A paper examined how entitlements to paid leave after the birth of children affected female labour market outcomes across developed (OECD) countries. Extensions of paid leave lengths were found to have a positive, albeit small, influence on female employment rates and on the gender ratio of employment, as long as the total period of paid leave was no longer than approximately two years. Additional weeks of leave, however, exerted a negative effect on female employment and the gender employment gap. Paid leave positively affected the average number of hours worked by women relative to men, though also on condition that the total duration of leave did not exceed certain limits. By contrast, the provision of paid leave widened the earnings gender gap among full-time employees.
Source: Olivier Thevenon and Anne Solaz, Labour Market Effects of Parental Leave Policies in OECD Countries, Social, Employment and Migration Working Paper 141, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Dec
1 in 10 of all workers were underemployed in 2012, according to official statistics. 3.05 million workers wanted to work more hours each week, out of a total workforce of 29.41 million. The number of workers in this position had risen by 980,000 since the start of the economic recession in 2008.
Source: Press release 28 November 2012, Office for National Statistics
Links: ONS press release | Labour Party press release | TUC press release | Work Foundation press release | BBC report
Date: 2012-Nov
An article examined the capacity of trade unions to mobilize around flexicurity issues, and to influence policy debates and outcomes, in the United Kingdom and France. In the UK, flexicurity had low political salience and unions had little capacity for mobilization or influence, although they had linked flexicurity to campaigns on agency workers and restructuring. In France, unions had developed alternative proposals on making employment pathways secure and had succeeded in shifting debate towards these proposals rather than the European Commission's flexicurity recommendations, although differences with the positions of employers and the state had limited outcomes to date. European Union policies provided only weak leverage, since trade unions' ability to influence labour market policy depended on their position within domestic institutions.
Source: Susan Milner, 'Towards a European labour market? Trade unions and flexicurity in France and Britain', European Journal of Industrial Relations, Volume 18 Number 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Sep
A report set out the business case for flexible working. Businesses reported significant gains from flexible working in terms of staff satisfaction and retention as well as productivity and output. They had seen declines in staff absence and disciplinary issues and improvements in the diversity of their workforces. Well managed flexibility increased profitability and business agility, and also enabled organizations to better compete for, and retain, the best workers with the most in-demand skills.
Source: REC Flexible Work Commission Report, Recruitment and Employment Confederation
Links: Report | REC press release | CMI press release
Date: 2012-Sep
A briefing paper examined a range of case studies on flexible working practices in the private and public sectors in Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
Source: Aine Gallagher, Flexible Working, Briefing Note 121/12, Northern Ireland Assembly
Links: Briefing
Date: 2012-May
An article examined involuntary part-time employment in relation to socio-economic circumstances. Involuntariness in relation to part-time jobs was affected by a range of demographic and work-related characteristics. Being a couple with dependent children, for example, reduced the likelihood of involuntariness among female part-time employees: whereas lower educational and occupational levels implied a higher involuntariness across both sexes.
Source: Surhan Cam, 'Involuntary part-time workers in Britain: evidence from the Labour Force Survey', Industrial Relations Journal, Volume 43 Issue 3
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-May
A study examined the number of mothers on low incomes who would benefit if there were more part-time vacancies at higher salary levels; the impact that this could have on lifting families out of poverty; the existing scale and nature of the quality part-time recruitment market; and what could trigger employers to recruit part-time staff at higher salary levels.
Source: Emma Stewart, David Curtis, Paul Gallagher, Lorraine Lanceley, and Richard Buck, Building a Sustainable Quality Part-Time Recruitment Market, Joseph Rowntree Foundation
Date: 2012-Mar
An article examined the association between temporary employment and poverty in a European comparative perspective, focusing on possible gender dimensions. Temporary workers had a higher poverty risk compared with permanent workers, mainly caused by lower wages. Differences between European welfare regimes demonstrated that policy constellations influenced the magnitude of risk factors. Temporary women workers had a lower poverty risk than their male counterparts: they were better protected because they were more often secondary earners in a dual-earning household, while men were more often primary earners.
Source: Wim Van Lancker, 'The European world of temporary employment: gendered and poor?', European Societies, Volume 14 Issue 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Feb
A paper examined the impact of a discrepancy between actual and desired work hours on self-perceived health outcomes in Germany and the United Kingdom. Work-hour mismatches (that is, differences between actual and desired hours) had negative effects on workers health. 'Overemployment' – working more hours than desired – had negative effects on different measures of self-perceived health.
Source: David Bell, Steffen Otterbach, and Alfonso Sousa-Poza, Work Hours Constraints and Health, SOEP Paper on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 424-2011, German Institute for Economic Research
Links: Paper
Date: 2012-Jan
An article examined a cohort study of civil servants that suggested that working long hours of overtime might predispose to major depressive episodes.
Source: Marianna Virtanen, Stephen Stansfeld, Rebecca Fuhrer, Jane Ferrie, and Mika Kivimaki, 'Overtime work as a predictor of major depressive episode: a 5-year follow-up of the Whitehall II Study', PLoS ONE, Volume 7 Number 1
Links: Abstract
Date: 2012-Jan
A report examined working time in the European Union. The average number of hours worked per week had continued to drift downwards – the result of more people working part time, fewer people working long hours, and a fall in the collectively agreed working hours in many countries.
Source: Working Time in the EU, European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions
Links: Report
Date: 2012-Jan