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 Research findings raise questions for the most appropriate pay policies for privatised public services?Photo: Getty Images

Women are ill-suited to company profit sharing schemes and can become alienated from their bosses, research suggests.

While men remain largely unaffected by the pressure from their immediate boss and colleagues to hit group targets, women say their relations with workplace supervisors deteriorate markedly.

The findings have surprised academics, who were not expecting a strong difference in attitude by gender.

They also challenge the assumption that profit sharing aligns the interests of workers and management and can improve productivity, innovation and profits and reduce worker turnover.

Professor Colin Green at Lancaster University Management School, who led the study into workplace satisfaction using the British Household Panel Survey, said: “I expected some difference but I did not expect no difference for men and a large effect for women.”

Prof Green suggested that women may be less able to respond to supervisory pressure to work harder and longer hours and so the incentive of profit sharing did not easily translate into greater effort. This can alienate colleagues who feel their own potential share of profits are under threat and report their colleague’s shortcomings to their line managers.

“Suddenly your boss and co-workers care a lot more about your effort than before. Women have more responsibilities outside the workplace and so find it more difficult to increase their effort,” he said.

“The pressure does not necessarily have to all originate from your boss. If your co-workers see you are not performing they tell the boss. It increases conflict.”

Prof Green added: “In a small business working environment if you are on a profit share you are going to care how hard your co-worker is working. You are going to care a lot more in a ten person organisation than a 500 person organisation.”

The study raises questions for employers over the most appropriate way of remunerating staff, Prof Green said.

“If you are working at a feminised, non union workforce you might want to have this in mind that’s profit sharing is going to increase ill feeling among the workforce,” he said.

When questioned about their overall job satisfaction, both sexes were unaffected by the profit sharing part of their work.

“This deterioration in relations with the supervisor does not reflect a diminution in overall job satisfaction and is specific to the relationship with the boss. Profit sharing has a neutral or positive influence on all of the other available dimensions of job satisfaction,” the study noted.

Non-unionised workers are also negatively affected, perhaps because they have more to lose by failing to respond to peer pressure, the study argued.

The Government has presented mutual ownership as a key part of its plans to spin out public sector provided services into the private sector.

The Cabinet Office is running 12 pilots involving former public servants working in private ventures, ranging from for-profit companies to not-for-profit social enterprises.

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I understand that it meant a minimum rather than a maximum of 30pc, although it was not entirely clear.

But looking at the Lloyds Board 30pc is something of a chimère.Il has eight non-exécutions every male, each looking more like a Chair leather older than the next.

There are five Executive Directors.True of them, Helen Weir is féminin.Vous remember him for recently adopted the chief exec travail.En favour a man.

This gives Lloyds percentage female the 7pc or something.

What about it the day you announce your 30pc aspiration?

Well recruit another woman of course.

And that's exactly what he was doing, announced Tuesday that he had appointed a Frew Anita aboard her.

She received a raisonnable.Ici CV is the hope that her peers on the Board of take the time to regarder.Plut?t to simply check their quotas.

All points of Victor Chu, Chairman of the investment is first and former head of the stock exchange of Hong Kong.

Speaking at an investment conference in Hong Kong just minutes after news broke everything on Prince William and Kate Middleton commitment, he had to say: "I am certain that the Hong Kong Government extend an invitation to Prince William sound and Miss Middleton to spend part of their honeymoon in Hong Kong."

Human message.

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From 2015 Steve Webb, the pensions minister, wants to replace all this with a flat-rate pension of about ￡ 140 a week, payable to everyone once they reach state pension age.The flat-rate state pension would be paid regardless of how much basic state pension and S2P people have earned, or how much they have in savings.

A flat-rate state pension would ultimately mean an end to pensioners living in poverty, although the proposal is only aimed at future pensioners and not those already retired.The proposal would also save millions of pounds in bureaucracy, as the Government would not have to work out the individual pension credit entitlement of more than 2.7 million pensioners each year.

Supporters of the plan also argue that it would create a clear incentive for people to save for their retirement themselves, something lacking in the present system because the means-testing trap means low comperative do not receive ￡ 1 back for every ￡ 1 they save.

This effect of means testing on pensions saving behaviour will be crucial in two years when million of Britons are automatically enrolled into pensions for the first time, which is why the problem is such a pressing issue for the Government.

From 2012 every use will be required by law to enrol employees into a pension scheme through their workplace, a process called "auto-enrolment".Employees will see 4pc of earnings deducted from their pay and paid into a pension, with employers required to pay in 3pc of salary and the Government adding 1pc through tax relief.

Employers who do not set up a private pension arrangement will be required to enrol staff into the new National Employee Savings Trust (Nest), a low-load, state-sponsored pension provider. Employees who have been auto-enrolled into schemes are allowed to opt out at any time, but the Government is hoping many will not choose or bother to do so.

Auto-enrolment is designed to kick-start private pension saving in the British workforce, but the entire policy initiative has been put in jeopardy by the current disincentive for many low-paid workers to save. Experts predict that millions will simply opt out of the new pensions and spend their money if they will get pension credit anyway.

Simplifying Britain's complex pension system would solve many of the problems of our broken savings culture, but it is a mammoth task and details of how the Government proposes to do it are thin on the ground. Experts do agree, however, that the changes are likely to create losers as well as winners.

Women will be the biggest group of winners, particularly stay-at-home mothers.Broken work records through bringing up children mean the average basic state pension for women stands at just ￡ 70.26, compared with ￡ 83.74 for men.Women's average S2P Serps payment is just ￡ 15.50 a week, almost half the ￡ 28.71 paid to men.

Self-employed people receive no. state second pension at GER. Their income would increase from a maximum basic state pension of ￡ 96.75 to ￡ 140 a week. Purpose as they currently pay National Insurance contributions than lower pay employees, they could see their contributions increased to reflect the extra benefit they will receive.

Currently about 1.6 m pensioners are not receiving the pension credit they are entitled to, either because they are too proud to claim it or because they do not know how to go about it. in future, no one would receive less than the flat-rate state pension.

Under current rules, British citizens working abroad do not increased UK state pension benefits, but under the new system everyone would get the same amount, regardless of the number of years they have made NI contributions. It is unclear whether qualification for the new pension will be based on a fixed number of years' residence or on holding citizen status.

Married couples and those in civil partnerships would see their combined maximum basic state pension increase from ￡ 156.15 to ￡ 280 a week. Unions couples, whether they are married or not, who are on pension credit would see their income rise from ￡ 202.40 to ￡ 280.

Unlike under the current pension credit system, low-income pensioners with private pension, savings and income would reap the full benefit of having put money away.

People who have been contracted out of S2P and Serps for decades will have built up personal pension pot worth many tens of thousands of pounds. Experts say it is possible that they will not receive the entire ￡ 140 a week to be paid to those who remained contracted in.

Instead, the Government could reduce their state pension by a set amount for each year they were contracted out. However, it would be difficult to set that discount at IV has level that leaves that group short when the Government is removing the means-testing safety net, which means those whose funds have performed well could be better off.

The Government has indicated that no one will lose any benefits they have already accrued.But some high comperative might end up with less combined state pension than they would have had we stuck with the current system.

Currently a 42-year-old high earner could expect to withdraw is ￡ 186 a week in 2034 at the age of 66, ￡ 88.35 of which would be made up of S2P.Aim his income would be just ￡ 140 a week under the new proposal for a flat-rate state pension.Most people, however, receive considerably less S2P than that, with the average payment standing at just ￡ 28.71 a week.

As with any change, those retiring close to the date the new system is introduced may feel aggrieved that people born a few days after them will get a bigger state pension than they did.

Final salary pensions are typically contracted out of the state second pension, which means a proportion of the member's National Insurance contributions is diverted into their employ ' s scheme.Experts say a deduction to the flat-rate state pension could be made to reflect the number of years the individual had been a member of a contracted out final salary scheme.This could be broadly neutral cost, but members of final salary pension schemes could see their employee National Insurance contributions go up by 1. 6pc.Some experts have suggested that there is no point paying more into the state system if you are going to get a flat-rate pension.

They argue that people whose combined state pension is already up to ￡ 140 should contract out and divert their NI contributions into a personal pension.It is also suggested that catching up on missed NI contributions No. longer makes sense.We do not yet know what effect stopping contributions into the state scheme will have one final your state pension.

Tom McPhail, the head of research at Hargreaves Lansdown pensions, said: "We may see some people deciding that they will contract out anyway because they will look at the way governments change what pension they give you and decide they just want control."

Ian Naismith, a pension expert at Scottish Widows, said: "If you are over 50, contracting out is a bad deal under current rules.""You do not have to contract out until April 5 2011 so it is worth waiting to see what proposals the Government puts out later this year before making your decision."

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Shadow Secretary of State for foreign and Commonwealth and Minister for women and equality cases: Yvette Cooper Photo: GETTY

Two-thirds of the. 5bn 8 ￡ raised by cutting direct contributions to individuals will come from women.

A total of ￡ 5. 7bn will come from the savings related to women while. 7bn ￡ 2 will come from the reductions affecting men.

Yvette Cooper, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister for equality, said shadow steps marked the "great reversal of opportunities for women" since the first world war.

Ms. Cooper, who commissioned the research, said: "Cutting back measures as custody of children and working tax credit where women earn still much less than men lead women have more limited career prospects."

She told The Guardian: "women living on low incomes but they chose to take the majority of women.

Ms. Cooper said: "" not since the end of the first world war we are witnessing such a complete reversal of opportunities and economic independence of femmes.Nous have not seen an attempt to turn the clock back like this for many generations."

Ms. Cooper said that 300 000 in the public sector women's jobs will be lost with the women of 65% of jobs in the public sector.

A Friday poll showed the three to five voices believed that expenditure review was unfair because they believed it would hit the poor rather than the best offshore.

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