BRITAIN’S new equality chief has warned that mothers face more discrimination in work than any other group, including the disabled and the poorest ethnic minorities.

Trevor Phillips, in his first big policy announcement, is expected to propose sweeping “family friendly” laws and practices.

He supports the introduction of “annualised hours contracts”, allowing women to take entire weeks off work, if they make up the hours during the rest of the year. His report also recommends much wider use of job-sharing and childcare facilities.

The proposals are likely to anger business chiefs who fear such changes would undermine their competitiveness by imposing extra red tape and expensive employee rights.

Phillips will publish research showing that mothers with children under 11 are 45% less likely to be employed than men, according to the Equalities Review. Single mothers suffer an even greater penalty — the figure for them is 49%.

Even when the children are older than 11, married women or those with partners suffer a 25% disadvantage compared with men in the same situation.

By comparison, the next most disadvantaged groups in Britain are Pakistani and Bangladeshi women, with a 30% disadvantage, and disabled people, at 29%.

Phillips said: “We’ve got to stop forcing women to choose between being a mother and taking a job. It’s not fair and in the end it’s going to be catastrophic for us as a society.”

Tony Blair appointed Phillips two years ago to chair the Equalities Review, and will be presented with the report on Wednesday.

It will also set the framework for the new equality “superquango”, the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), which begins work in October, and which Phillips will chair. The £70m a year superquango will combine the previous roles of the Commission for Racial Equality, the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Disability Rights Commission. It will also address the rights of gays and lesbians.

Phillips, a close ally of Blair, stressed that his report was not an attack on new Labour policies. But the study, to be published this week, will be seized on by critics as a thinly veiled attack on the government for failing to meet its manifesto commitments of delivering a fairer and more equal society.

It says progress in parliament to tackle inequality and discrimination has been “piecemeal” and asserts that government and other initiatives “have run out of steam”.

The report, which also criticises business leaders, states that inequality is costing society billions of pounds a year in lost tax revenue and welfare benefits. Discrimination against women at work is running at between £15 billion and £23 billion a year — or between 1.3% and 2% of gross domestic product.

Phillips warned that unless the government and the private sector acted now, the economic consequences would be “catastrophic”. He added: “There is one fact that above all else leads to women’s inequality in the labour market — becoming a mother.

“In an increasingly competitive world economy we simply can’t afford to shut mothers out of jobs. Where are the people who are going to fill the jobs, to expand the companies and to create the wealth?”

While some of those women may choose to stay at home, the report cautions against assuming they do not wish to work. They may not have a choice, it says, because of obstacles such as the exhausting nature of trying to work and have a family.

Blair asked Phillips to examine the “chronic and persistent” inequalities in British society. The report identifies other significantly disadvantaged groups. These include poor black Caribbean children, especially boys; children from other ethnic minority groups; older women with low levels of education; and disabled people.

Phillips said past action by government to improve inequality had been “piecemeal [and] . . . there are now clear signs that this approach had run out of steam”.

His review recommends more flexible working hours, job sharing and childcare facilities in the public and private sectors. Phillips says he favours the much wider use of “annualised hours contracts” which would give women the opportunity to vary the number of hours they work in any given week, allowing them to take entire “default weeks” off work.

The practice, says Phillips, has been used successfully for senior managers in some large corporations. A new law would impose a “single duty” on public sector bodies to ensure equal treatment of all groups, including women, ethnic minorities, gays, and disabled workers.

At the moment all employers are subject to a range of different acts that can be confusing, complex and difficult to enforce. Public bodies would be forced to make a senior manager, preferably the chief executive, accountable to the board for implementing equality targets.

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