From living hours to the motherhood penalty: this week’s news round-up

This week’s news round-up covers everything from a survey of workers in low paid, insecure roles and Tesco’s announcement on day one flexible working to the motherhood penalty for women from different ethnic groups.

 

6m UK workers in insecure jobs

More than six million workers in the UK are in insecure work, with 3.4 million who are in both low paid and insecure jobs, according to a Living Wage Foundation study.

It found the majority [59%] of shift workers have received less than a week’s notice of their working hours, with 13% being given less than 24 hours’ notice.

A quarter of shift workers have had shifts cancelled unexpectedly by their employer, with 90% not being compensated at their full rate of pay, according to the Foundation.

Nearly a quarter have been forced to increase their reliance on credit or debt as a result. The report says health and social care workers are the sector which is worst affected with nearly 900,000 workers such as carers and support workers in insecure jobs.

The Foundation says its ‘Living Hours’ scheme to tackle insecure work is gathering more backers from employers who are committing to providing secure, reliable working hours. Nearly 100 have signed up so far.

Tesco announces day one flexible working right

Supermarket giant Tesco has announced that new employees will have the right to request flexible working from the first day in their job, a year ahead of new flexible working legislation.

Tesco has also introduced a new requirement that all full-time advertised positions will be available as flexible or full-time and across all roles a range of different part-time or flexible working options can be discussed. In addition, the supermarket also contractually guarantees new recruits a minimum of 16 hours a week and the right to request a contract that reflects their actual working hours if they work regular overtime.

The Government has passed new legislation on flexible working which is expected to come into effect next year and to include a day one right to request flexible working.

Citigroup to monitor UK office attendance data

Citigroup has confirmed that it will begin monitoring office attendance data in the UK as it investigates the effectiveness of its hybrid work policy.

A Citigroup spokesperson has confirmed that the bank will begin tracking individuals’ office attendance on a regular basis starting from next week.

The company will collect aggregated office data every two weeks for the firm’s offices in London, Edinburgh and Belfast. Monitoring is already in place in the US. It has said that hybrid workers need to be in the office three days a week, unless they are sick or have another good reason not to be in. Hybrid working employees who consistently fail to come in three days a week may face disciplinary action.

Demand for office space above pre-Covid levels

Demand to lease office space is up on 2019 levels in most parts of the UK, according to data from Rightmove and property intelligence supplier EG.

The data shows that while demand is down in London [down 1% since 2019 and 11% since last year] it is up in other parts of the country.

Demand to lease office space is 11% higher in Scotland than 2019. Scotland is the only region to improve on last year at +7%.

When it comes to cities, Leeds (+46%), Glasgow (+26%) and Liverpool (+17%) have seen the biggest increase in demand for office space to lease compared with 2019, more so than the larger metropolises like Manchester (+13%) and Birmingham (-3%), according to the study.

Andy Miles, a commercial expert at Rightmove, said the latest figures show that, despite the increase in remote and hybrid working since the pandemic, businesses “clearly still see value in retaining a physical presence for employees, even if they now gather there more infrequently.”

BT appoints first female chief

BT has appointed board member Allison Kirkby as its first female chief executive. Kirkby, who has been a non-executive director at BT since 2019, will leave her current role as CEO of Swedish telecoms company Telia at the end of January.

Kirkby has been a Non-Executive Director at BT Group since 2019 and is also a Non-Executive Director and member of the Audit Committee of Brookfield Asset Management Limited.

Adam Crozier, BT Group Chairman, said: “Allison…is a proven leader, with deep sector experience and a history of having transformed businesses.”

Her appointment will take the number of female FTSE 100 chief executives back to 10. The number recently fell after the departure of NatWest boss Alison Rose.

Report looks at how motherhood penalty varies with ethnic group

The motherhood pay penalty has affected mothers from some minority groups significantly more than other mothers, with lasting effects into old age, according to a Fawcett Society report.

The report, based on the Labour Force Survey and a comprehensive review of the literature, looks at the data for eight ethnicity groups. While mothers from all ethnic groups have suffered a pay gap which is not narrowing compared to dads, mothers from certain groups faced bigger gaps than others. Mothers of Chinese and Black Caribbean heritage did not experience a penalty in hourly pay compared to women of the same ethnicity with no dependents, but those from Indian and White heritage experienced a 1% gap, mothers from Black African heritage experienced a 10% gap and those from Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage a 13% gap.

Fathers, however – except those of Black African heritage – experienced a positive pay gap, with dads from a Bangladeshi or Pakistani heritage experience a 7% gap in their favour while fathers of Black Caribbean and Chinese heritage experienced a 24% positive pay gap.

The research found the greatest driver of the motherhood pay penalty is due to a reduction in hours worked, which is often associated with poor-quality part-time work. Whilst mothers of all ethnicities move into part-time work at similar rates, says the report, there are stark differences by ethnicity in the number of mothers who leave the work force. The employment rate of white mothers is five percentage points lower than that of white women without children, whilst women of Indian, Black African, and Chinese heritage see penalties of up to 11 percentage points. Black Caribbean mothers see a marginal increase in employment rates compared to women without children. The largest difference – 17 percentage points – is in employment rates of mothers (38%) and non-mothers (55%) in the Pakistani and Bangladeshi group.

Read more here.


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