22 June 2014

New Flexible Working Time Legislation This June

Under provisions of the Children and Families Act 2014, as from 30 June 2014 all employees will have the right to ask to work flexibly after 26 weeks’ service with their employer. How can employers handle multiple requests for flexible working fairly?

How should an employer prioritise multiple requests for flexible working time, potentially received at the same time? What if the requests lead to an unacceptable shortfall in staff cover over busy periods or otherwise harm business? Do some employees have more of a right to request flexible working time?

How flexible working rights have evolved over time in the UK

In April 2003 the right to request flexible working time was first introduced for parents with children under the age of six or with disabled children under the age of 18. The right was extended in 20007 to include various other kinds of people with carer roles and then in 2009 to all parents with children under the age of 17. Now the right will be extended to all workers under the Children and Families Act 2014 which comes in to force next month.

How Employers Can Cope With the New Legislation

• The current legislation that sets out how employers can consider flexible working requests will be scrapped and will be replaced by a duty to consider requests in a ‘reasonable’ way over a ‘reasonable’ period.
  As well as a draft code of practice on the new universal right to request flexible working, ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Servicefor the UK government) has also published a good practice guide, designed to help employers and employees handle the right to request flexible working.
  It covers
  ? handling requests fairly
  ? business reasons for refusing a request
  ? avoiding discrimination
  ? dealing with appeals

If the employer receives more than one request

• The ACAS guidance states that employers should not make “value judgments” about whether one request is more deserving than another. If all the requests you receive cannot be accommodated, the guidance suggests the employer should consider the following:
  ? In an ideal situation each business should have set put a clear and accessible flexible working policy.
  ? Discuss each request with your employees to see if there is a chance for adjustment or compromise.
  ? If not, the employer might get the employees’ agreement to some form of random selection, such as flipping a coin or drawing names from a hat.
  ? If an employer can’t accommodate a request because of the number of other employees already working flexibly, the guidance suggests you consider calling for volunteers working flexibly to change their contracts back, in order to create capacity for granting new requests.Find out about regional events related to the new legislation