UK Employment Law\ Employee \ Flexible Working
Flexible working
Modern life exerts many pressures on individuals. Often, there is not enough time in the day to work and maintain relationships outside of the workplace. For this reason, flexibility is becoming more important in contracts of employment and the office environment.
It does not only mean that an employee can have a degree of choice over working hours, but the employer can also demand that the employee is more flexible to fit in with the needs of the business.
Under UK law, you are entitled to ask to work flexibly. It depends not upon whether you are male or female. Usually, such working arrangements will be in order to allow you to care for another child or adult.
But before being allowed to adopt a flexible arrangement for the care of a child, you must first prove that you fulfil one of the following:
- You are the parent of a child under six or a disabled child under 18; and
- You have been continuously employed for 26 weeks;
- You intend to care primarily for your child;
- You are responsible for the child;
- You must be the biological parent, legal guardian, legal foster carer or recognised adopter; or
- You should be married to the parent of the child; and
- You should not have made a flexible working application within the previous 12 months.
There is a set of provisos to fulfil if you wish to care for an adult:
- You are caring for a civil spouse or regular partner, relative or other adult; and
- You live at the same address as the employee;
- You have been continuously employed for 26 weeks;
- You should make the request to look after the adult in need of care;
- You have not made a similar flexible working request in the previous 12 months.
A common problem is that staff request more flexible working arrangements usually because of changed personal circumstances. But managers have a duty not to practice policies that discriminate against particular groups of worker. Other requests may result from relocation because of a partner's job change.
Such requests present a dilemma for employers:
- business impact and precedent;
- employment-related costs are fixed (premises and IT);
- will more flexibility raise expectations amongst staff in general?
The solution is to be ahead of the game, with active policies for flexible working that both benefit the business and satisfy the aspirations of staff.
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