Tackling part-time/full-time question

By Greg Frost

LONDON (Reuter): It may soon be impossible to distinguish full- and part-time staff in Britain, with employers squeezed between competitive pressures and European laws that make it risky to treat workers with varying hours differently.

Low labor costs are fast becoming the key to success in international markets, demanding new working practices from senior management to the shop floor, pension consultants, employment lawyers and personnel managers say.

"Flexibility in employment has become the key to competing," said Robbie Gilbert, director of employment affairs at employers' group the Confederation of British Industry.

"That means less emphasis on full-time, permanent 'job-for- life' opportunities," he added.

The trend towards part-time workers promises to revolutionize Britain's employment market and has already sharply reduced official unemployment statistics over the past two years as companies adopt a more "hire and fire" approach.

Britain already depends heavily on part-time staff. By 1994, 25 percent of the workforce -- around 5.4 million people -- had part-time work. Around 80 percent of those were women.

Kamlesh Bahl, chairwoman of Britain's Equal Opportunities Commission, said that despite their importance, part-time employees still often received a raw deal.

"Many receive lower rates of pay and are often excluded from employees benefits such as paid holidays, pension entitlements, training and promotion opportunities," Bahl said.

But a recent ruling by the House of Lords, the upper house of parliament and Britain's highest appeals court, is causing a revolution in how so-called "casual" labor is treated and looks set to cost companies more money.

The Lords' ruling in February that Britain breached European laws on the right to full employment protection for part-time workers has forced companies to review policies.

Hotel and leisure company Forte PLC has dealt with the new situation by "harmonizing" full- and part-time staff.

Mark Childs, Forte's director of compensation and remuneration, said all employees participate in pension schemes regardless of the number of hours worked.

Other benefits, including redundancy and maternity schemes, apply on a pro-rata basis, provided that there is a continuity of employment.

Childs said he could see a time when companies move away from hourly rates of pay to annual salaries, which allow for peaks and troughs in the work cycle.

And he also expects overtime payments -- guarded jealously by generations of British trade unionists -- to disappear.

Mike Page, regional manager of personnel and training at Lloyds Bank, told a London conference on part-time work that this kind of "flexible resourcing" was essential to meet changing customer needs.

Page said a new contract introduced by Lloyds caters to part- time staff, who would be asked to vary their hours subject to reasonable notice and "due regard for personal circumstances".

"The traditional working week will change for good and flexible resourcing will become the norm," he added.