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Jobs for the Girls: Two Years On

I tend to take the view that that reflects badly on people's management rather than on the needs of the work force. I ran a small work force in a voluntary organisation of 20 to 25 people and quite often people would sidle in with a look, that said that they were either pregnant or wanted to change their working hours for another reason—one can quite often tell when someone is pregnant. It was often possible to arrange for them to work different hours. Obviously, it depends on the nature of the work force, and it will not be possible in some jobs, but it is perfectly reasonable that an employer should look at the possibility. The point is that they should be required to take it seriously and to have serious reasons for their decisions, is it not? This example is striking. The Select Committee on Education and Employment, which was the first Select Committee on which I served, back in 1997-98, did a report on part-time workers. We invited people from supermarkets and shops such as Sainsbury's and Thorntons that have quite a good record of allowing flexible working, but we also invited people from the textiles industry. The latter said to us, ““You don't understand about production lines. It isn't possible to have people working part-time.”” Some people who had worked in textiles for donkeys' years went off and had children but were not allowed to go back and work part-time. To my mind, that showed why the textile industry was in difficulty, because the management were not able to cope with organising a production line that could cope with flexible working arrangements.