Phil Hogan
Ceist:128 Mr. Hogan asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment her views on flexible working hours; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [18846/02]
Written Answers. - Flexible Work Practices.
Flexible working hours are one example of family friendly working arrangements aimed at assisting workers to com bine employment with family life, caring responsibilities and personal life outside work. Family friendly working arrangements include statutory entitlements such as maternity leave, adoptive leave, parental leave and carer's leave, as well as non-statutory working arrangements such as flexitime, part-time work, job sharing, term time, e-working and career breaks. The challenge is to establish family friendly policies that reflect the reality of the workplace and meet the many diverse needs of employees.
The Programme for Prosperity and Fairness recognised that the development of appropriate family friendly policies is important to underpinning economic, social and equality objectives. Family friendly working arrangements are in the interests of employers and employees because they contribute to the needs of the business as well as meeting the needs of employees with family responsibilities. For employers the benefits include: retention of skilled staff; reduced absenteeism; improved productivity; and a more highly motivated workforce. Employees on the other hand benefit through having greater opportunities to better balance their working and family lives; greater equality of opportunity between men and women; and a fairer sharing of family responsibilities. A partnership approach in the workplace is the best way to address this issue, in order to achieve tailor-made solutions to the benefit of the workforce and the employer.
This partnership approach is illustrated through the work of the National Framework Committee for the Development of Family Friendly Policies which was established under the Programme for Prosperity and Fairness to support and facilitate family friendly policies in the workplace. The committee comprises representatives of ICTU, IBEC, public sector employers, the Equality Authority, and a number of Departments and is chaired by my Department. Funding of €1.9 million has been provided under the national development plan for the activities of the committee.
The national framework committee aims to provide employers and employees with the tools to allow them to develop appropriate solutions for their particular organisations. As part of its work the committee has devised an information campaign aimed at employers and employees, offered financial assistance to a number of organisations interested in introducing or enhancing family friendly working arrangements and assisted representatives of employers and trade union to provide training for their members. The committee also has a website, www.familyfriendly.ie, which contains more detailed information on family friendly working arrangements and the work of the committee.