Eve Conway reports on Cardinal Hume's attack on modern working practices

The leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Cardinal Basil Hume, and the new Anglican Bishop of Liverpool, James Jones, both say anti-social working hours and placing profit as a priority are putting children's futures under threat.

But the Institute of Directors' Head of Policy, Ruth Lea, said the churchmen should accept Britain as a multicultural society with many non-Christians happy to work over Christmas.

She asked: "Where is their evidence of people going to work against their will?

"I feel they are looking at it from one perspective and are completely out of touch. Businesses have to compete and on the whole employers will try to be accommodating but they have to be able to survive.

'Balance work and home'

There should be a balance between work and family, Ms Lea said. "At the end of the day employees want their company to do well otherwise there will be no jobs at all, and don't forget they do get paid."

And the British Chambers of Commerce said it did not know of any firms which forced their employees to work over Christmas.

The BCC's Ian Peters said people can earn extra money over Christmas: "If they wish to work then they should be allowed to do so."

Hume: Children's future under threat

Speaking on GMTV's Sunday Programme Cardinal Hume said: "Sometimes from early morning till late at night the children don't have contact with their parents and then when their parents come home, they're dog tired.

"Flexible hours are often, as I understand it, to suit the firm or the industry ... but not actually suiting what is important or possible for the family."

Cardinal Hume said society and the government should do all it could for the good of the family.

In an outspoken attack on modern employment practice Cardinal Hume said city traders should have refused to work over Christmas to prepare for the introduction of the euro.

And shop staff should have rebelled when asked to work over the holiday period, he said.

'Staff have freedom of choice'

But supermarkets said employees had freedom of choice over hours and Christmas working.

A spokeswoman for Somerfield said the company's flexible hours were an advantage to its staff and they were not forced to work over Christmas.

Sainsburys, which opened two of its stores on 25 December, also said that its workers had freedom of choice over Christmas working.

A spokeswoman said: "The staff we had in on Christmas Day all were voluntary and said they were happy to get away from the chaos at home."

Meanwhile the General Secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, Bill Morris, said Cardinal Hume had opened a "very important debate".

He told GMTV: "I don't think anyone is saying 'stop the world I want to get off'. I think what the Cardinal is saying is in our quest for competitiveness we must have regard for humanising the workplace and looking after the family."

Discriminating against family

On the same programme, Bishop Jones, who was Tony Blair's personal choice to succeed David Sheppard, called for an overhaul of the tax and benefits system to support the family.

He said: "The tax system is not neutral as far as the family is concerned, it is discriminating against the family. And we all know that when you have children, that's one of the most expensive times of your life.

"A salary which feeds one or two people ought to be taxed very differently from a salary that feeds four or five people," he said.