Flexible working for all employees
Current legislation. As the law currently stands, employees: (1) with parental responsibility for children under the age of 17 (or under 18 if that child is disabled); and (2) who are carers of certain specified adults, can ask their employer for a more flexible working pattern after 26 weeks’ continuous service. However, the government has recently announced that, following its Modern Workplaces consultation, this right is going to be extended to include “all employees”, regardless of whether or not they have children or other care commitments as “soon as parliamentary time allows”.
Is it time to panic? Before your heart starts to sink at the thought of all those additional requests, we have some good news. Although the current rights will apply to each of your employees, they won’t be changed in any way, shape or form. Therefore, all they’ll be able to do is request a flexible working pattern, not automatically have one, and you’ll still have the right to reject such a request on one (or more) of the statutory grounds, provided you’ve carefully considered it(see The next step).
The deciding factor. So why exactly is the government doing this? Whilst it claims this “represents a modern economy” and “will allow employers to retain their best staff”, buried deep within the consultation evidence is another reason: it seems that men are being treated less favourably than women when making flexible working requests due to care commitments. So by removing the apparently problematic qualifying criteria, this issue goes away (along with all the potential associated tribunal claims).
Tip. It’s unlikely that anything much will change before 2014. Until then you can stay exactly as you are and refuse any flexible working requests outright from those who don’t meet the statutory criteria.
For further information on rejecting flexible working requests, visit http://personnel.indicator.co.uk(PS 14.22.01).
Create your profile to unlock this advice and many more.