CBI queries flexible working
Article Date: Sep 13 2005
With its latest employment trends survey concluding that more than a quarter of UK businesses feel they are being negatively impacted by flexible working rules, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has launched a stinging broadside against recent legislation.
2003’s Employment Act made it obligatory for employers to consider flexible working requests from their employees – a move that was designed to benefit working parents in particular. But, according to the CBI’s latest survey, (conducted by recruitment firm Pertemps), many business owner managers consider this to be an added burden.
According to the survey’s results, although employers have accepted around 90 per cent of requests to work more flexibly – through part-time, flexi-time and job-share schemes – some 26 per cent of those surveyed believe that the right to request is having a negative impact on their business. This represents a 15 percentage-point rise in just 12 months.
To CBI deputy director general John Cridland, the findings provide ‘a disturbing insight’ into the impact of new employment legislation. ‘Companies still need to get the job done,’ Cridland proclaims, 'the temptation to overwhelm with unjustified employment law, just to placate the trade union movement, must be resisted.’
Needless to say, the Trade Union Council (TUC) has taken a wholly different view.
'The right for new parents to request flexible working is one of the most popular rights introduced by this Government,’ argues TUC general secretary Brendan Barber. 'For the CBI to see this as simply a way of placating trade unions, rather than a key way of retaining and motivating staff, says a great deal about their attitudes to the modern world.’
