Many happy returns?
Juggling childcare and a job in the hospitality industry is no mean feat. Shift-working and late nights make it difficult for parents struggling to fit in with the hours of a nursery or childminder.
In theory, childcare provision for workers should have improved over the past few years as Government initiatives have worked their way into the UK legal system from Europe. There is now parental leave, limited hours through the Working Time Directive, protection through the Part Time Workers Directive, the National Childcare Strategy, childcare allowances, tax exemption for employer-funded childcare, and the Working Families' Tax Credit.
And things are expected to get even better with the latest Government project -a Green Paper entitled "Work and Parents: Competitiveness and Choice". Unveiled just before Christmas, the Government says it is the most comprehensive review for working parents. It promises huge benefits to those planning to have children and, together with earlier legislation, should make it easier to work and still have a family. Yet the hospitality industry continues to haemorrhage skilled female employees who don't return to work after the arrival of motherhood. For an industry which is predominantly peopled by women, it's a worrying situation.
"We have to do something to encourage women back into the industry after having children," says Bob Cotton, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association. "The new proposals for maternity leave and paternity pay are going to cost the industry but, if we work together to ensure flexibility for small businesses, it could help keep women in the industry."
Currently, only 55% of mothers whose youngest child is under five are in financial employment. Hospitality, which is so dependent on women, needs to push these numbers higher. Yet, according to statistics gathered by the Day Care Trust, the national childcare charity, only 8% of parents have employers who provide help with childcare. Just 4% receive financial help for childcare, while only 17% have employers who offer incentives to encourage mothers to return to work after having a baby.
Basic services
It's hard to find a company within hospitality that offers even the most basic of services. BUPA has a childcare-at-work service, which gives employees aid in finding places at nurseries. It also provides help in finding childminders and nannies, after-school care and holiday clubs, but has no clients within the hospitality sector.
However, there is a minority that does help staff. The Hilton Group is rolling out its existing childcare programme to all divisions, providing employees with vouchers to help with the cost of childcare, flexi-working, job-sharing and term-time contracts. Contract caterer Sodexho has a policy of providing as much flexibility as possible to those with families, while Compass actively recruits for job-shares, flexible part-time work, and remote working from home.
But in an industry dominated by small businesses, there aren't many companies in a position to offer such benefits, especially flexible hours.
"It is very difficult and very expensive to get childcare that isn't within the 8am-6pm bracket," says Stephen Burke, director of the Day Care Trust. "Those working shifts have to rely on family or, more often, non-regulated childcare, which means they won't qualify for Working Families' tax credit."
Shelagh Mooney, regional food and beverage director for Bass Hotels and Resorts, inner London division, has found organising quality childcare the most difficult thing. "You have to have a supportive management," she explains. "I take my son to nursery three days a week and don't start until 9am, and I pick him up three times a week, which means I finish at 5pm."
Maddalena Bonino, executive chef at the two Mash restaurants in London, found the easiest way was for her husband to stop work to look after their two children. "My husband was also in catering so he understands my work, and that I have to do double shifts sometimes," she explains. "At first when my son was born we had a nanny, but it was much more complicated. I didn't know what they were doing during the day and what development stage he was at. My husband and I sat down and decided that my career meant much more to me than his did to him, so he gave up his job."
But Bonino is lucky. When Moving Image Restaurants' front of house manager Marion Scrutton's two children were young, she was running a small family business. It meant working long hours and evenings.
"They often say to me now that I never read them any bedtime stories," she says. "It was a nightmare. But this industry means shift working." Scrutton tries to be as flexible as possible with her valued staff, but even she admits that it is not always possible. "If someone can't make a shift because of childcare problems, it is the other workers who have to take on the extra work," she adds.
Inflexible
Bonino believes the industry could do more. It is too inflexible, she says, and male-dominated.
Yet it's worth trying to keep mothers involved in the industry. Besides the experience and expertise that is retained when a woman does return after starting her family, the industry also benefits from a positive and committed attitude. According to Mooney, she is much more focused now she knows she has to leave at a certain time to get home. "I used to start at 7.30am and work through to 8pm, and I admit I used to faff about a bit because I could work late if I needed to," she says. "But now I don't. I am focused and I make sure I get all my work done in the time I have."
Mooney, Bonino and Scrutton are all in senior positions and they control their own working lives. But the majority of women with children, who are still in the middle and lower levels of hospitality, are dependent on the understanding of their immediate supervisors. They may not have the flexibility to take time off for a sick child or cover for an absent childminder. They may have to opt for an expensive and, perhaps, underage babysitter to stay overnight with their children while they do a late shift.
Few companies will be able to do anything about shifts, but if they can be sensitive to the needs of mothers, and perhaps even fathers, it will make their posts more attractive. The Government is trying hard to blend entrepreneurship with child-friendly policies; isn't it time hospitality did the same?
New rights for parents
On 7 December 2000, the Government launched a Green Paper entitled "Work and Parents: Competitiveness and Choice" aimed at extending rights for parents. One recommendation is that working fathers should have the right to two weeks' paid paternity leave. This will be at the statutory maternity pay rate (currently £60.20/week).
Other proposals include:
Extending unpaid maternity leave to as much as one year.
Sharing any extension to unpaid paternity leave equally between mother and father.
Increasing the flat rate of maternity pay.
Increasing the period of time over which maternity pay is available to 26 weeks.
Widening the eligibility criteria for maternity pay.
Introducing paid leave for one adoptive parent.
There are also proposals on flexibility within the workplace and a number of options to support businesses in providing these rights. More information on the Green Paper can be found at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/review.htm.
The Government is to begin a consultation process on these proposals. Details of how to respond can be found at the above link and responses should be returned by 7 March 2001.
Source: Paisner & Co
Source: Caterer & Hotelkeeper magazine, 11-17 January 2000
