30.06.14
Right to ask for flexible working from today
From today, all employees who have clocked up 26 weeks at their job have the right to ask to work flexibly.
This right previously only applied to the parents with children under the age of 17 (18 if the child is disabled) and certain carers.
Acas, the workplace dispute and advice service, has launched new guidance to help employers “consider any requests in a reasonable manner and stay within the law”.
It also deals with avoiding discrimination and dealing with appeals.
Acas chair Brendan Barber said: “Many employers recognise that they can retain talented staff by offering a flexible approach to work and a healthy work life balance can help business success and growth.
“Our new guide has practical examples to help businesses or employers manage flexible working requests in a reasonable way and avoid any pitfalls.
“There are many types of flexible working such as part-time working, flexitime, job sharing, shift working and homeworking. Acas has also published a new guide today to help employers manage homeworking.”
To make a request for flexible working employees must:
- Make their request in writing, state the date the request is made, the change to working conditions they are seeking, and the date they would like the change to take effect
- State whether they have made a previous application for flexible work and the date of that application
- What change to working conditions they are seeking and how they think this may affect the business e.g. cost saving to the business
- If they are making their request in relation to the Equality Act 2010, for example, as a reasonable adjustment for disabled employee
The new Code of Practice and guidance are at: www.acas.org.uk/flexible
A video is also available here.
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