Schools reject three in ten women from flexible working

More than one in three female school staff had their requests for flexible working denied.

This comes from a survey conducted by UNISON, a trade union that represents staff who provide services in the public and private sector, today (15 February).

As well as surveying women working in schools, UNISON included those working in hospitals, care homes, town halls, police stations and other key services in their statistics.

The survey is released to coincide with the start of the union’s annual women’s conference in Brighton later today.

25 per cent of the women who were told they couldn’t alter the way they worked reported that their requests had been denied multiple times.

The data shows more than two fifths of respondents had requested some flexibility in their jobs so they could achieve a better work-life balance. More than a third had done so to look after their mental health, 36 per cent to fit around their childcare needs and 29 per cent for physical health reasons.

From this 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 situation that requires a six-month wait).

While UNISON believes this move is a step in the right direction, the union wants more to be done to allow employees to work flexibly. This is because it’s all too easy for employers to turn down flexible-working requests, says UNISON. For example, one woman said she’d been asking to work flexibly for five years but all her requests had been rejected.

In the survey, one in four women also said the new law didn’t go far enough. And more than half (58%) think there should an automatic right to flexible working.