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Future Trends in the Regulatory Reform of Work-Life Balance in the UK

This study delves into the regulatory reform of work-life balance in the UK, covering policy agendas, equality, flexibility, employer attitudes, and recent developments. It explores incremental approaches, the burden of childcare, EU influences, paid maternity leave, and the impact of New Labour policies on flexibility and welfare-to-work issues. The text analyzes employer attitudes, empirical evidence, the link between work-life balance and employee voice, and the impact of various policies on the labor market.

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Future Trends in the Regulatory Reform of Work-Life Balance in the UK

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  1. Future Trends in the Regulatory Reform of Work-Life Balance in the UK Ian Roper Middlesex University London

  2. Future Trends in the Regulatory Reform of Work-Life Balance in the UK • Background to Policy agenda • Incrementalist approach to equality • ‘Flexibility’ • Employer attitudes: some empirical evidence • Recent developments

  3. The WLB Policy AgendaEquality and Incrementalism • Basic Issue: who should bear the ‘burden’ of childcare? • The family? • The state? • Employers? • Policy framework therefore straddles equality, welfare, employment

  4. The WLB Policy AgendaEquality and Incrementalism • Linda Dickens (2007) • Approach to employment equality disjointed • Different internal sources of pressure • Campaigns; ‘shocks’ e.g. Disability Discrimination Act 1995; Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 • Different external sources • Influence of US civil rights movement; EU • EU influence significant • Gender, race, disability, parental leave, PT and temp worker rights

  5. The WLB Policy AgendaEquality and Incrementalism • Paid maternity leave since 1975 • Since 1997 • extension of maternity leave to 12 months • limited right to parental leave • limited right to paid paternity leave • right to ‘request’ flexible working

  6. The WLB Policy AgendaEquality and Incrementalism • EU influence: Social Chapter • Parental Leave Directive • Equalisation of PT and temp workers rights • Greater emphasis on equal pay systems in public sector (Corby 2007) • NHS, local government, education

  7. The WLB Policy AgendaFlexibility • 1979-97 ‘the flexible firm’ (Atkinson 1984) • The role of legislation • Curtail individual rights • Restrict union’s ability to ‘resist change’ • Example: • 1979 eligibility to claim unfair dismissal = 6 months employment • 1997 = 24 months

  8. The WLB Policy AgendaFlexibility

  9. The WLB Policy AgendaFlexibility (WERS98)

  10. Proportion of workforce being paid at lower than equivalent of NMW (1998)

  11. New Labour • ‘Flexibility and fairness’ • Explicit link to equality diminished • Emphasis on ‘business case’ and ‘best practice’ • Additional link to “welfare to work” policy (Douglas and Freedland 2007)

  12. New Labour

  13. New Labour: flexibility and the business case • Costs of recruitment vs retention • Transaction costs • Training costs • Employer branding and recruitment costs

  14. New Labour: flexibility and the welfare to work issue

  15. New Labour: flexibility and the ‘social justice case’

  16. Labour’s Policy Agenda • Employment Relations Act 1999 • extension of maternity leave to 12 months • limited right to parental leave • limited right to paid paternity leave • right to ‘request’ flexible working • Incremental additions to maternity leave • Incremental additions to paternity leave

  17. Labour’s Policy Agenda • Related importance of EU Directives on... • Parental leave • Working time • Part time workers • Temporary workers

  18. As things stand... Maternity leave = paid 9 months; 3 months unpaid Paternity leave = 2 weeks paid Parental leave = up to 13 weeks unpaid parental leave for each child to age 5 Right to transfer maternity leave between parents Right to request flexible working hours (good business reason required if refused) Right to (unpaid) time off for ‘family emergencies’

  19. Maternity Pay Details(with thanks to Alex Heron) • All are entitled to 12 months unpaid maternity leave • ‘Statutory Maternity Pay’ (SMP) paid by employer and claimed back from gov’t • SMP entitlement requires 26 weeks continuous service • Rate of SMP: • First 6 weeks @ 90% full pay • Next 33 weeks @ capped rate (currently £125 pw) • Final 13 weeks unpaid

  20. New Labour: the impact of employment regulation

  21. WLB and Employee Voice • “right to request” principle in WLB implies link • employment rights enhancements individual not collective (Smith and Morton 2001;2006) • …leaving gap in enactment • Voice conventionally distinguished as being • Employee Participation (e.g. collective bargaining) • Employee involvement (one way; unitarist oriented)

  22. Employer Attitudes: Evidence • Some employer buy-in to WLB business case, however • WERS2004 manager attitudes: • WLB viewed as individual choice • 69% in private sector; 47% in public • more frequent in SMEs • less frequent where union recognised

  23. Employer Attitudes: Evidence (Roper et al 2003) • broad support for ‘family friendly policies’ • more support for the abstract principle than practical advantages: • ideological basis of support among managers outweighed opposition... • Whereas business-case opposition outweighed business-case support

  24. Employer Attitudes: Empirical Evidence

  25. Combined Approval/Impact Rank

  26. Combined Approval/Impact Rank

  27. Combined Approval/Impact Rank

  28. Approval/Impact: Findings

  29. 2007 Follow-up • Survey follow-up to 2000 survey (2007) • Ask approval and benefit of range of WLB-oriented policies • Voice categorised to WERS terminology • Significant problems with data collection • no response bias data and low response rate (190) • uses restricted to use as pilot

  30. Findings: General views on WLB • Approval ratings (Likert 7-point scale) • Maternity Leave 3.57 • Parental Leave 3.74 • Paternity leave 3.04 • Adoption leave 3.99 • Flexible working hours 3.43 • Continuous employment beyond retirement 2.59

  31. Findings: General views on WLB • Impact ratings (Likert 7-point scale) • Maternity Leave 4.66 • Parental Leave 4.42 • Paternity leave 4.25 • Adoption leave 4.47 • Flexible working hours 4.29 • Continuous employment beyond retirement 3.52

  32. Findings: General views on WLB • Significant difference depending on job title of respondent. e.g. maternity leave approval... • HR Function = 80% • General/line manager = 53% • Director/CEO = 34% • Other management = 24% • all = 52% • This replicated 2000 findings

  33. Employee Voice and WLB • Approval ratings (maternity leave) • Union consultation = 75% • Non-union reps = 62.5% • Workforce meetings = 58% • Team briefings = 55% • Intranet = 64% • Staff survey = 75% • Suggestion scheme 56% • “Open door” management philosophy 53% • (All) 54%

  34. Employee voice and implied management style • Proxies created from hybrid • Range of models • Purcell (1987) Storey and Bacon (1993) Marchington and Parker (1990), Sisson (200), Guest & Conway (1999) • Participation = yes/no • Involvement = cumulative

  35. Employee voice and implied management style • Voice mechanisms = • Collective, ‘participation’ • Union recognition, EWC • Individual, ‘involvement’ • Non-union reps, team briefings, intranet, staff survey, suggestion schemes • No voice • None of above, or only ‘open-door management philosophy’

  36. Employee voice and implied management style

  37. Employee voice and implied management style

  38. Employee voice and implied management style Positive association between approval of bundle of WLB policies and presence of collective voice Positive association with general presence of voice mechanisms

  39. New Research and Caveats • Further analysis of existing data: • Multivariate analysis indicates complex interaction between gender composition and skill-mix of workforce • Existing dataset is limited for further analysis • New survey? • “things have moved on”…

  40. Things have moved on • The recession • Essence of Govt approach (voluntarism; best practice) undermined? • Employer using flexibility to mitigate against redundancy? • The ‘new backlash’ (Christine Brewer; Katherine Hakim) • General Election (May 2010) • New Labour’s new enthusiasm for equality? • ‘Red Toryism’?

  41. New-New-Labour? • Consolidation of equalities • Equalities and Human Rights Commission • Equalities Bill 2010 • The rediscovery of income inequality • Institutional barriers • Active duty to promote equality by public bodies

  42. Election 2010

  43. Labour Manifesto • More flexibility to transfer maternity leave after 6 months • ‘Fathers Month’ paid leave • Extend ‘right to request’ to grandparents

  44. ‘Red Tories’?(Philip Blond) • 2007: Cameron ‘detoxifying’ the brand • 2007: No longer the ‘mouthpiece of big business’ • Circa 2008: Conservative Women’s Policy Group (circa 2008) • Retain all existing • Strengthen equal pay audit system • Extend right to request flexible working (but with no compulsion)

  45. ‘Red Tories’? • ...or ‘same old Tories’? • Renewed hostility to EU • Opt-out of Working Time Directive • Married couple’s tax allowance • Means-test family tax credits

  46. Election 2010

  47. Manifesto • Extend ‘right to request’ to • All parents with child under 18 • Everyone in public sector • ...eventually to everyone • Extend right to request flexible working (but with no compulsion)

  48. Summary • UK regulatory approach to WLB framed by... • Incrementalism • Link to welfare agenda • Link to flexibility • Seems to have reached new political consensus • ‘WLB is good’ • But strongly tied to business-case and voluntarism • May lead to polarisation in labour market segments

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