Young single women working in non-unionised service jobs are more likely than others to be late for work, a study in Britain has found. The results match the experiences of Irish employers, who say lack of punctuality by staff is a serious issue for businesses.
Mr Pat Delaney, director of the Small Firms Association, said young people entering the workforce had a particular problem adjusting to specific starting and finishing times.
The British study, by a team from the University of Manchester, examined the reasons for workers being late and found low morale and lack of job satisfaction to be significant factors. It found that workers who were very satisfied with their jobs were half as likely to be late as those who were neutral about their work.
The finding that those most likely to be late were young, single women in service jobs probably reflected the fact that more women were employed in the type of jobs concerned.
Mr Delaney said the national absenteeism survey by his organisation last year showed the problem was highest in the electronics, clothing and footwear sectors, where many jobs contained a degree of repetition.
"They're jobs where people are more likely to be doing single-task type of work, and it's more difficult to get motivated," he said.
There were, however, a number of causes of lateness for work in Ireland, Mr Delaney said, including traffic problems and an inadequate supply of childcare facilities. Travel distance to work, such as people living in the midlands and commuting to Dublin, was another factor.
Yet another, said Mr Delaney, was affluence, which had made people less concerned about the need to hold on to their jobs, because of a belief that another was always available.
Lateness and absenteeism caused serious problems for businesses. "If six people in an enterprise are 10 minutes late for work every day, that amounts to nine weeks of production lost over the year," he said.
The SFA survey found the problem to be greater in larger firms that in smaller ones, where peer pressure was a factor and someone's absence would be more keenly felt.
Regionally, the highest level of absenteeism was in the midlands, while "the best area is the sunny south-east".