The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Work flexibility ‘new norm’
The legacy of lockdown could be a game-changer in the battle to secure equal opportunities for women at work, a Dundee employment lawyer says.
Kate Wyatt, a partner at city firm Lindsays, believes that working from home – and balancing family life – during the Covid-19 pandemic has proven that flexible working is not a barrier to success.
That will make it harder for employers to refuse reasonable requests for flexible working, proportionately benefiting women more.
Her comments came as research published by the UK Government showed that offering flexible working explicitly in job ads would increase applications by up to 30% – creating up to 174,000 flexible jobs in the UK economy every year.
Ms Wyatt said: “Despite the negative impacts of the pandemic, my hope is that the expansion in flexible home working driven by Covid-19 restrictions will bring a real opportunity to break down barriers to success for women in the post-pandemic workplace.”
Mums are statistically more likely to take the lead on childcare in families. That has far too often been at the cost of their careers because they have found it difficult to work around those demands, Ms Wyatt believes.
But she added: “Lockdown – particularly working from home and home schooling – has proven that society is willing to be more flexible.
“People have adapted their hours to meet family demands while making a success of their work at the same time.
“This should be an eye-opener for employers in attracting and retaining the best people for the job, especially for those where work can be done flexibly.
“It should also make it easier for women and men to make successful flexible working requests, especially where they have proven to be a success during lockdown.”
Ms Wyatt added: “I expect we will see more flexible working requests from men, both as we look towards a home-office working hybrid, but also because more have seen that it is possible to plan work demands around school drop-off and pickups. Flexibility is as relevant to men as it is women.
“Employers are well advised to carefully consider all reasonable requests for flexible working.”
The trio of Lincolnshire growers who instigated a ballot on the future of a statutory levy for the horticulture sector have called for an immediate end to the fee following the vote against it.
The growers – Simon Redden, Peter Thorold and John Bratley – triggered a vote on the future of a horticulture levy collected by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) which resulted in 61% of growers voting to abolish the levy.
They have hit out at reports growers could still be charged a levy for the 2021-22 financial year, despite assurances from Environment Secretary George Eustice that the vote will be respected.
“Despite receiving an income from growers of around £7 million last year and sitting on reserves of £5m, AHDB Horticulture is now suggesting that it needs another £7m from hardpressed growers to wind-up its operations, at a time when some of the largest names in horticultural production are sadly closing their businesses or completely changing their cropping patterns to cope in an increasingly cut-throat sector,” said Mr Redden.
The growers called on AHDB to accept the outcome of the vote and described any attempts to charge horticulture levies for the current financial year as “displays of breath-taking arrogance”.
A Defra spokeswoman said the government was unable to comment on the horticulture levy while a vote on the future of the potato levy at AHDB was ongoing. The potato ballot closes today.