Flexible working is not a new concept and in fact, it has become more prevalent within businesses across the UK over recent years as employers seek to promote a good “work life balance”.
At present, there is nothing to stop any employee from approaching their employer and requesting to work flexibly. Flexible working in this regard could involve remote working or working reduced or compressed hours. However, unless an employee has worked for their employer for at least 26 weeks and has either children under the age of 17 (or 18 for parents of disabled children) or has caring responsibilities, employees do not have a statutory right to request flexible working, nor is there a framework prescribing how an employer should deal with such requests. This is about to change. From 30 June 2014, all employees who have 26 weeks’ employment will have the right to make a flexible working request, regardless of the reasons why they wish to work flexibly.
Currently, there is a strict procedure laid down in statute that employers must follow when dealing with flexible working requests from eligible employees. This procedure dictates what steps should be taken, time frames and provides 8 permitted reasons for rejecting a request. From 30 June 2014 some of the formality will be taken out of the procedure for dealing with flexible working requests and whilst the 8 permitted reasons for rejecting a request will remain, under the new rules, flexible working requests will no longer have to be processed in a specific way. Instead, there will be a new duty on employers to deal with requests “in a reasonable manner, and within a reasonable time frame”. In readiness for this change, ACAS has produced a draft statutory Code of Practice on handling requests to work flexibly which can be seen by clicking here. It is expected that the finalised version of this guidance will also be supplemented with guidance for employers on how to deal with conflicting requests.
These changes are the result of a government consultation which identified that many employers find the existing statutory procedure too prescriptive and inflexible but it is less clear what the business rationale is for opening up the right to work flexibly to all employees.
Whilst most employers will no doubt embrace a more informal approach to dealing with flexible working requests, it remains to be seen whether these changes will achieve the government’s apparent objective to create a culture where flexible working is accepted in every workplace. Some employers fear the unrest or conflict that conflicting requests and the rejection of requests is likely to cause but some comfort should be taken from the fact that there are many businesses who have already extended the right to request flexible working to all employees and who report a boost in morale and loyalty as key benefits of having done so.
Now is good time to review your flexible working procedures and educate managers on the proposed changes in readiness for the forthcoming implementation date.
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