LONDON - In a first of its kind surmise, the CBI has said that flexible working hours were hitting businesses hard. Working parents are requesting for more flexible working hours and with employers being forced to grant them, businesses are suffering, according to the CBI.
The CBI/ Pertemps Employment Trends Survey looked at 420 firms and found that an increase in 'flexible' hours was having an adverse impact on the said business. "Companies still need to get the job done. The temptation to overwhelm them with unjustified employment law, just to placate the trade union movement, must be resisted," said CBI deputy director general John Cridland.
He also asked the government to be cautious about implementing broader employment laws for parents with children at home. He said that their survey threw a startling light on the other side of the new employment legislation, which has been in place since 2000. "Companies have made great strides during the last 18 months to make a reality of the government's family-friendly policies. But this survey provides a disturbing insight into the impact that new employment legislation is having, which a government committed to better regulation must heed," observed Cridland.
The survey also showed that 75 percent of employee requests for flexible working hours were granted and a compromise was reached on the remaining 15 percent. One in five firms felt that national union leaders would only toughen their stand in the coming year.
Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary was critical of this report, "The right for new parents to request flexible working, to which employers can too easily say no, is one of the most popular rights introduced by this government as a result of union campaigning. For the CBI to see this as simply a way of placating unions rather than of retaining and motivating staff, says a great deal about their attitudes to the modern world," he said.
Posted
on : Tue, 13 Sep 2005 07:05 GMT | General News
By : Paula Jenkins
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