Parental leave ticket to poorer job for many

A fifth of mothers returning to paid work after parental leave are going back to lower-level jobs than they had before.

An online survey filled in by 4475 parents for the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust has found that many New Zealand bosses are still not giving parents the flexible working hours that they want.

Twenty per cent of women, but only 4 per cent of men, had to go back to a lower-level job after taking parental leave.

Although 94 per cent of men returned to the same employer, only 78 per cent of women returned to the same organisation, and 6 per cent of those went back to a different job within the company.

The main reasons for changing positions were to get flexible or part-time hours or because their previous jobs were no longer available.

Trust chief executive Philippa Reed said flexible hours were spreading gradually, but they still did not meet the needs of many parents.

"I've just been doing presentations with the Auckland Chamber of Commerce and the Department of Labour around boosting productivity, mainly to small and medium employers, and you get quite divergent queries," she said.

"You get a lot of people saying, 'I'm in business because I want flexibility for myself and it works really well for us and we can do it more easily than large employers.'

"And then I have the people who say it's actually harder for smaller businesses depending on your resources because it's harder to have cover. It can be totally a question of resources and a question of attitude."

A Government survey of parents with children last year found that only 61 per cent said permanent part-time work was available at their workplace.

One mother who responded to the trust survey commented: "I know of so many talented women who are being denied the chance to go back to work part-time because their employer is forcing them to either come back fulltime or quit."

Another parent said: "I work fulltime and would rather work 30 hours a week to maintain the work/family balance. This isn't an option for me. If I change jobs or work part-time I run the risk of doing a lower-paid job and a job not utilising my skills."

Three-quarters of the respondents were women and they were mainly in "white-collar" jobs, but they broadly matched the New Zealand population for ethnicity and number of children.
Asked to rate the things that were most important to parents who work and look after their children, most named flexible starting and finishing times (93 per cent) and the ability to change working hours occasionally (92 per cent). Affordable, convenient childcare came next (83 per cent).

Childcare was an equally important factor with flexible hours (both 82 per cent) for the 247 respondents who were not in paid work. Three-quarters of those people said they would prefer to be in paid work.

Parents suggested more paid and unpaid special leave to look after sick children, flexible time out during the working day for family events and appointments, suitable spaces in workplaces to bring sick children, more before- and after-school care and school holiday care.

A high 79 per cent of mothers wanted a gradual return to work after having a baby, 72 per cent to be kept in touch while on parental leave, 60 per cent wanted a room for breastfeeding and 55 per cent wanted a fridge for expressed milk.

The survey found that 91 per cent of parents rated financial reasons as important in their decision to return to paid work, compared with personal fulfilment (78 per cent), setting a good role model for the children (73 per cent), career prospects (67 per cent), social contacts (63 per cent) and contributing to society (51 per cent).