"Do you think that current employment law in the UK allows parents to achieve a suitable balance between work and family life?"

So much emphasis is placed upon the employment rights of women as they actually carry the children but what about men? Briefly mentioned in the last paragraph men are entitled to time off for the birth of a child or the adoption of a child. The Employment Act 2002 established these Paternity rights. A working father, is entitled to one or two weeks’ paternity leave for the birth of their child, some other people are also entitled to paternity leave. Most fathers will be entitled to statutory paternity pay for their paternity leave. To qualify for paternity leave for a birth, the employee must be employed and have worked for their employer for 41 weeks by the time their baby is due. They must be the biological father of the child, or be married to or be the partner of the baby's mother (this includes same-sex partners, whether or not they are registered civil partners). For the purposes of paternity pay the father must be planning on having some responsibility for the child's upbringing. Obviously paternity leave must be sought in writing to be obtained. So a father is entitled to either one or two weeks time off. This can either be from the day of the baby’s birth or within fifty-six days of it. It cannot be taken before the birth of the child4. Although the law now does allow a certain amount of time off for working fathers at the time of their Childs birth one or two weeks is simply not enough to create a sufficient bond. No provisions are made for pre birth, which means it is entirely up to the employer whether or not a man can attend scans with the mother of their child and so forth. It is clear to see that even at an early stage in family life the law does not make sufficient enough provisions for fathers to have a healthy work life balance.  

So it is all fair and well saying that the law provides time off during pregnancy and straight after birth but what about after that? The Employment Law Act 20025 states that certain changes to pre existing employment contracts should be made for those who have children under the age of six and disabled children under the age of eighteen. However whether this happens or not is entirely at the discretion of the employer, and even if it can be proven that the employer is unjustly being unfair with flexible working hours there is no real deterrent to the employer. For example the most a tribunal can offer in terms of a remedy to an employee is eight weeks pay, which in 2006 was £2320. This shows that there is no suitable work life balance. A person can both work part time and have a part time family life, but they cannot work full time and have a suitable family life. Although the law has provided certain protections to ensure a work life balance it is quite apparent that they have not gone far enough.

In connection with the flexible working hour’s initiative the Employment Act 2002 act also states that time must be given to employees for dependants care. This however only includes urgent family reasons such as an accident or illness. The scope of this provision has been tested in cases such as that of Forster v Cartwright Black6. In this case the employee took time off to emotionally come to terms with the death of a close family relative, however it was ruled that this provision for time off only covers the actual funerals and the making of funeral arrangements and nothing else. This shows that although this time off for dependants clause goes some way to aiding the idea of a work family life balance, it does not go far enough as it will only cover one or two days and not an extended period of time which might be needed.

It is clear to see that from both a legal and social perspective there is no such thing as a suitable work life balance. Family life is being stretched to the limit as women struggle to work, bring up children and look after the home. About 5,000 women were questioned in the survey commissioned by health magazine Top Sante7. It claimed 93% of mothers feel stressed as they try to cope with all the demands made on their lives, 9 out of 10 mothers who work full time say life is much harder than they ever imagined. And almost as many say the stress of trying to cope with everything often causes them to shout at their children. Two thirds of those questioned felt their stress actually transferred to their family, causing them to feel stressed too. The Government has obviously been trying to tackle the problem of a none existent work life balance to some extent. The Conservative party for example published a report, Breakthrough Britain, proposing tax breaks for married couples where one partner does not work. The plan is aimed at enabling more mothers to stay at home with young children. However the problem here is that it is alienating mothers and fathers from a one-parent household, there was nothing in their proposal to help them or indeed those who are not married. Therefore in conclusion there is not a suitable work life balance for either the employer or the employee; depending upon whose view you look at. The only way in which a suitable balance could be achieved is if more proactive legislation is passed to encourage employers to hire mothers or even legislation to encourage the use of job sharing. However all of this is a long way off and unless social attitudes towards working mothers and fathers change it is unlikely that there were ever really be a stable work life relationship.