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T
HE journey from “Croke Park” to
“Haddington Road” has been bumpy for
public-sector management or public-sec-
tor unions. Pay and working hours have
been the main focus. Issues of gender equality
have not received much attention.
This is shameful given that the public sector
is a major employer of women. In the edu-
cation and health sectors employed % of all
women employees in Ireland. .% of those
working in the health sector and .% of those
working in the education sector, were women.
The public sector is dramatically gender une-
qual. .% of clerical officers in the civil service
were women in , whereas only some %
of those at the level of Secretary General and
Assistant Secretary were women. Only % of
women Assistant Secretaries are married. Women
in the health sector accounted for .% of
nurses, but only .% of consultants.
One factor that makes the public sector attrac-
tive to women is the extensive availability of
working arrangements that enable employees to
balance work and family responsibilities. EU data
highlight the importance of this. The labour-mar-
ket participation of mothers is . percentage
points lower than for women without children.
The reverse is true for men. The labour-market
participation of fathers is . percentage points
higher than for men without children.
Irish research in highlighted that
women spend substantially more time on car-
ing and household work than men. Women are
more likely to work fewer hours
per week in paid employment than
men. Women represented .% of
those working less than hours a
week in paid employment in .
Flexible working arrangements
are key to women remaining in the
labour market.
The rejected Croke Park Two
proposals included provisions that
undermined work-sharing and flex-
ible working arrangements in the
public sector. The INMO commis-
sioned a gender impact assessment
of the draft proposals by this author.
It found that the proposals would
disproportionately and negatively
impact on women and would tend
to push women with caring respon-
sibilities to leave employment.
The ‘Haddington Road
Agreement’ also includes sections
on “Work-sharing” and “Flexible
Working Arrangements (Flexitime)”.
It is hard to understand why these
feature so prominently, and unhelp-
fully, in an agreement committed to
“pay and productivity measures”. National and
international research has found that produc-
tivity is enhanced by the use of flexible working
arrangements.
Male dominated management would appear
to disagree. The Agreement states that work-
sharing has created “a significant management
challenge and overhead”. Research, however,
points to the need for such arrangements to be
managed differently from traditional working
patterns. A focus on trust over control, and on
outcomes rather than inputs is required. It is not
inconceivable that issues of limited management
capacity are at play in the perspective on flexible
working evident in the Agreement.
The Agreement does not provide much detail
but it appears to presage a diminution in work-
sharing and in flexible working arrangements.
There is repetitive reference to management’s
“discretion to alter or change an individual’s
work-sharing arrangements”. The only criteria
identified are the business needs of the organi-
sation. There is no reference to any reasonable
accommodation of those with caring responsi-
bilities. Individual work-sharing arrangements
are to be formally reviewed annually.
The Agreement states that “it is now necessary
to update the [flexible working arrangements]
to better reflect the current needs of organi-
sations” and that such arrangements are only
possible “so long as they support and enhance
the efficient operation of Departments/Offices”.
The core time-bands may be amended and staff
at Assistant Principal level and equivalent will
not be able to avail of the arrangements unless
they already do so.
Several unions have secured some protection
for their members. The “current work sharing
arrangements as set out in various Departmental
Circulars will continue to apply” to IMPACT
grades in the local authority sector. “Management
do not propose to review” flexibility in attend-
ance arrangements for nursing and midwifery
personnel in the health sector.
These exceptions are a positive indicator
of concern for gender equality. What remains
unexplained is the apparent hostility of man-
agement to gender equality. The need for gender
impact assessments of all such Agreements is
conspicuous.
Niall Crowley is a former CEO of the Equality
Authority who works as a consultant about equality.
Haddington Road culture
niall crowley
news
Sexist Haddington Road Agreement undermines work-sharing
Laddington Road
“
77.4% of clerical ofcers
in the civil service were
women in 2010 whereas
only some 16% of those
at Secretary General and
Assistant Secretary level
were women
