Female medics, police officers and teachers want to work from home, survey finds

Around 30 per cent of women working in public sector services have had requests to work flexibly denied – Moment Open

Police officers, teachers and female medics want to work from home, a survey has found.

Around 30 per cent of women working in public sector services including schools, hospitals, care homes, town halls and police stations have had requests to work flexibly denied, while almost 60 per cent believe that flexible working should be an automatic right.

The findings have emerged in a survey conducted by the union Unison, of 44,000 women working in the public sector. It found employers were being “inconsistent, rigid and unimaginative” when dealing with requests from staff.

From April, a new flexible-working law comes into effect in England, Scotland and Wales. This gives employees a statutory right to request flexible working from their first day at work, as opposed to the current rule that requires a six-month wait.

One in four women thought law didn’t go far enough

In the survey, one in four women (25 per cent) felt that the new law did not go far enough. And more than half (58 per cent) believed that there should be an automatic right to flexible working.

Christina McAnea, general secretary of Unison, said: “It’s disheartening to see many employers continuing to deny their staff the opportunity to work flexibly. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“Sadly many women who find they need to inject some flexibility into their working lives are coming up against employers with inconsistent, rigid and unimaginative attitudes.

“Helping women to balance work with caring commitments not only improves morale, but can also help employers fill hard-to-recruit jobs. And with fewer vacancies, services provided to the public are likely to improve.

“Too many employers are still turning down flexible-working requests, which means the right to request is pretty meaningless for many women.

‘Flexibility from day one beneficial to staff and employers’

“The right to work flexibly from day one would be beneficial for staff and employers alike, and help bring workplaces into the 21st century.”

The survey also found that one in four respondents who were told they could not alter the way they worked reported that their requests had been denied many times.

Almost half of those surveyed had requested some flexibility in their jobs so they could achieve a better work-life balance such as fitting around childcare.

Reasons for rejection included concerns it would affect the quality of the service provided or that there would not be enough colleagues to cover their duties.

A fifth said they were denied any flexibility because their managers said it would prompt colleagues to ask for similar working patterns while around one in seven were given no reason at all.

The survey was published at Unison’s women’s conference in Brighton.

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