Smyth: pressure from clients The Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) launched an investigation last week into the barriers against part-time and flexible working in the legal services industry and other highly paid business sectors.

The EOC set up the investigation after its research revealed that working carers and parents who are unable to work traditional ‘nine to five’ hours continue to face problems with pay and prospects.


The inquiry team will look at why women with caring responsibilities often end up in poorly paid part-time jobs, as well as why part-time work is less well regarded than full-time work and often only available at junior levels.


It will also analyse why men often work long hours and attempt to identify best practice in reducing those hours.


An EOC spokeswoman confirmed that the legal industry would be one of the sectors that the ‘across-the-board’ investigation would look at. ‘There’s a dearth of senior level part-time jobs generally,’ she said.


Yvonne Smyth, a director of recruitment consultancy Hays Legal, said the debate about flexible working in law firms had quietened down over the past two years as firms started making redundancies.


However, that could be about to change. ‘People were then just pleased to still be in a job,’ she said. ‘With work levels picking up since the beginning of the year, [the issue] will start to come to the fore once more.’


Ms Smyth added that one of the biggest obstacles to part-time or flexible working in law firms was the pressure to meet client demands.


‘The more prestigious the firm, the bigger the clients, the more immediately they want results,’ she said. ‘No one has had the confidence and courage to challenge the way we seem to be going, with these crazy deadlines.’


The EOC expects to publish an interim report this autumn, with the final research and recommendations coming out in spring 2005.