Written evidence from Pregnant Then Screwed (CFA0135)

HOUSE OF LORDS CHILDREN AND FAMILIES ACT 2014 SELECT COMMITTEE INQURY

About

Pregnant Then Screwed is a charity that seeks to protect, support and promote the rights of pregnant women and mothers. We carry out extensive research into the effects of systemic cultural and institutional discrimination during pregnancy and motherhood, as it relates specifically to employment. Our support services include a free legal advice line, an employment tribunal mentoring service and a mental health support line, as well as in-person and online events.

Evidence from other countries

1.             How ring-fenced paternity leave influences take up

1.1              Quebec, Canada

In 2006, Quebec changed its parental leave system so that dads received a ‘Daddy quota’ – five weeks’ leave that could not be transferred to the other parent. They also offered dads 70–75 percent of their salary when they used the leave. The impact was immediate: take-up rates among eligible fathers jumped 250 percent. Now, 86 percent of Quebec parents share their leave. In comparison, in the rest of Canada, where no such scheme exists, only 15 percent of dads take parental leave. In households where men were given the opportunity to use this benefit, fathers’ daily time in household work was 23 percent higher, long after the leave period ended[1].

1.2              Other research to support well-paid ring-fenced paternity leave

There is credible evidence from Nordic and other European countries that leave benefits are more likely to be shared between women and men when men have access to well-paid (i.e., at least 70 percent replacement wage rate), non-transferable individual leave entitlements. As Peter Moss and Fred Deven (2015, 139), the founders of the International Network of Leave Policies and Research, argue, “Experience shows that fathers, by and large, will only use such leave” when it is in the form of “‘fathers’ quotas’ (well-paid, father-only leave entitlements),” whereas other forms of leave (e.g., low or unpaid paternal entitlements or any family entitlements) are either not taken or taken predominantly by mothers. The direction to be taken, therefore, if gender equality and shared caring are priority goals, is clear. (see also Harrington et al. 2014; Moss and Deven 2019).[2]

1.3              Other approaches to paternity leave

Whilst the best approach to increase take up is to ring fence it and to pay it at a decent percentage of salary, there are some other approaches which are interesting. Not expecting dads to take the leave consecutively or allowing for additional time off when it is required in the first year of a child’s life has shown to have enormous benefits to the mother in terms of mental and physical health. This is done in Portugal where dads get five consecutive days after the birth of the baby, plus an additional 10 days within 30 days of the birth, which do not need to be consecutive. It is also something the Swedes do. In 2012, Sweden remodeled their parental leave so that the other partner had the flexibility to take up to 30 days, as required, off work in the first year of a child’s life. Researchers were therefore able to do a direct comparison of the outcomes for new mothers prior to 2012 and after 2012. They discovered that mothers, after 2012, were 14% less likely to be hospitalized for childbirth-related complications. They were also 11% less likely to require antibiotic prescriptions and 26% less likely to need anti-anxiety medication.[3] However, allowing additional time off for dads and secondary carers, to be taken at the same time as the mother, would not improve the short term and long term distribution of unpaid labour. 

2.             Flexible working

2.1              Is it working in the UK?

Firstly, to define what we mean by flexible working: Part time, flexible hours, concentrated hours, home working, job shares and term time only.

We believe the current flexible working legislation is not working for employees. The right to request is a right to decline and the current proposal of moving this to a day 1 right to request will do little to change the culture around flexible working.

Our data is showing that the number of flexible working requests being rejected has increased since the start of the pandemic - this is all types of flexible working besides home working. There was an increase in flexible working requests being rejected in 2021, with our helpline showing two-thirds (71%) of requests for flexible working were being rejected in the first year of the pandemic, this was almost double what we had seen before the pandemic. And we are already seeing that increase further in 2022. Conversations we have had with Working Families and ACAS appear to show a similar trend.

Our opinion is that these requests are being rejected as so many more employees are now working from home or doing hybrid working and so employers feel there is less need for other types of flexible working - essentially they feel they are already doing enough by letting their employee work from home. The issue is that for parents, other types of flexible working are often much more valuable as they allow for you to collect your child from childcare or school and they ensure you have access to work-free days where you don’t have to pay for childcare, or where you can do all the unpaid labour that inevitably falls to women. You obviously can’t work from home and care for your children and do all the washing, cooking and cleaning.

So, in summary, the flexible working legislation is not working and we can see this through data. The Right to Request model was introduced for parents and carers in 2003, and in the two decades since, it has instigated a meager change. In 2013, 74 percent of employees did no flexible work, compared to 70 percent in 2020.[4]

TUC data shows that 42% of working mothers believe there’s no point asking for flexible working because they will be rejected, while the same number wouldn’t ask for it in a job interview because they believe they will face discrimination or simply ruin their chance of getting hired. These worries are justified: 86% have faced discrimination and disadvantage because of their flexible working arrangements.[5]

The data is even worse for dads. According to our June 2022 survey of almost 8,000 dads and non-primary carers, Two-Thirds (62%) say they haven’t made a flexible working request, despite 85% of dads saying they want to spend more time with their children and 98% saying balancing work and family commitments makes them stressed some or all of the time. A quarter (24%) of those who haven’t made a flexible working request say this is because they are worried they would be treated negatively by colleagues or their employer. An additional 16% said they knew their flexible working request would be rejected. Of those who made a flexible working request only 58% said it was accepted. 1 in 5 dads who work flexibly have experienced negativity at work including: negative comments from colleagues or their employer, missed out on training or other opportunities, or felt their opinion was less valued.

The other issue is that during the pandemic many employers allowed employees to work from home and we are now seeing an uptick in that benefit being withdrawn and parents really struggling as they can’t get a place for their child in an afterschool club or breakfast club so they have no choice but to leave their job.

2.2              Should flexible working legislation be amended?

If legislation meant that all jobs had to be advertised as flexible, unless the employer had a good reason not to, then we would see a culture change. Employers would have to design their jobs as flexible from the outset, rather than designing jobs as full time 9-5 and then shoehorning flexibility into this rigid structure. If all jobs were designed as flexible it would start to normalise flexible working and would therefore reduce the stigma attached to working part-time or flexibly. Data shows that if you work part time you are much less likely to be promoted[6] and you are more likely to experience discrimination and harassment[7]. 

There’s plenty to suggest it would be straightforward to execute as well. Sixty-four percent of HR managers said it would be easy to include specific information about home or remote working in each role’s ad. Some 59 percent said the same for hours-based flexible working.[8]

Zurich insurance has pioneered this practice. They started putting flexible working options in job adverts and saw applications for the top jobs jump by 20% amongst women[9]. That is a huge benefit to business when we have a skills and recruitment crisis

The Flexonomics report by construction giant Sir Robert McAlpine and Anna Whitehouse, has found that flexible working could boost the economy by £55 billion[10].

2.3              International examples

Finland passed the Working Hours Act in 1996 which gives most staff the right to adjust the typical daily hours of their workplace by starting or finishing up to three hours earlier or later. In January 2020 they extended this to 4 hours.

They introduced the “Working Hours Bank” for every workplace where employees can work overtime up to a maximum of 180 hours per year, they can bank those hours and then take those banked hours back as days off. It’s probably worth noting that Finland is regularly ranked first place in the UNs Happiness index. 

Portugal has the right to work from home without having to arrange it in advance with their employers, up until their child turns eight years old. Companies also have to help pay for expenses incurred by remote working, such as higher electricity and internet bills.

In the Netherlands, you have a legal right to reduce or increase your hours or change your location. You can only refuse a change in working hours if you can demonstrate your company would suffer serious consequences as a result.

The Right to disconnect exists in France, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Slovakia and Greece. In the Netherlands and Portugal, legislative proposals have been issued but have not been adopted at the moment.

Joeli Brearley, CEO, Pregnant Then Screwed.

www.pregnantthenscrewed.com

July 2022