Employment Law Update (February 2009)

Flexible Working rights to be extended to parents of school-aged children

From 6^th April, many more workers will gain the right to request flexible working arrangements.  The government is pressing ahead with extending the right to parents of most school-aged children.

Employers will be familiar with the "right to request" procedure, which already apples to parents of children aged 5 and under; disabled children aged up to 18 and carers of adult dependants.  From 6^th April, the right will now also apply to parents of children aged from 6 to 16.

The employer may refuse a request, but only after properly considering it, including meeting with the employee to discuss it and giving the employee the right of appeal against any decision to refuse a request.

If an employer agrees to such a request, the employee's contract is changed permanently to the new hours or working pattern agreed.

The extension of the right will be a mixed blessing for employers.  In the current economic climate, agreeing to requests for flexible working might have the benefit of helping reduce costs without making redundancies, but holding the meetings required to follow the procedures will take time and expose the employer to the risk of "getting it wrong".

Who will be able to make a request for flexible working?

The following categories of employee can make a request for flexible working:

• Parents of children aged 16 and under (from 6^th April);
• Parents of disabled children aged 17 and under;
• Carers of adult dependants.

Employees must have worked in your business for at least 26 weeks before they can make a request.

Where an employee has already made a request, he or she cannot make another request for a period of 12 months.

How will the procedure work?

The procedure will work in the same way as the current right, which applies to parents of young children and carers of adult dependants.

Employers do have the right to refuse requests, but only after meeting with the employee to consider the request, and then only on certain specific grounds, which include the burden of additional costs and the inability to reorganise work among existing staff.

How can Mentor help?

• Updated pages for clients' Personnel Guidance Systems will be sent out by post during March;
• Our Telephone Advice service is available 24 / 7, and clients should take advice as soon as they receive any enquiries from employees about flexible working (calls may be recorded).