Staff are twice as likely to get paid time off to get their boiler fixed as they are for voting during working hours.

Just 4% of bosses told IRS that they would give paid time off for workers to visit the polling station.

Other key findings include:

• In the past two years, almost one-third of survey respondents had received at least one request from staff for time off to perform public duties





• Nine in 10 employers reported that one or more employees have performed jury service (in the past two years)





• Just over a quarter (27%) of employers believe that their organisation actively encourages and supports employees with public duties such as school governors or local councillors





• Only a minority of employers find that employees taking time off work either for public duties, jury service or personal reasons cause real problems





• Over three-quarters of employers said that they would be willing to allow an employee more flexible working time patterns in order to balance their work with their public role





• Almost two-thirds (61%) of respondents said that they would consider a request to move to part-time work, and 35% said that they would consider requests to work from home





• A further 30% said that they would consider an employee request to perform compressed hours in order to balance work with public duties





• Employers most frequently granted paid leave for lay magistrates, with 38% of organisations providing paid time off





• School or college governors were entitled to paid time off by one-third (33%) of employers





• Three in 10 employers gave staff paid leave to perform duties as local authority councillors





• A total of 18% of the IRS sample said that they allow time off for charitable work; 77% of employers said that they did not





• Twelve of the 14 organisations that did so had their own employee volunteering scheme, indicating that it is relatively rare for employers to allow time off for volunteering when this is not part of an employer-led scheme





• A third (33%) of employers said that their organisation specified the maximum number of days that employees could take in order to fulfil their public duties

IRS Employment Review managing editor, Mark Crail said:

“Employers are increasingly likely to support employees who want to play a positive role in their local community. And expectations about work-life balance – not to mention the government’s decision to make 2005 the year of the volunteer – are adding to the pressures on employers to make this part of their corporate social responsibility programmes.

”But there are practical difficulties in supporting people with civic or community roles. Employers need to be clear about the reasons for which an employee can take time off work without being too prescriptive. It is good to leave line managers some space to exercise common sense; after all, fulfilled employees tend to be more effective in the workplace.”

The survey, conducted at the end of 2004, is based on responses from 77 organisations.