ONE in three parents with young children have left a job due to lack of flexible working, new TUC polling reveals.

Three in 10 parents of children under seven have also experienced informal flexible working requests being rejected in part or in full.

The union body has called for the government to introduce an advertising duty on employers as the polling, commissioned from Opinium, also showed 73 per cent of such parents were more likely to apply for a job that included flexible working.

Ministers should also introduce a duty for employers to consider what types of flexibility could be offered and advertise those options up front, said the union body. 

A government consultation on improving access to flexible working under the Employment Rights Act closed in April. 

TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said: “As many parents return to work after the half-term break, anyone with kids knows that being able to work flexibly isn’t a perk. It is a lifeline. 

“But the truth is too many parents are still being locked out of the labour market due to rigid and outdated attitudes in the workplace. 

“Improving access to flexible working benefits workers, businesses and the economy, whether it’s through increasing staff productivity or higher retention.  

“That’s why the government is right in its ambition to make flexible working the default through the Employment Rights Act. But ministers must go further. It’s time we saw a legal duty on employers to advertise possible flexibility in roles to fit around workers’ lives.” 

The polling found just over half of parents with children under seven were somewhat (22 per cent) or very (31 per cent) unlikely to apply for a job without knowing if the working pattern would fit around their life and responsibilities.

Almost half said they were unlikely to make a request on the first day of the job and 18 per cent did not know they had a right to request flexible working.

Some 48 per cent said they had negative experiences as a result, for example, feeling their opinion was less valued or taken less seriously, or getting fewer opportunities than other colleagues at the same level.