Under proposals included in the Children and Families Bill, the right to request flexible working will be extended to all employees who have worked for their employer for 26 weeks or more.
Kate Fretten, Employment Partner, says "The current statutory procedure which governs the right to request flexible working will be repealed and replaced by a duty to consider requests for flexible working ‘in a reasonable manner’." The Government has asked ACAS to produce a code of practice to help businesses manage this new extended right.
The key points of the short code are that employers should:
- arrange a meeting with an employee to discuss the request as soon as possible after receiving their written request, unless the employer intends to approve the request;
- allow an employee to be accompanied by a work colleague at any discussion and inform the employee about this prior to the discussion; • discuss the request in a private place;
- approach requests to work flexibly from the presumption they will be granted;
- carefully weigh the benefits of the request for both employee and employer against any cost of implementing them – without discriminating against the employee;
- inform the employee of the decision in writing as soon as possible;
- ensure that a rejection of a request is for a business reason set out in the legislation i.e. additional costs, an inability to reorganise work or recruit additional staff, a detrimental impact on quality or performance or ability to meet customer demand, insufficient work in the periods the employee proposes to work, or a planned structural change to the business;
- allow employees to appeal a decision to reject the request; and
- deal with requests and appeals within three months from receipt, unless the employee agrees to extend this period.
Get in touch if you need more information on this topic. You should find the other articles in March's employment newsletter of interest.
For a free initial meeting please call 01202 499255 and Kate or Paul will be happy to discuss any questions you may have.