§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the extent of job sharing in his Department. [90859]
§ Mr. JamiesonApproximately 7 per cent. of staff in DfT Central Units work part time. Information specifically on job sharers is not held centrally and can be provided only at disproportionate cost. Job sharing forms just one strand of a range of possible alternative and flexible working arrangements. Under DfT central posting arrangements, all posts are open to part-time workers or job sharers. In very exceptional cases where line managers consider that a post cannot be filled on a 697W part- time/job share basis, they must make a case to HR setting out compelling reasons for this. The vast majority of such requests are denied.
The central Department, in conjunction with ODPM, supports a part-time workers network.
The DfT agencies, in almost all cases, also operate a policy of advertising all posts as open to part-time workers or job sharers. All operate a range of flexible working options. Several also support part-time working or carers networks.