CEY1330

Written evidence submitted by the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF)

1. The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) is the UK’s largest train driver’s union representing over 21,000 members in train operating companies, freight companies as well as London Underground and light rail systems.              
    

2. The UK is currently experiencing falling birth rates[1] which has the potential to seriously impact on the affordability of pensions as well as the country’s tax funds and overall level of workers to provide essential services for an ageing population. The current high costs of early years provisions makes it largely unaffordable for workers to have two children under three, after which, the government’s free 30 hours of childcare comes into effect. Add to this the increasing average age of first time mums and it is creating the potential for societal issues where the potential health risks for mothers increases due to their age whilst the country is faced with an ageing population with a lack of younger workers to provide services and to ultimately pay in to pension and tax pots to maintain our structures. As such we welcome the opportunity to provide evidence to the Education Select Committee on areas which are impacting on our members’ management of work and childcare and their plans for becoming parents / carers.                 
   
    
3. Our members work differing shift patterns with early and late starts, these working patterns do not always fit in with the standard childcare provisions which are predominantly centred on 09:00-17:00 workers. Our response will focus mainly on how the cost and structure of childcare and early years support impacts on our members ability to return to work, work their current shift patterns when they are parents / carers and how further support could help diversify the railways and other shift based industries.

4. Our members can experience difficulty when returning to work full-time after taking parental leave due to the current standard structure of childcare provisions and the current entitlements being unable to address the specific barriers shift workers can face. One barrier is the insistence on early year’s childcare to be structured around the traditional 09:00 – 17:00 working day. Whilst the provision of breakfast and after school clubs for older children does allow our members who are working shifts to better balance their shifts around caring responsibilities, these do however carry extra costs. At present early years provisions lead to many of our members weighing up whether it is economically prudent to return to work or if changing careers would enable them to cover the costs and manage their work around the rigid structure of early years and childcare provisions. These difficult decisions can be intensified when both parents / carers work shifts or the same role with the nature of their work pattern and the structure of early years support making it hard to create a work / life balance that works for all.              

5. Due to the nature of our member’s shift patterns although they will on average work a 35 hour week, they can be rostered for a 60 hour week at times. These hours are worked in 6 – 10 hour shifts that are not the same every week, with differing patterns of earlies, mid turns and lates used across alternating weeks.  Earlies (booking on between 04:30-07:30), mid turns (booking on between 09:30 – 13:00) and lates (booking on 13:00 – 17:00) cause particular difficulties for members accessing early years support and childcare that is structured around a static working week of 09:00 – 17:00. Many providers require that children are booked in for specific days each week which does not afford the flexibility for it to match a worker’s shift pattern, we understand the need of the provider to arrange the appropriate carer to child ratio and a static schedule for them helps with this, we would welcome the committee’s investigations in to how altering childcare ratios could assist in creating greater flexibility for care providers to better cater for shift workers.              

6. Some members (particularly our freight drivers) can be booking on as early as 03:20 and working until 15:20 for which the provision of early years support / childcare is practically non-existent outside of family or au pairs. Brexit has also had a particular impact on the availability of au pairs. Childcare / early years provisions for workers on these more ‘extreme’ shift patterns is something we hope the committee is able to look further in to with the aim of creating a system that works for these shift workers.               
    

7. Whilst some early years care providers do offer early drop off and late pick up these incur a further cost to shift workers and we have had instances of female members who have returned to work from maternity leave to see nearly all of their monthly wage going into early years care. These pressures add further worry and stress to our members who are working safety critical roles which require a lot of concentration.              
   
    
8. Due to the history of the railways our members (train drivers) are predominantly male, this is an area we as a union alongside the employers have worked to address with our ‘On Track with Diversity’ reports. The current structure of early years and childcare support however does create barriers to attracting mothers / primary carers to the role. At present women make up less than 10% of train drivers and as of our last report from 2019 were less than 7%[2]. The creation of more shift worker friendly early years and childcare support would help to encourage the diversification of such jobs as the shift patterns would not immediately create barriers as to how a parent / primary carer could manage childcare around their shifts. This would also help us as an industry to encourage a more diverse workforce and ensure that the workers reflect the communities that they serve.

9. Alongside recruiting parents and carers our employers can face retention issues of workers when they do become parents or carers as the current high costs and structure of early years provisions makes either their current shift pattern unworkable or they struggle to have the work/life balance they would prefer. We see primary carers who work as train drivers having to put in flexible working requests which due to the nature of the railways and the lack of train drivers, coupled with the fact that the majority of primary carers are women, creates further stigma to our female members who are considering or are having a child. This then inadvertently feeds in to a negative loop which impacts on the ability of the train driving grade to appear as attractive as possible to a diverse workforce.              
    
10. Adding to the point raised above, whilst it is not part of the committee’s scope it is worth noting that, due to the fact that it is only a right to request flexible working but not for it to be granted, flexible working request can be easily rejected by employers. Many of our members, particularly women who put in flexible working requests face these being denied with many, unfortunately choosing to leave the industry to ensure a better work/life balance now that they are a parent / carer. Having flexible working as a right rather than it be a right request could further help to diversify other industries by opening up more opportunities for women and primary carers to work in what have historically been less family friendly jobs.

11. Once a worker’s child has reached the age of three and subsequently starts reception and primary school, cost is no longer a barrier and it is only the management of shift patterns and childcare that become the primary issue for our members. Again members are left with either putting in formal requests to alter their shifts or rely on family, friends and wrap around child care to enable them to carry on working in their chosen career.              
    
     
12. The provision of wrap around care such as breakfast and afterschool clubs has helped shift workers to drop off or pick up children before or after shifts. However, these provisions are not universal and can incur further cost to shift workers. As such we welcomed pledges from the Labour Party at their conference in 2022 to create a childcare system that works for all families with universal free breakfast clubs, this would be a welcome help for shift workers as it would help normalise childcare providers offering services that cater to shift workers whose shift patterns sit outside of 09:00 – 17:00.              
    
     
13. We often work alongside trade union members from other countries and we have had insightful interactions with our Scandinavian colleagues, particularly those based in Norway. We believe that a lot can be learned from these countries and how they limit the cost of childcare and guarantee day care for children. We found that train drivers and fellow shift workers in these countries were better able to manage their work around childcare than our members can here in the UK.              
     

14. As outlined above, currently our members are dependent on juggling or altering their shifts to fit in childcare around work and we welcome the committee’s investigations in to current provisions and hope that initiatives such as those proposed by the Labour Party to make it the norm to provide wrap around childcare are expanded upon and implemented to avoid punishing those that choose to work shifts and become a parent / carer.              
     

15. Ultimately many of our members are forced to alter their working hours / shift patterns to be able to continue working their current chosen career whilst being a parent / carer. We would welcome any initiatives to create a more affordable and shift worker friendly system, particularly with regards to early years provisions as the feedback from many of our members has been that returning to work / considering to have a child whilst working as a train driver is where many face difficulty through the management of cost, time and entrenched historical industry expectations. 

January 2023