Edges Magazine Issue 40 - 24-hour society threatens family life

EDGES MAGAZINE Issue 40

December 2004

24-hour society threatens family life Philip Barron

A major study sponsored by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that Government should intervene to reduce the demand for weekend working and long hours, a trend that is preventing many parents from balancing their work and family responsibilities (and which breaches the EU Working Time Directive).

Assessing the key findings from 19 separate research studies, the report also concludes that well-intentioned efforts to tackle family poverty by persuading more parents to find work risks sending an unwelcome signal that care for children and other unpaid work is unimportant. The report by Professor Shirley Dex of the University of London completes a five-year research program on Work and Family Life.

More than half of all fathers work more than a 40-hour week, including 30 per cent who routinely exceed the EU's 48 hours limit. One in eight mothers also do paid work more than 40 hours a week. A majority of mothers and 79 per cent of fathers frequently work at unsocial hours.

Most fathers and many mothers work at least one Saturday a month, while 25 per cent of mothers and nearly a third of fathers work on Sundays.

Prof. Dex says: "Most couples have found ways to juggle their work and family life, even if it means 'shift parenting' and sacrificing time they could spend together so that one or other can be at home with the children. Even so, our research found a lot of tired parents, a large amount of dissatisfaction and a desire to reduce working hours or even give up paid work ltogether. These preferences run counter to 'welfare to work' policies since the parents want to do less, not more, work while their children are young."

Workplace studies found that a growing number of employers are now offering a range of work-life policies. There is a strong business case for flexible arrangements, based on lower staff turnover and greater productivity. The economic cost of employee absence to cope with family crises, for example, was put at £11 billion in 1999, an average of £500 per employee. In the same year, stress and ill-health were estimated to have lost several million working days (costed at £360 million).

The research also identified a need for employers to recognise the special problems of staff with caring responsibilities for older relatives or for disabled children.