care for children and other unpaid work is unimportant. It warns policy makers that the accompanying implication that paid childcare is somehow ‘better’ than parental care runs contrary to the instincts of many parents.

The analysis, by Prof. Shirley Dex of the Centre for Longitudinal Studies at University of London’s Institute of Education, is the concluding report from the Foundation’s five-year research programme on Work and Family Life. It is being launched in central London as part of National Work-Life Balance Week (see Note to Editors for further details).

Prof. Dex notes that today’s ‘typical’ family with dependent children is one where one parent (usually the father) works full-time and the other (usually the mother) works part-time. But while many of these ‘1.5’earner households cope with juggling work with family life, the research programme found evidence of widespread dissatisfaction among working parents:

• More than half all fathers work more than a 40-hour week, including 30 per cent who routinely exceed the 48 hours a week limit set by the EU Working Time Directive. One in eight mothers also work more than a 40-hour week, including 6 per cent who regularly work more than a 48-hour week.
• Employed parents are more likely to work outside the normal ‘nine to five’ than other workers. Some 53 per cent of mothers, 54 per cent of lone mothers and 79 per cent of fathers frequently work at atypical times of day.
• More than half all fathers, and over a third of mothers work at least one Saturday a month, while a quarter of mothers and nearly a third of fathers work on Sundays.
• Although having two earners gives families a higher standard of living and protects them against financial hardship, most working mothers say they would reduce their hours or stop working altogether if they could afford to do so.

Prof. Dex said: “The strategy of having two earners in a family appears to be effective in reducing risk and providing the standard of living to which most low- and middle-income families aspire. Most couples have found ways to juggle their work and family life, even if it means ‘shift parenting’ and sacrificing time they could spend together so one or other can be at home with the children.

“Even so, this research programme found a lot of tired parents, a large amount of dissatisfaction, and a desire to cut down working hours, or even give up paid work altogether. Clearly the preferences expressed by many mothers run counter to the direction of government ‘welfare to work’ policies since they would prefer to do less, not more, work while their children are young.”

She added: “Despite the plethora of new legislation and policy on families and work – and the need for new employment laws to bed down – there are areas where the Government needs to consider further intervention alongside its targets to eliminate child poverty. Long working hours that routinely breach the EU Directive and pressure to work on Sundays and at weekends deserve particular consideration because they are areas where parents express the strongest levels of dissatisfaction.”

Childcare
Although childcare provision is expanding under the Government’s National Childcare Strategy and Sure Start programmes, the report identifies continuing problems for working parents during school holidays and outside normal working hours. Many childminders –the most popular type of formal childcare – do not want to take children at weekends or after 7pm because of their own family commitments. There are also indications that schools would resist pressure to become providers or organisers of ‘wrap-around’ care in the early morning or evening. In addition, the research programme found significant numbers of working parents who preferred ‘informal’ childcare provided by relatives and friends to the formal services supported by the National Childcare Strategy and government subsidies.

Prof. Dex said: “Parents’ values about childcare were very evident in the choices they made. Since many parents, especially in lower socio-economic groups, say they strongly prefer parental or informal care, the Government’s focus on formal provision is likely to face difficulties persuading the very parents it most wants to influence to take paid work.”

Employers and ‘family-friendly’ working
Workplace studies found that a growing number of employers, especially in larger organisations, are now offering a range of work-life policies. Surveys of employers and their staff provided evidence of a ‘business case’ for flexible arrangements based on lower staff turnover and greater productivity. There were also encouraging signs that employees’ career prospects were not damaged if they made use of flexible working arrangements.

Yet even where ‘work-life’ policies were in place, there was evidence that staff awareness needed to improve and that employers could do more to promote family-friendly working – including action to dismantle the prevailing ‘long-hours’ culture among managers. The research also identified a need for employers to recognise the particular problems faced by staff with caring responsibilities for older relatives or for disabled children.

The report includes a checklist of ways that employers can apply best practice on flexible working. These recommend the involvement of trade unions and employees in devising appropriate solutions that can be customised to individual circumstances. Employers are also urged to go beyond legislation introduced in April that gives them a duty to seriously consider requests for flexible working from employees with children aged under six. The report recommends that all staff should be given that opportunity.