THREE in 10 women working in the public sector have been denied flexible working requests due to “inconsistent, rigid and unimaginative” attitudes by employers, a major Unison survey reveals today.
The poll of more than 44,000 women found one in four had their requests denied multiple times.
The findings released at the start of the union’s annual women’s conference in Brighton were described as “disheartening” by Unison general secretary Christina McAnea.
She said despite employers having “nothing to lose and everything to gain,” many women who find they need to “inject some flexibility into their working lives are coming up against employers with inconsistent, rigid and unimaginative attitudes.”
“While there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, some form of flexible working is achievable in most workplaces,” she said.
The survey found just under half of flexible working requests were by women seeking a better work-life balance.
The other main reasons were mental health, childcare needs and for physical health.
More than two-fifths of the request denials were due to concerns they would affect the quality of the service provided, with others told that there wouldn't be enough colleagues to cover their duties, and that colleagues would ask for similar working patterns. Around one in seven were given no reason at all.
One in four women said a flexible-working law — which scraps a six-month wait before employees are entitled to request flexible working — coming into force this April doesn’t go far enough.
Nearly six in 10 said there should be an automatic right to flexible working.
Fawcett Society chief Jemima Olchawski said workplaces have been structured around “outdated stereotypes that assume every household has one male breadwinner and one female homemaker.”
She added: “We know that too many women feel they have no choice but to accept lower-paid, lower-quality work in exchange for flexibility.
“A need for flexible working arrangements, whether it be due to caring responsibilities, disability, or simply a desire to rebalance work and life, should not mean the end of career progression.
“As Unison’s research shows, a day-one right to request is simply not enough to create the deep cultural change that is needed. Flexible work as a matter of negotiation with a manager is a system that bakes in existing inequality.
“Flexible work must be made the default for everyone.”
Labour has vowed to pass laws to make employers accommodate flexible working requests “as far as is reasonable.”
Rebecca Florisson, principal analyst at the Work Foundation at Lancaster University, said: “Flexibility is vital to a modern and high-performing labour market. It is concerning that three in 10 women in the public sector are being denied their flexible working requests.
“The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 provides modest improvements to enable a right to request flexibility from day one and reduce waiting times.
“But let’s be clear, a right to request is not a right to have it. Research indicates that many workers censor themselves — including workers balancing childcare, caring responsibilities, or disabilities and health conditions — refraining from asking for flexibility out of fear of rejection. Furthermore, vague and often difficult to challenge business justifications can exacerbate this issue, as evidenced by instances of repeated refusal.
“With the UK facing worker shortages and record levels of long-term sickness, it is imperative that we see further legislative change to embed a day one right to flexible working which can ensure more people are able to enter and stay in work.”
