OPTIONS: Flexible working arrangements have been an integral part of the ESB's equal opportunities policy for the best part of a decade. Local management have been briefed on family- friendly options and arrangements are made on a mutually agreeable basis.

Flexitime is the most popular family-friendly practice available to ESB staff, with a large number of clerical and administrative staff opting for personalised hours. Job-sharing appeals mainly to women. Of the 130 staff currently job sharing, only eight are men.

Apart from work- or job- sharing, employees can also opt for reduced working hours, which are agreed with the manager. Career breaks of up to five years are available for child-minding. They are granted at the discretion of management in other circumstances.

Ms Freida Murray, equal opportunities manager at the ESB, says the family-friendly policies adopted by the company have benefited both employer and employees. "It allows couples to combine work and family life in an economy where both parents have to work and it's made a big difference to staff retention."

The ESB offers five months' additional maternity or adoptive leave without pay. During the additional leave period, the company continues to pay both its own and the employee's superannuation contribution, so no break in service occurs. Three days' paid paternity leave can be taken up to two weeks after the birth of a child.