‘Flexible working’ could mean many things. To employers such as the train-operating companies, it might mean unions which are prepared to change rigid rostering systems dating back decades. To other employers it might mean employing people who are prepared to put in extra hours when necessary or are prepared to switch tasks as demands change. It could involve dismantling many of the regulatory barriers which make taking on workers such an expensive business.
But the term has recently come to be focused entirely on the perceived needs and wishes of workers. Following a consultation process, the Government is going to extend the ‘right to request flexible working’ to Day One of a new job.
“Under current rules, an employee with 26 weeks’ service can ask the employer to change working arrangements”
This right to request goes back to 2002, when it was originally focused on those with children under the age of 18. It was extended to carers of adults in 2007 and to all workers by the Coalition. Under current rules, an employee with 26 weeks’ service can ask the employer to change working arrangements – from full-time to part-time, to term time-only working, to compressed hours, to job-sharing, working at home and so on.
The employer doesn’t have to accede, but must take the proposal seriously and offer plausible business reasons why it can’t be implemented. If employees feels that their employer’s rejection is unfair, they can take their case to an employment tribunal.
What is now proposed is that someone who has been newly appointed to a full-time job can immediately request a switch to part-time, or to partial or complete home working, or to a four-day compressed week, before having settled into the job and enabled the employer to assess how they’re fitting in.
In addition, the grounds for rejecting such a proposal are to be narrowed, with employers having to come up with alternative options.
