Two thirds of working parents ‘feel unsupported by colleagues’

Two thirds of working parents feel that childless colleagues are not supportive of their work/life balance problems, according to a survey. Plus other news.

Two thirds of working parents feel that childless colleagues are not supportive of their work/life balance problems, according to a survey.
The Working Parents Survey 2009 was conducted by My Family Care, an organisation which provides emergency childcare, and interviewed around 5,000 parents. Most said their managers understood the issues they faced in balancing work and family life, but many felt childless colleagues were not supportive. Some 30% said colleagues felt a delayed train was a good excuse for arriving late, but childcare was not.
One woman said that a colleague who owned two dogs did not seem to understand that she could not just leave her children at home on their own.
The survey also found that most mothers said they would be loyal to their employer if offered flexible working.Read more

85% ‘support mandary gender pay audit’
Some 85% of people support mandatory gender pay audits, says the Fawcett Society and Unison.
The poll shows:
– 89% of women and 81% of men support the introduction of a legal requirement on employers to check they are paying female and male employees equally, and to take action if pay gaps are uncovered
– 48% of men and 32% of women believe that on the whole men and women receive equal pay for doing jobs of equal value. This suggests that they are unaware of the gender pay gap
– When they are told that "women are paid on average 23% less than men for doing jobs of equal value", 94% of the public agree that it is important to eliminate the gender pay gap.
The Government’s Equality Bill gives the Government the option in 2013 of requiring companies with 250 employees or more to reveal average pay for male and female staff.
A survey by the Fawcett Society shows women are still earning 21% an hour less than men for full- and part-time work nationally, but in some areas this rises to over 50% less.
It  found women in West Somerset earnt 53% less than men. In Windsor and Maidenhead the figure was 49% whilst in South Northamptonshire it was 43%. The lowest gender pay gap was in Sevenoaks in Kent where it was 1%.
The figures are based on Office for National Statistics data.
Read more

• Vote  
• 0
• 0
• You already voted!

• Tags:
• Discrimination Gender equality Working mums