The Government needs to do more to promote quality part-time work and job-sharing, concludes a new report from the Women and Work Commission (WWC).
Three years after its first report (see EOR 151), the WWC was asked by Harriet Harman, Minister for Women and Equality, to review the progress on implementing its recommendations to close the gender pay gap and tackle job segregation. One of the areas identified by the commission where there has been no significant advance is the opportunity for work-life balance in the private sector.
Quality part-time work
The WWC points out that the Government lacks any overall departmental champion for quality and flexible part-time working and that it has not done enough to promote this issue, despite its responsibilities under the gender equality duty. Asserting that Government leadership is critical, it says that the Government Equalities Office (GEO), in conjunction with the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, should take the lead on developing a work programme that is "strongly resourced" to promote quality part-time and flexible working by March 2010.
The WWC also states that the GEO must carry out a more thorough review of the individual projects of the Quality Part-Time Work Fund, which was established after its 2006 report, to identify which approaches were successful. It says that the Government must set out what action it will take as a result of the lessons learnt and that it expects "considerable resources to be committed to this".
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