Action Area D - Flexible and Part-Time Working and Career Breaks

D. FLEXIBLE AND PART-TIME WORKING AND CAREER BREAKS

Bar Council Recommendations

1.61 All Chambers of more than one tenant should have written policies permitting members of Chambers (female or male) to take career breaks, work flexible hours, part-time or partly from home to enable them to manage their family responsibilities and remain in practice. Such policies should reflect, in particular, the needs of the primary carer in relation to childcare responsibilities.

Written Policy

1.62 Chambers’ arrangements for the payment of rent should not constitute disincentives to flexible working. Earnings related arrangements for the payment of rent may be preferable to fixed rates. A policy of fixed rent without any qualification is potentially indirectly discriminatory against women because it is likely to impact on a greater proportion of women than men (see para 2.16.b where indirect discrimination is explained). Rent arrangements need to reflect the economic effect on the individual and the Chambers, as do arrangements such as desk space and any capital benefit obtained from mortgage repayments on property acquired by a set of Chambers.

1.63 Members of Chambers working on flexible working arrangements should be included in Chambers’ business and in Chambers’ continuing professional development, marketing and social activities in the same way as full-time working members of Chambers.

Advantages of Flexible Working

1.64 Flexible working arrangements should assist in retaining some of the disproportionately high number of women who leave the Bar, including those who leave after having children. This is a loss to the Bar because the presence of women at senior levels broadens the profession’s diversity, increases the number of women in the pool for judicial appointment and strengthens and enhances the profession’s marketability. It is also a loss to Chambers in terms of the wasted investment in training and the gap left in seniority.

1.65 The availability of flexible working arrangements is likely to increase commitment to Chambers and the profession and improve morale.

1.66 The Bar has always accommodated flexible working: allowing barristers to combine practice at the Bar with part-time judicial appointments, writing, academic or political appointments. Flexible working for reasons associated with child care or other domestic responsibilities can and should be treated in a similar way. Barristers are already accustomed to working in teams and returning work to their colleagues when they are unavailable.

1.67 The arrangements which any particular Chambers puts in place will need to reflect the nature of the membership and the work undertaken. Systems such as telephone conferencing, and e-mail should be used to best advantage to enable members of Chambers to conduct their practices from home where desired. Different working patterns may suit different individuals: for example, working during school term times only for a parent with children of school age.

1.68 Individual practitioners should recognise that reduced working hours will have an economic effect on their Chambers and should themselves be proactive in seeking to agree fair arrangements for rent and the use of Chambers resources, including accommodation, with their Chambers. Rental arrangements should be agreed and understood before any period of flexible working commences.

LINK TO GUIDANCE ON FLEXIBLE WORKING ARRANGEMENTS EXAMPLES