The government is looking to make changes to the Flexible Working regulations. The current regulations give employees the statutory entitlement to make a flexible working request, if they have 26 weeks of continuous service with the employer and they have not submitted a request within the last 12 months.
An employee can make a flexible working request to change their working pattern or location, for example revising their working hours: start and finish times, reduction in hours/days, working from home.
Flexible working process
The employer is required to follow a full and fair process, including:
- Meeting with the employee to discuss the request
- Responding in writing (to either accept or reject the request)
- And, giving the employee the right to appeal the outcome
Under the current regulations, the above process is required to be completed within a time line of 3 months.
Proposed changes
A change to the legislation will see the following:
- Removal of the requirement to have 26 weeks continuous service, allowing a request from day 1 of employment
- To allow the employee to make more than one request within a 12 month period
- Reduce the 3 month time line limit to process the request- the time line has not yet been indicated
- If the request is rejected, the employer will be required to consider alternative suitable working arrangements
We will see over the coming months how the proposal to change the regulations progresses.
If you have any questions in connection with any of the flexible working arrangements mentioned in this article, and if you would like a Flexible Working Toolkit for your business, then please contact our HR consultants on 0345 646 0406 or fill in our online enquiry form and a member of our Team will be in touch.