Work–Family Reconciliation and the Law: Intrusion or Empowerment?

The use of governmental social policy to engineer change in working practices is controversial in the United Kingdom. While the aspiration of achieving work–family reconciliation is firmly on the agenda in the European Union, the United Kingdom has chosen to opt out of the Social Chapter and has vetoed successive family-friendly initiatives such as the proposed introduction of parental leave. The gist of the objections put forward by the current Conservative government has been that it is wrong to interfere with business, firstly because this constitutes an interference with management autonomy and secondly because this would increase costs, thereby reducing competitiveness and causing job losses. However, it will be argued ...