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Flexible Hours? It's Time for Change
Staff rotas are challenging to organise at the best of times and holiday cover, illness and temporary recruitment can cause real headaches for employers. Gordon Brown announced in May that he has a clear commitment to extend to all parents of children under 16 the existing right to work flexibly. For employers, the temptation could be to dismiss the announcement as just another bureaucratic burden. However, although the new regulations are not law at this stage and the final details have yet to be determined and disclosed by the Government, it is likely they will take effect within the next few months.
Richard Findlay provides some pointers on what to expect in the future…
The Government has already introduced a statutory right with various procedural commitments for employers, and potential penalties if a worker complains to tribunal because their employer has failed to comply. Employees (but not, generally speaking, agency staff), who have worked continuously in a company for 26 weeks, have the statutory right to ask for a permanent change to a contractual working arrangement if they can fulfil the following conditions:
- They have a child under six or a disabled child under 18
- They are responsible for the child as a parent/guardian/special guardian/foster parent/private foster carer or as the holder of a residence order
- They are the spouse, partner or civil partner of one of these and are applying to care for the child
- They are carers who care for a spouse, partner, civil partner or relative, or who live at the same address as the person being cared for
Under the existing law, an employer must seriously consider any application made, but they don't have to agree if there's a good business reason not to. Employees merely have the right to ask for flexible working rather than the right to have it.
When someone requests a change to their working terms and conditions, employers need to follow a set procedure along tight timescales. However, in order to refuse a request, employers can rely on several arguments, including: the burden of additional costs; a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand; an inability to re-organise work among existing staff or to recruit additional staff, and a detrimental impact on quality and performance. That said, there are traps for the unwary. Under indirect sex discrimination regulations, an employer may be in breach of the law by refusing a request which has an adverse impact on more women than men.
Despite the potential pitfalls, it is important for employers to consider the many available options for flexible working before they refuse an application, as one or more of these could indeed enhance an employee's motivation and productivity without impacting on costs for the company. The flexible working options include:
- Part-time: perhaps by working fewer days per week
- Flexi-time: choosing (usually within specified set limits) when to work
- Annualised hours: an employee's hours are worked out over the year, perhaps with a majority of fixed shifts and the employee deciding when to work the remaining hours
- Compressed hours: working agreed number of hours over fewer days
- Staggered hours: different starting, break and finishing times for employees in the same workplace
- Job-sharing: splitting a job with someone else
With this in mind it is perhaps unsurprising that, according to reported studies, the vast majority of most formal applications for requests have been granted. Do remember, though, that even if you get to grips with the new legislation it is unlikely that you will please all your staff all of the time.
This article has been edited from its original version. For the complete feature, please see Catering in Scotland magazine August/September 2008.
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