Businesses and their employees have raised concerns over the availability and cost of childcare, an issue which is costing companies their staff and disrupting careers.

Allied to this is the financial burden of care for the elderly on employers and employees alike.

One eminent Bermudian businessman confided in The Royal Gazette that he had lost staff after they had babies because they could not find childcare until they were at least 12 months old.

But, a number of companies on the Island have tackled the problem by setting up their own childcare schemes, such as the Bank of Bermuda and insurance giants Ace and XL Capital.

The businessman, who asked not be named, claimed he had several female employees who had given birth or were just about to and it was very hard for them to both find and be able to afford childcare, particularly on an average salary.

"One of the women concerned has just come out of university and they are on a starting salary and it is very difficult to find the support for looking after their child," he said.

"From what she told me, there is childcare when the child is a year old, but the government does not want to deal with children under a year old, so looking after that child is a problem for the employee and the company that is trying to employ them.

"I was talking to an assistant manager about to go on maternity leave and she said to have a nanny costs about $50,000 a year and some of these people are not making that kind of money in their salary themselves.

"Is the government going to expect us to pay for this, whereas in Canada it comes out of the tax and over there people can take maternity leave up to a year (depending on your residential jurisdiction) and pay for up to six months? Their Government pays as much as 55 percent of the regular salary in this way.

"But, this is the reality in Bermuda, in that many of them are single mothers trying to cope with children and there is not sufficient childcare out there from what I can see."

Bermuda Employers Council (BEC) president Graham Redford admitted that childcare and care for seniors were an issue that employers are becoming more worried about, with their employees either having to take time off work, or getting in a minder to look after their children or family and relatives. This has the impact of both costing the employers more in terms of man hours lost and bringing in replacements, and the employees by way of loss of earnings and outlay for hired help.

"It is one of those many concerns that we have and it is escalating on an ongoing basis," said Mr. Redford.

"We would be concerned about the costs of it — there is certainly a huge cost burden that is obviously being undertaken by individuals and that is of great concern and it is putting additional pressure on them in terms of how much they can squeeze out of their pay cheque."

In addition to this is the toll it takes on people's stress levels, whether it be from employers having to cope while their staff members are away, or employees caring for their children/relatives, he said. This is especially pertinent with an ever-ageing population and the number of over-65s set to amount to a quarter of Bermuda's population by 2030, with a survey looking at family care in general being currently drawn up by the BEC.

"I think that obviously as employees are having more stress and trying to deal with certain elements of childcare and other family care — that is becoming more as society is getting older," he said.

Mr. Redford claimed that the BEC would have to look further into the issue of availability in order to come to a conclusion on it.

"I think right now where we stand, we are trying to gather more quantitative data on it," he said. "We would go out and call our member companies to try and get some real hard data on it."

Are you having trouble juggling work and family commitments? Should employers do more in this area, or is it a question of personal responsibility? E-mail your thoughts to Alex Wright at awright@royalgazette.bm