Versatile working requests: what do the proposed modifications imply for employers?

A session on the Authorities’s proposals to offer all workers the proper to request versatile working from day one has been launched.

For employers, the proposals additionally embody having to answer requests sooner than the present three months most and supply different choices following a refusal. Matt McDonald, employment associate at regulation agency, Shakespeare Martineau explains what these potential modifications imply for the way forward for the office.

A part of a manifesto dedication in 2019, the Authorities is enterprise this session to reform versatile working laws and to answer proposals from the Good Work Plan: Proposals to assist households session (July 2019). Since 2014, when the proper to request versatile working was opened to the entire workforce, there hasn’t been a noticeable improve in requests. This session goals to deal with this reluctance and make versatile working the norm for extra companies.

At present, after 26 weeks of steady service, each worker has the proper to make one versatile working request per yr. As soon as a request has been made, whether it is rejected, the particular person should then await 12 months earlier than submitting a brand new request.

Employers have three months to reply, and may they resolve to reject the request, they have to present a number of of the legitimate causes for rejection, as acknowledged by the Authorities. These embody: the additional prices will injury the enterprise, the work can’t be reorganised amongst employees, and high quality and efficiency can be impacted.

The session proposes to vary plenty of these laws and has 5 core elements, that are:

• A day one proper to request versatile working
• The re-evaluation of legitimate rejection causes
• Enabling multiple request per yr and decreasing the deadline to reply
• Employers having to recommend different preparations
• Growing the usage of momentary requests

Whereas not one of the proposals could be massively impactful on their very own, if all or most of them are launched indirectly, employers must rethink their method to versatile working. The purpose of the Authorities is in the end to normalise versatile working, and if profitable, companies ought to anticipate an uptick in individuals expressing curiosity on this means of working. In sensible phrases, this may imply extra administration for employers to undertake, and an elevated probability of claims for any rejections.

When organized pretty, versatile working can profit each employers and workers. In spite of everything, completely satisfied staff are sometimes extra productive. Nonetheless, for SMEs that will already be below appreciable time and monetary stress, it might be considered as an extra useful resource drain. With a possible improve in requests on the horizon, it may be tempting to reject the vast majority of them, however SMEs should be cautious with this method. Not solely may this create an ungainly environment between employer and workers, nevertheless it is also reputationally damaging ought to phrase unfold. Many individuals these days are prioritising versatile working when in search of a brand new position, so exhibiting an unwillingness to think about it might be dangerous for recruitment.

In addition to creating reputational issues and a unfavourable enterprise tradition, rejections additionally improve the chance of oblique discrimination claims. These may be introduced when workers are handled the identical, however this therapy disproportionately impacts workers with sure protected traits. The most typical instance is girls with childcare duties being extra negatively impacted by an absence of versatile working choices in comparison with male workers, with it being an accepted precept that ladies nonetheless bear the brunt of childcare duties.

Workers can even resign and declare constructive dismissal ought to they consider that the refusal of their request was so unjustified that it has broken the employer/worker relationship past restore. Not like with discrimination claims, any worker with two years’ service can convey a constructive dismissal declare, and while bringing a profitable declare is mostly tough, it isn’t unattainable the place a versatile working request has been rejected unreasonably.

As issues stand, employers should not required to offer different choices for workers when a request is refused, however this might assist to reduce the chance of the above forms of claims. For instance, making an attempt to fulfill the worker within the center by providing a brief moderately than everlasting change. If an employer seems to be taking requests critically and is making an attempt to achieve a compromise with their employees, then it’s much less probably that any claims made towards them will succeed and must also imply extra harmonious worker relations.

To organize for the outcomes of the session, which is because of finish on 1^st December, employers ought to revisit their versatile working method. Even when some – or all – of the proposals aren’t taken ahead, flexibility has come to be anticipated by many workers, notably in in gentle of the pandemic, so it must be integrated into an organization’s enterprise mannequin the place attainable. If not, organisations may discover themselves struggling to recruit and retain expertise. In consequence, companies ought to reassess their priorities. Is it higher to have proficient employees working flexibly or individuals working inflexible hours which can be doubtlessly much less productive?

Employers may wish to take into account agile working. Whereas this isn’t a legally outlined idea, it might probably promote a optimistic working tradition that’s extra ingrained than versatile working. In essence, agile working permits employees advert hoc flexibility (for instance, to go to appointments or choose up their kids from college) with out having to e book day off to take action, with any misplaced time being made up on the worker’s comfort. Companies which have an efficient agile working tradition may even see fewer requests for versatile working and foster higher worker relations.

This session has undoubtedly began a dialog round versatile working, which is a optimistic end in itself. How lots of the proposals are taken ahead stays to be seen, however employers must be ready for a rise in requests. In future, it might turn into more and more arduous for employers to justify refusals, so now could be maybe the time to think about how greatest to implement a tradition the place versatile working is handled because the norm.