Basia McDougall MPhil.pdf - OpenAIR @ RGU - Robert Gordon ...

this legislation face a restricted penalty as previously mentioned. Part-time work, as alreadydescribed, equates with less promotion and less skills development for those with fewerskills - and there is little legislation to prevent part-time work being equivalent to full-timework. Research taking a women’s perspective on problems faced with employment which isnot full-time does exist: for example, Tomlinson (2004) paints a depressing picture of whatwomen experience in the UK hospitality sector. Female managers described how theyenjoyed flexibility if they were perceived to be a valuable asset to the organisation. This socalledflexibility blurs the line between part-time work and flexible work. Tomlinson describesnegotiations which were based on informal arrangements. As such, negotiations betweenemployee and employer were likely to be associated with unfair practices. There are plentyof media articles reflecting the demand for flexible work, see for example the BBC (2009c)as well as the aforementioned websites. But a Department of Trade and Industry survey, ofover 1000 individuals found that less that 50% of respondents were aware of flexible workentitlements (2005) which does not mirror take up. Research suggests that the perceivedcause of such figures also lies with managers, who are often perceived to be unwilling toconsider alternative working patterns (Borrell and Kidd 1994). Women have come to expectthis potential discrimination and lack of awareness. The result is that women are placed inposition of lesser power - and therefore less able to negotiate a psychological contract. Manywomen, Hewlett (2007) notes, in response to this negatively weighted scenario, go ‘offramps’or take a ‘scenic route’ with respect to their careers. In fact, she calculates thenumber of fully qualified women perceiving employment inequality and opting out of theplanned linear career path could be as high as 60%. Many might argue that organisationsare right to be wary of part-time work. Visser and Hemerijk (1997) describe management ofunemployment in Holland, through the promotion of part-time work. It is of interest to thispaper that jobs the Dutch offer as part-time, are exclusively considered full-time only insouthern Europe. The perception of working patterns other than full-time are clearly sociallyconstructed and women’s expectations arguably lead to a degree of self-fulfillingexpectations.1.13 Maternity leaveFocussing specifically on maternity leave legislation, in the UK there are moves towardsincreasing rights for women with respect to maternity leave entitlement and guaranteedpositions to return to. It is worthy of note that legally however, the woman returning frommaternity leave does not have the right to return to the same job (Blundell v St. Andrew’sPrimary School). Again, media articles tend to highlight the negative corollary: the Daily Mail,(Barrow, 2005) announcing one such move to increase leave, in the very first paragraphspoke of a ‘chaos for companies’. The article then continued to describe a ‘further blow’ with26