Hidden amongst the barrage of cuts announced in the June Budget was a further extension in the work requirements applied to single parents. The last Government had already compelled those with children aged seven and over to seek work from this October. The Coalition announced that it will bring down the age to 5, reckoning that this will save £380 million, and see 100,000 more parents in work.

The Coalition seems to follow the last Government in believing that single parents are not in work because benefit conditions are not tight enough. But we know that nine out of ten single parents want a paid job; the problem is that the jobs they could fit with their family life aren’t out there. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Work-life balance | No Comments »

The headline grabbing element in today’s pensions announcement is the review into increasing the state pension age for men to 66. Unlike our hopes for the auto-enrolment review, there can’t be much doubt that this is a done deal given George Osborne’s announcement at the Conservative Party conference (even if Steve Webb was sceptical of the figures quoted at the time – though to be fair he did not oppose the idea.) Read more »

   Filed under: Employers, Pensions, Work-life balance | 1 Comment »

The Coalition Agreement commits the Government to extending the right to request flexible working to all employees – a positive and progressive move which would do much to improve working lives and promote gender equality.

But today’s Queen’s Speech has not included a Bill to legislate for this change – and rather than proposing new regulations, commits the Government to the much less specific goal of “removing barriers to flexible working”. The extent of what the Coalition will achieve on flexible working, and its timetable for acting to fulfil the committment in its agreement, therefore remains unclear. Read more »

   Filed under: Labour market, Work-life balance | 1 Comment »

Today we’ve got a new ToUChstone Extra pamphlet out, “In Sickness and in Health? Good work – and how to achieve it“. It’s challenging the Government and employers to ensure that workplaces don’t just prevent staff from becoming ill, but actively promote good health and well-being through the idea of  ‘good work’.

We spend around a third of our waking hours at work. More than being just an economic process where employees simply trade their time for a wage, work is centrally important to us as human beings. It helps us define our identities, our physical and emotional well being, and even how long we live. We all deserve a fulfilling working life, with job satisfaction and the opportunity to achieve more of our full potential. Read more »

   Filed under: Quality of work, Safety, Work-life balance | Comments Off

It’s Work Your Proper Hours Day today – in fact it’s nearly over for many of those who will be taking the TUC’s recommendation and making a point of eschewing unpaid overtime for at least one day in the year.

This year we’ve seen an increase in the number of people working what we’ve dubbed ‘extreme overtime’. This is not extra work conducted on jet-skis, but rather people who do in excess of 10 hours a week above their paid contracts), and 14,000 more reported this in 2009, bringing the total close to 900,000.

And despite what many commentators might have us believe about conditions and motivation in the public sector, a higher proportion of public sector workers worked unpaid overtime in 2009 than private sector workers (25.3% against 18.3%). Read more »

   Filed under: Work-life balance | 3 Comments »

It’s Work Your Proper Hours Day today. We work it out from ONS’ ASHE and LFS surveys as the day when the average person who works unpaid overtime stops working for free and starts earning for themselves.

One of the features of the recession has been people moving to shorter hours or taking part-time work in order to avoid the dole queue. This has also led to a fall in the number of people putting in extra hours at work. But there has also been a surprise increase in people doing ‘extreme’ unpaid overtime, with nearly 900,000 workers giving away an average of 18 hours of free work a week last year. Read more »

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Nicola has written for Left Foot Forward about the response from parts of the business lobby to the Government’s introduction of legislation to make the six months of maternity leave transferrable between parents. She disputes that new rights will impose ‘enormous costs’ on employers, and asks:

“If de-regulation is so necessary, why are so many other successful economies surviving with better protection for people at work? If regulation is such a key determinant of economic success, why have the US and the UK suffered so badly in the downturn? The truth is that some of the world’s most productive economies combine good rights at work, strong trade unions and low unemployment. The idea that wealth creation only comes about when few have rights is simply wrong in a modern knowledge economy.”

Read her full post over at Left Foot Forward.

   Filed under: Employment law, Work-life balance | 1 Comment »

Today the Government and the opposition have each launched new policy documents on supporting families. While both recognise the importance of flexible working as a means to allow parents to balance work and care, they also share a lack of wider discussion about the ways in which working lives impact on families. Read more »

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The recession could lead to a travel revolution, as organisations and staff look to cut costs during the current economic turmoil.

I’m making this prediction during Commute Smart Week, which is run by my organisation Work Wise UK. Now in its fourth year, the week  highlights a number of ways of avoiding the misery of traveling to and from work in the dark, and the depression and despondency that many experience as a result, by working and commuting ‘smarter’. Read more »

   Filed under: Transport, Work-life balance | 1 Comment »

We have now truly bid farewell to summertime. The clocks have changed, the nights are drawing in and the leaves are starting to fall. Wouldn’t it be great if we had another bank holiday today to cheer us all up?

The TUC has joined together with the main voluntary organisations to call for a new bank holiday called ‘Community Day’, on the last Monday in October (i.e. it would be today if we had it this year) to celebrate volunteering and encourage people to take part in community events.

We think the new holiday should be introduced in 2012 to celebrate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee, the London Olympics and Paralympics with a fanfare to seal a triumphant year for volunteers across the UK. Here’s a joint letter we’ve sent to the press: Read more »

   Filed under: Employment law, Work-life balance, Working time | Comments Off

Dragons’ Den’s judge and Chairman of Ryman stationers Theo Paphitis has a big piece in the Daily Mail today: “Why ALL bosses should copy me and ban Facebook from the workplace“. He laments that every technological revolution has a downside, and that the internet’s wonders in the field of stationery retail have been accompanied by “an orgy of self-indulgence and exhibitionism”. The only way for employers to protect themselves from staff writing about their cats during the working day is apparently a blanket ban on using Facebook at work.

I’m guessing this ban doesn’t extend to the “back room team” who maintain Theo’s own neatly manicured Facebook profile, fan page, group and so on, but even then I can’t help thinking Theo’s in need of a bit of a poke over this one. Read more »

   Filed under: Technology, Work-life balance | 1 Comment »

There’s a brilliant short new video on the Unions Together website which sets out three of the key workers’ rights delivered through the European Union, and which David Cameron wants to scrap by withdrawing from the Social Chapter. Parental leave, equal treatment for atypical workers (like agency workers) and annual holidays are the examples picked. Does David Cameron really think it’s popular politics, or even sensible for the economy, to want to scrap these rights? If you’re worried that he will do it anyway, just to satisfy his euro-sceptic wing, sign the Unions Together petition on workers’ rights.

   Filed under: Employment law, Europe, Politics, Work-life balance | 1 Comment »