Public and Commercial Services Union

This guidance is part of a series covering the key strands of the PCS national strategy for personnel management issues. The initiative stemmed from the special Personnel Policy Forum held on 22 February 2006 where negotiators and reps from across the union explored ways in which PCS could develop a national strategy on these issues.

Their discussion was based around the general headings of “Development and Career Opportunities” and “Well-being at Work”, with equality as a central theme. Each of these areas was then divided into two, namely “Performance and Appraisal” and “Learning and Skills” and “Managing Attendance” and“Work-life balance”.

This guidance has been developed through consultations at a number of PCS events and in conjunction with the Equality, Health and Safety Department, the National and Equal Pay Unit and the PRIBS Department.

The Gershon efficiency agenda has undermined many of the once good employment practices in the government sector, and has lowered the morale and well-being of the workforce. PCS’s national campaign against job cuts is part of its response to this.

The Well-being at Work guidance is intended to help negotiators at all levels to convince employers that adopting a positive personnel management agenda is the right way to increase the motivation and productivity of the workforce and create good places to work in both the public and private sectors.

How to use this guidance

This guidance is designed to help negotiators, particularly at Group and National Branch level, to engage with members and management to improve policies and procedures. It can be used to:

• Review current agreements, policies and procedures;
• Identify issues that need to be tackled and negotiate around them;
• Engage members in a discussion about their ideas and needs;
• Mount a campaign in conjunction with the PCS campaigns unit;
• Review and issue updated guidance to reps on taking forward personal cases related to the topics covered in the campaign.

The importance of good work-life balance

Workers in the UK currently work the longest hours in Europe, take the shortest lunch breaks and enjoy the fewest public holidays.

Childcare is expensive and difficult to find, care for older people is of inconsistent quality and financial support during family related leave is lower than in some other parts of Europe.

The quest for higher productivity and the long hours culture limit the effects of improved rights and progressive management.

The TUC estimates that if all the unpaid overtime worked by the average employee were put together at the start of the year, it wouldn’t be until mid-February that they would start to be paid. “Work your proper hours day” marks this date.

The workforce is changing: more women are working and taking shorter breaks after childbirth; there are more single parents working or seeking work; people are working later in life and are likely to have increased responsibility for the care of elderly dependants as people live longer.

In the 21st Century workers will need to take a “life course” approach to balancing the different aspects of their lives in order to maintain their skills, health and earnings potential.

The Government’s policy is to promote work life balance and in particular to support working families but in this as in other aspects of management, its actions towards its own workforce contradict this aim.

Instead of the Government is leading by example and the Civil Service implementing good work life balance policies, the efficiency agenda has lead to longer hours, poor job design, intensified workloads, longer travel times and withdrawal of opportunities for flexible working. This affects PCS members in the core civil service, in non-departmental public bodies and in private companies.

Even where good policies exist workloads prevent people from taking advantage of them. The 24/7 Survey carried out by Keele University in 2006 found that over half of the PCS members who responded worked above their contracted hours and a third had been unable to take their full holiday allowance.

This is very worrying as the Whitehall ll study of the health of civil servants demonstrated how conflict between work and family demands can lead to both physical and mental health problems.

Rather than improving efficiency, this situation increases stress, reduces productivity and creates a greater likelihood of illness and absence.

Work-life balance measures underpin the other strands of PCS’s Well-being at Work campaign: health, learning and performance.

Unless workers can resolve the conflicts between the demands of work, family, home and leisure they will be more prone to illness, less able to devote time to acquiring new skills and unable to perform to their full potential.

Work-life balance supports other aspects of well-being by

• Improving health and cutting sickness absence

• stress and family absences taken as sick leave are reduced
• adjustments in working patterns for ill health and disability are encouraged
• staff are able to find time for exercise and relaxation

• Improving skills

• Staff are able to find time for formal and informal learning
• Training opportunities are designed so that all staff can access them

• Improving performance

• Workloads are designed to be accomplished in the time allocated
• Contributions are not judged by the length of time spent at work

How employers benefit from good work-life balance arrangements

Although some employers promote flexibility in working patterns and contracts simply as a device to save money and undermine good conditions of service, there is a lot of evidence that employers can benefit more from work-life balance arrangements that are designed to support workers.

Good policies can improve recruitment, retention, health, morale, motivation, loyalty, give a better return on training investment and increase productivity – all of which reduce costs and result in a more successful organisation. They are not a luxury add-on, but the core of good management.

Organisations providing services to the public are now required to promote equality, produce equality schemes and undertake impact assessments on policy, service delivery and employment practices for race, disability and gender. Work-life balance policies can make a crucial difference to equal opportunities.

In the Civil Service a 10-point plan to achieve equality and diversity applies to all departments and agencies.

This includes targets increasing the number of women in the Senior Civil Service and states that “All SCS and feeder grade posts (grade 6 and 7) [are] to be available on a flexible working pattern basis unless robust and objective justification is proved.”

But often good policies exist on paper but not in practice.

The consequences of job cuts and relocation under the Gershon and Lyons plans on work organisation, staffing levels and workloads have stalled any attempt to eradicate the long hours culture that pervades the civil service and private sector organisations.

Managers receive inadequate training and support, have to work with untested procedures and IT systems and are put under pressure to meet targets rather than being encouraged to support and promote work life balance.

In some workplaces private sector models are applied which result in unrealistic workloads, long hours seen as the norm, unachievable targets, little regard for health and safety and no adjustments for disability needs. Even long-accepted conditions of service, such as flexitime agreements, are being undermined.

The Civil Service Diversity Survey in 2001 confirmed that the experience of those working flexibly was that widespread negative assumptions were made by managers and colleagues about their commitment and workers in that group were more likely to experience inequality in appraisal, promotion, access to training, job allocation and most HR policies.

PCS objectives

Work-life balance provisions are negotiated at many levels and through a number of different parts of the bargaining structures –including pay, equalities and personnel policy. Negotiators and representatives should be aware of how these connect and try to ensure that agreements are consistent.

The basic PCS demands relating to hours, leave and family leave are included in the Model Pay Claim. These are:

• Conditioned hours of no more than 35 hours per week (net)
• 30 days annual leave for all staff
• 39 weeks maternity leave on full pay
• 15 days paid maternity support leave, with shorter qualifying service and notice periods than those in the statutory regulations
• 39 weeks paid adoption leave, with no qualifying service requirement
• 13 weeks paid parental leave for children up to age 18
• Paid leave to deal with domestic emergencies
• Paid leave for eldercare and other dependants including those with disabilities
• Paid leave for those undergoing fertility treatment
• Disability leave to allow time off for treatment or rehabilitation or arrangement of workplace adjustments
• Support for childcare.

Beyond these demands, PCS wants to work with employers to promote a holistic approach that recognises how balancing work with other aspects of life supports diversity and health.

Using the model created by OurTime, a project conducted by PCS in partnership with the Inland Revenue in 2001, policies tailored to specific workplaces can be developed which benefit staff, management and service users. These solutions should include:

• Access to flexible working patterns for all staff at all levels without career detriment
• Opportunities for all workers to use their full range of skills regardless of their working pattern
• Better opportunities and incentives for acquiring new skills
• Appraisal systems based on contribution and achievement rather than attendance
• Appropriate support and provision for childcare 
• Adequate staffing levels and achievable targets and workloads 
• Limiting individual choices only when there is a real need to do so
• Skilling managers to manage a workforce with diverse working patterns.

Legal protections

Under European and UK law, workers are protected by a variety of rights limiting working time and providing for leave and financial support in specific circumstances.

Parents and carers benefit from statutory entitlements to request flexible working and in respect of maternity, paternity, parental leave, adoption and time off for dependants.

Particular legal protections also apply to part-time workers, temporary workers and workers with disabilities.
The main pieces of legislation in the UK are:

• Working Time Regulations
• Work and Families Act
• Employment Act
• Part-time Workers Regulations
• Temporary Workers Regulations
• Disability Discrimination Act

More information is available from the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (see Resources list).
If you think that any of these legal rights are being breached, contact your Bargaining Unit for further advice.

Helping members achieve a good work-life balance

PCS reps should be working to encourage good work-life balance practices and to prevent problems occurring.

This requires the dual approach of negotiating good collective provisions and supporting individuals or groups of members who have particular needs.

Local reps can play a crucial role in alerting branch officers to situations that may be causing problems, or in publicising initiatives that are helpful.

Only by building up our knowledge and evidence can we argue for systems that deliver good work-life balance for everyone.

Reps play a key role in promoting the importance of good work-life balance and making sure that members can use the options available.

Members may turn to local reps for help with preparing for circumstances that can be forseen (like asking for flexible working on return from maternity leave) or in an emergency when problems have come to a head (such as when a family member requires care after an accident).

In both situations reps need to know about the statutory and contractual rights and options available, assist the member to think through the pros and cons of the options and guide them through the procedures for putting them in place.

Make sure that the member thinks about how an alternative working pattern would affect their ability to do their work, their health, their other commitments, their income and their career.

Consider short, medium and long term options. If they aren’t sure about what would be best, investigate whether they could change their working pattern for a trial period. The PCS diary lists phone numbers for confidential services for advice on stress, health, welfare and other problems.

Employers must comply with the statutory entitlements and will probably offer contractual rights that are better. Make sure you know about

• Annual leave entitlement
• Leave entitlements for family and emergency matters
• Learning and study leave
• What working patterns are available at your workplace
• Who is entitled to request flexible working (many employers allow all staff to do this – not just parents and carers)
• What support is available for people with caring responsibilities.

The PCS Work-life Balance course helps reps find out about legal rights on flexible and family-friendly working rights. It aims to give reps the skills and confidence to help members and to negotiate best practice.
 

 Looking after yourself 

 The PCS Work-life balance course also encourages reps to reflect on how to manage their own work-life balance by exploring topics such as setting your own objectives, effective meetings, communication strategies, using IT resources, and delegating, empowering and getting support.

Contact the Organising and Learning Services department at PCS HQ for more information.

For updated information

• Call the PCS Reps helpline Tel: 020 7801 2650 or email info@pcs.org.uk 
• Speak to your Regional Office or Bargaining Unit
• Contact
  PCS Research Officer: Email Pamela.Cole@pcs.org.uk  
  Tel 020 7801 2639
  Equality, Health and Safety Dept: Email equality@pcs.org.uk
  Tel 020 7801 2683
  National and Equal Pay Unit: Email nepu@pcs.org.uk 
• Your regional learning services officer can give you information about the PCS work-life balance course.

Resources

• Gary Daniels and Steve French The PCS 24/7 Survey 2006
• CCSU/Cabinet Office Work, stress and health: the Whitehall ll study (edited by Dr. Jane E Ferrie), 2004 
• The OurTime project toolkit