London, January 8 (ANI): Each year British fathers lose about a month with their children because of the culture of long working hours in the country, says a Government-funded report.

The Fatherhood Institute has found that 80 per cent of fathers regularly work overtime and, thus, lose more than 15 hours per week with their children, equivalent to 32.5 days, each year.

Funded by 300,000 pounds of taxpayers’ money a year, the institute thinks that its time that the work system in the country be changed.

Duncan Fisher of the Fatherhood Institute says that fathers should be allowed to take parental leave more flexibly, and this time off should be paid.

He recommends allowing Friday afternoons off work to fathers during the first two years of a childs life.

“The majority of men want to take time off flexibly. They don’t want a huge amount of time off in one go,” the Telegraph quoted Duncan Fisher of the Fatherhood Institute as saying.

Harriet Harman, the minister for women and equality, said: “We have given more than six million people the right to request flexible working (but) many men find it difficult to ask their employer to work flexibly, and we need to challenge this.”

Entitled The Difference a Dad Makes, the institute’s report is based on an ICM survey of 1,324 adults. (ANI)