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Employees entitled to work-life balance says minister

05 April 2007

Employees should be entitled to ask for flexible hours to encourage a work-life balance, a minister has said.

Children's minister Beverley Hughes has suggested that all workers should be given the same flexible working rights as parents with children under six or those with disabled children under 18.

In a book to be published in May and commissioned by the Institute for Public Policy Research (ippr), Ms Hughes stated that all jobs should be advertised as part-time, job-share or flexi-time unless a sound business case against this is given.

She said: "We need to help families negotiate the balancing act between care work and paid work, avoiding negative trade-offs between time and money."

It is a "fantasy" to expect people not to have commitments outside work, she added.

Graeme Cooke, spokesperson for the ippr, told the BBC that the notion of a rigid nine-to-five working day is "totally inappropriate" to modern family life.