Making it easier to combine work and family

It has always been hard to juggle work with caring responsibilities, and the last Labour government did an excellent job of promoting flexible working. This was really helpful for parents and carers in full-time work who needed to reduce or adjust their set hours of work. The statutory right to request flexible working, introduced by Labour, helped thousands of working people towards a better balance of work and care.

However, post-recession, the problem for many Usdaw members – and millions of other workers in the service sector – is not too little flexibility, but too much. And the flexibility is required on the part of the employee, not the employer.

With companies having to squeeze margins ever tighter in a highly competitive sector, retailers strive to match their staff hours as closely as possible to ‘footfall’ in stores – when they have customers.

The problem is that customers are tricky people – most of us don’t shop at the same time each week, and shopping habits are changing as customers seek out the best value, increasing the number of shopping trips, and visiting a higher number of different stores.

One pattern is that those of us who work ‘normal’ weekday hours want to be able to shop in the evenings or at weekends. Shops are less busy during the daytime in the week, so retailers need to schedule the working hours of their staff to cover the busy times at evenings and weekends, and to cut unnecessary shifts during the day.

On top of this, shopping patterns are affected by variations in weather, TV schedules, and local events, making it harder for managers to plan when they need more staff and when they need less. Managers are expected to keep staffing costs as low as possible, and they therefore need as much flexibility as possible from their staff.

These evolving business practices have contributed to the increase in part-time working, with staff often being asked to do additional shifts to cover busy times. Nationally, whilst around 1.3 million part-time workers want to work full-time, there are also a significant number of part-time workers wanting more hours, although not a full-time contract.

Usdaw recently surveyed over 2,000 of our members regarding their hours of work and found that over half regularly work additional hours above their contracted hours. This flexibility is particularly hard to manage for staff who are parents or who have caring responsibilities.

Often the extra shifts available are those which are hard to fill – early mornings, evenings and weekends. In another recent Usdaw survey, 68% of shopworkers said they were under pressure from their employer to work on Sundays. Sunday working is even harder for many parents and people with caring responsibilities, yet 74% of parents and carers were put under pressure to work on Sundays – an even higher proportion.

There is no doubt that the increase in part-time working has increased the costs of in-work support, in spite of this Government’s huge cuts to tax credits. However, the government have not only failed to tackle even the worst practices of zero hours contracts, they have exacerbated the problem by removing the statutory element of the right to request flexible working for parents and carers, so they no longer have recourse if a request is refused.

Usdaw uses the right to request flexible working to enable staff with caring responsibilities to turn down the shifts that they cannot do due to their care commitments, but this important legal support has been removed.

We have been talking to Shadow Ministers about the problems, and are pleased that they are listening. The National Policy Forum agreed that Labour will support flexible working for parents, and will consider how best to support grandparents who need to fit the care of their grandchildren around their working hours.

And as well as ensuring that workers on zero hours contracts are offered contracts for their normal working hours, the NPF agreed that Labour would review the impact of short hours contracts on insecurity of income, and take action if there is an increase their use.

Balancing work and care has got a lot harder in the last few years. At least parents and carers can see that a Labour government understands the problems they face and will support them.

John Hannett is the General Secretary of Usdaw