View Full Version : Flexible working for parents planned
changilass
28-Aug-06, 12:24
Read this on BBC teletext
New rights to make working more flexible for parents are being planned by the government.
Ministers are considering legal rights for parents to work part time, the ability to choose working hours and to paid leave if children are ill.
IMHO all that would happen is that it would make it more difficult for parents to get work.
Small business, in particular, would find it very hard to work around this.
What does everyone else think??
brokencross
28-Aug-06, 12:31
Another vote winning ploy that won't cost the Government a penny yet will cost employers dearly. Why should an employer have to tailor his/her business around other people's family needs, a step too far I think. It is also a charter for malingerers to get paid for taking time off work in the guise of looking after their "sick" children. I also agree it will introduce a secretive form of discrimination against workers with young families.
Naefearjustbeer
28-Aug-06, 12:51
If this country didnt have so many wasters and I dont just mean dole frauds and we were not so heavily taxed then 1 wage should be more that enough to pay the bills allowing more parents to stay at home to look after the kids. Far to many layers of goverment eating up cash like it was growing on trees. I laugh at the tax credits system. I wonder how many people are employed in the department that runs it. Why dont they simplify it and give folks with children a different tax code to single folk. The CSA what another huge drain on finances that doesnt help the people that need it. Small employers must be worried about about employing folk of that are liable to have kids as it will cost them an arm and a leg. However if an employer was seen to give a job to somone else because they were less likely to be having kids then that would be discrimination. I can see a lot of young women getting stepped over by men or women with grown up famillies for jobs as it will be cheaper and less hassle to employ them. Not fair but I think it is what will happen more and more.
Another vote winning ploy that won't cost the Government a penny yet will cost employers dearly. Why should an employer have to tailor his/her business around other people's family needs, a step too far I think. It is also a charter for malingerers to get paid for taking time off work in the guise of looking after their "sick" children. I also agree it will introduce a secretive form of discrimination against workers with young families.
It's just another way of the government getting out of paying towards childcare in my opinion, they had a great show of paying towards expenses for parents and then clamped down on childminders numbers so there were less places available to take children.
can a parent not stay home and look after their children, why should others who choose not to have children be penalised instead? eg, oh, can you maybe take your leave later in the year, as blahblah is needing this fortnight for the school holidays?
(playing devils advocate here :-) )
You will never please everyone.
Whilst at work a few years ago I got a call telling me my son was sick so as a concerned parent I went to him. I was treated as an inconvience as I was taking time out of work.
Who do I please my son or my employer.?...my son no question but that put the backs up of employees with no children. As a mother I am in a no win situation!!!!!!!!!!
If a child becomes ill and the parent has to go for them/be with them, then they shouldn't be penalised for that, I don't think. I have had to leave work in the past to help my brother as my brother has had a fall and had to use the help button, some things can't be helped.
I work flexi time although I do have 'core' hours. It is the only perk in my job and it is a system that works as long as it is not abused. It fits in well into the organisation that I work for, however I do not see it working if the government insists on it being a 'right' for parents. Imagine a shop that has all its workers on flexi working - suppose they all decided to come in to work in the morning on one particular day -they did their conditioned hours then went home! Would they shut the shop in the afternoon as there was no staff! Imagine a hospital, they could not resusitate you as there is no medical staff as they are all on flexi-hours. Imagine a school, the teachers would do their 4.25 hours teaching time from 4.30am - 8.55am, then go home as the kids are arriving at school.
The world has gone crazy!!! The government is living in cloud cuckoo land, the ideas are fine but in all practicallity they just do not work.
Buttercup
28-Aug-06, 18:28
At risk of being "shot down in flames" - I think it's about time the rest of the workers ie them without children/with older children were given a fair deal. At my workplace when someone has to stay home to watch kids because they're sick or the childminder is unavailable it's the rest of the workers that it falls back on. The work/hours have to be covered by someone after all. And who hasn't heard:
"I have to take my hols during the school ones"
"I can't work till 9 as the kids don't go to school till then"
"I can't work extra as I've the kids to think about"
I'm not against mums working, just wish that the rest of the staff could get the same consideration.
Naefearjustbeer
28-Aug-06, 19:34
I would think better of a parent who did go home to check on / look after a poorly child than one who leaves it to others to bring up there kids for them. Why have kids if you are not prepared to look after them. Kids are not optional extras they are part and parcel of your life from the minute of conception. If some one needed time of work so they could go out on the drink/party whatever and it inconvienieced me at my work I may well be annoyed about it. If they were away to see to a poorly child I would be happy to help out to cover the situation. I would think less of them as a person if they did not take the time off to sort it out.
can a parent not stay home and look after their children, why should others who choose not to have children be penalised instead? eg, oh, can you maybe take your leave later in the year, as blahblah is needing this fortnight for the school holidays?
(playing devils advocate here :-) )
Jing, when you are in your old age, the children born now will be paying your pension. Those children will pay alot more into the system than the system will ever give them, especially because in all probability by the time their turn comes around, the only pensions out there will be privately arranged. Please drop the idiotic argument of how those who choose not to have children are penalised. If I wanted to be a radical I would tell you that you should be penalized because your egotistical choice not to procreate penalises the country. But then I prefer not to be radical in anything. In the middle road lies virtue! ;)
As a working mother some comments got my back up i work hard and give my employer 100% I have only once taken time off cause my child was ill I DO NOT EXPECT SPEACIAL TREATMENT BECAUSE I HAVE A CHILD. I work to help keep my family and so we can have a good standard of living and so that we can hold our heads up in this community . Working mothers make up a lot in the workforce today.
As a working mother some comments got my back up i work hard and give my employer 100% I have only once taken time off cause my child was ill I DO NOT EXPECT SPEACIAL TREATMENT BECAUSE I HAVE A CHILD. I work to help keep my family and so we can have a good standard of living and so that we can hold our heads up in this community . Working mothers make up a lot in the workforce today.
Totally agreed. I also feel that "fathers" should take time of as well if children need them.
Naefearjustbeer
28-Aug-06, 23:30
Totally agreed. I also feel that "fathers" should take time of as well if children need them.
Some fathers do I have done it on more than one occaision. I took 2 weeks paternity leave when my second child was born 3 weeks of my annual leave I wish I could of had more. My wife works part time and I work shifts between us we both look after the kids 90% of the time the other 10% is by close family members and it is much appreciated. However I wish that I could afford to give up work and we could be a one wage packet family. However running a house on one wage is not so easy these days.
pultneytooner
29-Aug-06, 13:03
Read this on BBC teletext
New rights to make working more flexible for parents are being planned by the government.
Ministers are considering legal rights for parents to work part time, the ability to choose working hours and to paid leave if children are ill.
IMHO all that would happen is that it would make it more difficult for parents to get work.
Small business, in particular, would find it very hard to work around this.
What does everyone else think??
A damn good idea.
Jing, when you are in your old age, the children born now will be paying your pension. Those children will pay alot more into the system than the system will ever give them, especially because in all probability by the time their turn comes around, the only pensions out there will be privately arranged. Please drop the idiotic argument of how those who choose not to have children are penalised. If I wanted to be a radical I would tell you that you should be penalized because your egotistical choice not to procreate penalises the country. But then I prefer not to be radical in anything. In the middle road lies virtue! ;)
I did say that I was playing devil's advocate!! It's just a point of view, not necessarily my own ;)
Powered by vBulletin® Copyright © 2024 vBulletin Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved.