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Government plans to extend flexible working right to more parents

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In the Queen's speech it was announced that the Government is commissioning a review to determine how the current right to request flexible working can be extended to parents of older children.

Currently, parents of disabled children or those under six years of age are allowed to request flexible working from their employer but the Government intends to extend this right to parents of teenage children.

Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform, John Hutton, said, "The right to request flexible working not only helps millions of parents juggle work and family life, but can also benefit business by improving staff retention and productivity.

"We want to do more to support families while ensuring British businesses can compete in the global economy, so now is the right time to consider how we can extend the right to request to parents of older children."

Fourteen million employees work flexibly, or have done so within the last 12 months, with arrangements including working from home so they can care for their family, working part-time, compressed hours, flexi-time or other arrangements agreed with their employer.

91% of employers approve all flexible working requests

New figures show that 91% of workplaces who received requests in the last year approved all requests, that employers largely have positive views about promoting work-life balance and more and more managers are actively promoting flexible work practices.

The Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (formerly the DTI) has asked Sainsbury's Human Resources Director Imelda Walsh to lead the independent review. A formal consultation will be held after the results of the review are published, to gauge the views of business, employers, unions and other stakeholders.

Flexible working - key statistics

• Over 6 million employees have the right to request flexible working (2.65m of these are carers of adults, 3.6m are parents of children under six and disabled children).
• If the age limit was raised from six years old to nine years old, an extra 1.4 million parents would be eligible to request flexible working
• If it was raised to children under 12, an extra 2.6 million parents of children would qualify
• If it was raised to children under 17, 4.5 million parents of children would have the right to ask their employer to work flexibly

• The Work-Life Balance Employer Survey revealed that 92% of employers believe that people work best when they can balance their work and the other aspects of their lives. 92% of employers said they would consider a request to change a working pattern from any employee.
• The Workplace Employment Relations Survey in 2004 found 60% of employers reported some or a significant improvement in staff retention and 58% of employers reported some or a significant improvement in productivity.

Responses to the announcement of the plan to extend the rights to flexible working from the various business groups were varied. The CBI’s Deputy Director-General John Cridland said, "The CBI welcomes the Government's plan to review when and how the right to request flexible working will be extended to parents of older children. It should beware of increasing numbers eligible to request too far too fast, however, as this could jeopardise the future flexibility of those currently eligible.

John Wright of the FSB cautioned, "The Government needs to recognise that the reality in a business is that the employees need to be at work to enable the firm to make money, pay their wages and grow to employ others. The employer must continue to have the final say in granting flexible working to ensure that the business does not suffer. This way employees can benefit where appropriate from flexible working but the needs of the business will always be met."

While Sally Low, Director of Policy & External Affairs at the British Chambers of Commerce pointed out that small businesses are already working flexibly, "The Government's proposed review must recognise that businesses, particularly smaller businesses, are already working flexibly.

"Over 90% of respondents to a BCC survey indicated that they offered at least one form of flexible working to employees. This was driven by personal conviction rather than legislation. Our research suggests that more businesses would be flexible if they felt confident that they could also achieve their commercial objectives."

Posted November 13, 2007