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Ordinary maternity leave: 88 per cent of respondents were aware thatemployers have a legal obligation to let women take paid time off when theyhave a baby. This highest level of awareness among the rights to do withchildren and dependants may reflect the long-standing nature of this right.While there was some variation between groups in their awareness of thisright, it was not statistically significant.The level of awareness of the next two rights was somewhat lower, thoughstill higher than for other rights in the area of children and dependants. Theirrelatively high awareness compared to these other rights may be a reflectionof the publicity when these rights came into force, as well as political debateabout the issues in 2005.Paid paternity leave: 55 per cent of respondents were aware thatemployers have a legal obligation to let men take paid time off when theirpartner has a baby. While there was some variation between groups in theirawareness of this right, it was not statistically significant.Right to request flexible working: 51 per cent of respondents were awarethat employers have a legal obligation to seriously consider a request forflexible working from parents of a young or disabled child. Respondents witha child under six were more likely to be aware of this right than those withoutchildren under six.Additional maternity leave: In contrast to ordinary maternity leave,awareness of additional maternity leave was much lower. Forty-nine per centof respondents were aware that employers have a legal obligation to letwomen take additional unpaid time off when they have a baby. Respondentswith a child under six were more likely to be aware of this right than thosewithout children in this age group.The two rights in the area of children and dependants with the lowest levelsof awareness are those introduced in 1999, and which have not recently beenpublicised more recently.Time off for dependants: 42 per cent of respondents were aware thatemployers have a legal obligation to let employees take time off to look aftera dependant in an emergency. While there was some variation betweengroups in their awareness of this right, it was not statistically significant.Parental leave: 27 per cent of respondents were aware that employers havea legal obligation to let parents of young children have a set amount ofunpaid time off work to spend with them. Respondents with a child under sixwere more likely to be aware of this right than those without young children.2.5 Knowledge of the detail of the lawAfter respondents had completed the exercise where they placed cards on aboard according to whether they thought the cards showed legal obligationsof employers (actual employment rights) or not, they were then given thefollowing instruction:35
‘These are the cards with the things that you thought employers have to doby law. I’d now like you to place these cards on this board to show howmuch you feel you know about the detail of the law regarding these issues.How much do you know about the detail of the law regarding this issue?’Table 2.4 details the results of this exercise, examining how muchrespondents said they knew about the detail of the law of rights that theywere aware of. It examines only actual legal obligations of employers. 17Table 2.4: How much respondents said they know about the detail ofthe law of the rights that they were aware ofEnsuring thatemployees are nottreated unfairlybecause of theirWorking timePay, contracts,disciplinary andgrievanceproceduresChildren anddependantsKnow alot aboutthe detailKnow a fairamount aboutthe detailKnow alittle aboutthe detailKnow hardlyanything aboutthe detail% % % %UnweightedbaseGender 24 29 31 16 935Sexual orientation 24 25 31 20 899Race 27 27 29 17 966Religion 24 26 32 19 902Disability 25 25 34 16 946Age 21 23 36 19 793Minimum number of weeks’ paidholiday each yearRest breaks after working acertain number of hours25 31 30 14 83627 32 30 11 891Limit on working hours 24 31 32 13 654Pay minimum hourly wage 33 34 27 7 956Provide written statement ofterms and conditions37 31 23 10 882Have a set disciplinary procedure 26 31 29 13 846Have a set grievance procedure 25 32 30 13 823Not dismiss employees withoutfair reasonSeriously consider a request forflexible working (for children)28 34 26 12 93113 20 35 31 539Parental leave 14 19 35 30 286Time off for dependants 16 22 32 30 428Ordinary maternity leave 25 30 29 15 915Additional maternity leave 20 24 34 22 515Paid paternity leave 21 22 35 21 554Note: ‘Don’t know’ responses not included as numbers were too small.Source: IES/BMRB, 200517 Discrimination on the grounds of age is also examined, as this will become a righton 1 October 2006.36
Page 5 and 6: AcknowledgementsThis research was c
Page 7 and 8: 4.3 Types of problems experienced 1
Page 9 and 10: List of Tables and ChartsTable 2.1:
Page 12: Figure 5.2: Where respondents would
Page 15 and 16: including work and parents, and dis
Page 17 and 18: those aged 65 and over the average
Page 19 and 20: all respondents (21 per cent) said
Page 21 and 22: • to find out the main sources of
Page 23 and 24: • A variety of telephone help-lin
Page 25 and 26: unaware of what was available to th
Page 27 and 28: which the survey covered. These exe
Page 30 and 31: 1.4 Comparisons with the first benc
Page 32 and 33: 2Awareness ofemployment rightsThis
Page 34 and 35: Figure 2.1: How well informed respo
Page 36 and 37: • being a trade union/staff assoc
Page 38 and 39: Figure 2.2: Whether respondents kno
Page 40 and 41: 2.4 Awareness of employers’ legal
Page 42 and 43: 2.4.1 DiscriminationThe Sex Discrim
Page 44 and 45: minimum number of weeks paid holida
Page 46 and 47: This fairly high awareness may refl
Page 50 and 51: While respondents may be aware of t
Page 52 and 53: dependent children, had children un
Page 54 and 55: It is important to note that rights
Page 56 and 57: Table 2.5: continuedWhether experie
Page 58 and 59: 2.8 Summary2.8.1 How well informed
Page 60 and 61: • 51 per cent of respondents were
Page 62 and 63: 3Knowledge of specificemployment ri
Page 64 and 65: Figure 3.1: Estimate of the weekly
Page 66 and 67: Table 3.1 shows respondents who got
Page 68 and 69: Table 3.2: continuedHow well inform
Page 70 and 71: The median number of weeks cited by
Page 72 and 73: 3.2.4 Days off in a 14-day period a
Page 74 and 75: Table 3.5: continuedEntitled to 2 d
Page 76 and 77: Figure 3.4: Which groups are covere
Page 78 and 79: Table 3.6 shows that:• A small pr
Page 80 and 81: experienced a problem in relation t
Page 82 and 83: Table 3.8: continuedWhether member
Page 84 and 85: Table 3.9 shows that respondents wh
Page 86 and 87: who had experienced a problem compa
Page 88 and 89: Table 3.11: continuedWhether experi
Page 90 and 91: Table 3.12 shows that 62 per cent o
Page 92 and 93: Respondents were asked about a moth
Page 94 and 95: 3.5.1 At what point employees are l
Page 96 and 97: Table 3.16: continuedNMW: Anti-disc
Page 98 and 99:
had the right to be accompanied was
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that deals with employment disputes
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3.6 Knowledge scoresPrevious sectio
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Table 3.19: continuedWhether member
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Almost half of respondents (49 per
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• When asked who could accompany
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• the number of hours or days you
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Table 4.1: continuedYes NoUnweighte
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• being older by one year, ie if
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Table 4.2 isolates all those who ha
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Figure 4.2 below lists the areas in
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Table 4.3: Whether advice/informati
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Figure 4.4: Advice or information s
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Consultation with a colleague at wo
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• Of those who found all that the
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• the employer was not willing to
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cent of all respondents, leaving th
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4.8.6 What respondent wishes they h
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Steps taken to resolve the problem
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Sixty per cent of respondents in em
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Figure 4.10: Which problem do you t
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Table 4.9: continuedNumber of emplo
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4.10 Summary4.10.1 Experiencing a p
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problem. Almost two-thirds (63 per
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5Finding information andadviceThis
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When examining where respondents wo
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not trade union/staff association m
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‘And who do you think should be m
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information services were thought t
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Respondents were very evenly divide
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website/the Internet, 14 per cent w
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6Key findings byemployment rightThi
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• 30 per cent knew hardly anythin
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• Only two per cent of respondent
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• Eight per cent of respondents s
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• An ‘awareness deficit’ was
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an employee knew about the detail o
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• An ‘awareness deficit’ was
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• One per cent of respondents sai
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6.4.6 Age discrimination (legislati
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• sex discrimination law• unfai
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7.2 Which groups are most (and leas
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Groups emerge from the bivariate an
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8Appendix 1:Description of sampleIn
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Table A1.2: Family and household ch
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Table A1.4: Characteristics of resp
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Appendix 2: Regressionmethodology a
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qualifications etc.). The co-effici
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Table A2.1: General awareness, clas
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Table A2.2: continuedIndependent va
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department. 48 The following sub-se
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Table A2.5: continuedIndependent va
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Table A2.6: continuedCollinearity s
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8.1.14 Additional variables that we
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Table A2.9: Resolved satisfactorily
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Figure A3.1: Average number of hour
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Female 10 90 564Earnings Under £15
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Figure A3.4: Frequency of on-callEv
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10Appendix 4: List ofacronymsAcasBM
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The DTI EmploymentRelations Researc
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No. 25How employers manage absence.
Page 220:
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