Submission to DCEDIY on Flexible Working

Published: Friday, May 28, 2021

The National Women’s Council (NWC) supports the introduction of legislation on flexible working to ensure that flexible working is open to all. Flexible working has the potential to make it easier to combine paid work with caring responsibilities and to enjoy a better work life balance. However, flexible working does not exist free of context and existing gendered allocations of paid and unpaid work, gender differences in leadership, violence against women and the health impacts of some kinds of flexible work, such as remote work, must also be considered. For the many essential but often low paid workers, flexible working may be more challenging. Advances in flexible working must take place alongside progression towards the Living Wage and advances in workers’ rights to ensure that the most vulnerable workers are protected. This submission sets out recommendations on issues that should be addressed in the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth’s flexible working policy: • Work/life balance • Paid parental leave and childcare • Women’s leadership and career development • Health • Violence against women and • Workers’ rights

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