Police officers, teachers and female doctors say they want to work from home in Unison survey

has found. About 30 per cent of women working in public sector services including schools, hospitals, care homes, town halls and police stations have had requests to work flexibly denied, while almost 60 per cent believe that flexible working should be an automatic right.

The findings have emerged in a survey conducted by the union Unison, of

44,000 women working in the public sector. It found employers were being “inconsistent, rigid and unimaginative” when dealing with requests from staff.

“Too many employers are still turning down flexible-working requests, which means the right to request is pretty meaningless for many women.

From April, a new flexible-working law comes into effect in England, Scotland and Wales. This gives employees a

statutory right to request flexible working from their first day at work, as opposed to the current rule that requires a six-month wait.

In the survey, one in four women (25 per cent) felt that the new law did not go far enough. And more than half (58 per cent) believed that there should be an automatic right to flexible working.

Christina Mcanea, general secretary of Unison, said: “It’s disheartening to

see many employers continuing to deny their staff the opportunity to work flexibly. They have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Sadly 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.

The survey was published at Unison’s women’s conference in Brighton.