Campaigners urge employers’ understanding

With so many working parents facing unprecedented stress combining work and home bosses have been urged to be sensible

Women on Boards

 

Employers have been urged to show understanding and compassion as working parents juggle home and work in whole new way.

With schools and nurseries now closed by Covid-19 many more parents are working from home than ever before, and having to combine that with home schooling.

It is not typical flexible working.

Charities and pressure groups have spoken up.

Sensible and understanding

Jane van Zyl, Chief Executive of Working Families, said: “Employers should continue to pay parents and carers as usual while they are working from home. Now’s the time for line managers to have sensible and understanding conversations with parents and carers of young children – particularly those working full-time – about what is needed, and what is and isn’t possible, over the coming weeks.”

She added that self employed parents who can’t work due to their kids being at home or who aren’t being paid by their employer need changes to be made to the social security system so they continue to receive pay for their hours worked at national minimum wage replacement levels. For the self-employed and those working irregular hours she said this should be based on how much they work on average. And she said the Government should remind employers of parents’ and carers’ to emergency time off for dependants while schools are closed, which means they cannot be dismissed or treated unfavourably as a result.

Van Zyl said: “Since the virus emerged, we’ve seen an increasing number of employers adopt flexible working to mitigate the risks of spreading the illness.  We hope that this will help employers recognise the far-reaching benefits of flexible working – including increased productivity and engagement from staff – and that they will continue to embed flexible working into their business long after the coronavirus has run its course.”

Finances

According to a recent survey of 282 working parents by the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development and YouGov, less than half (45 per cent) said they would be able to work from home if schools were closed. A fifth (21 per cent) said they would have to take paid annual leave in order to cope, and 15 per cent said they would need to take emergency unpaid leave. Those findings are now being put to the test.

Coram Family and Childcare also raised concerns about childcare providers’ finances. In the last week the Chancellor has outlined a number of measures aimed at supporting the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. The childcare sector has been calling for a dedicated support package for the early years sector too to ensure that they are able to survive long term, given many have already been struggling due to underfunding of ‘free’ childcare.

Claire Harding, Head of Coram Family and Childcare, said: “Most childcare providers ar​e small businesses, and they operate on very tight margins. If they don’t have any income, they will go out of business. We welcome Government’s commitment to continue free early education funding but this isn’t enough, as most settings also rely on parent fees. Government must protect them – so they’re able to start providing childcare again as soon as the closure period ends.”





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