September 17, 2024
What is the current position on part-time or flexible working?
Currently, employees in the UK (except for casual workers) have the right to make a flexible working request to change something about their working arrangements, which may include their hours of work or the days on which they work. If a request is made, the employer has a duty to properly consider it and hold a meeting with the employee to discuss it, but is allowed to reject the request if it has one of 8 legitimate business reasons for doing so. This means that if a four-day working week would not work for the employer’s business, the request can be rejected after a process is followed.
What changes are being reported and why would they be made?
Recent news reports have suggested that the proposals under consideration by the Government involve a focus on giving employees the option to condense full-time hours into four days, rather than going down the route of implementing 80% of hours for full-time pay (which some employers have embraced following a trial of four-day working in the last two years).
The reports have suggested that this is being considered for the purpose of encouraging more people with caring responsibilities into the workplace as part of the “Make Work Pay” plan.
What has the UK Government actually said?
In response to the reports, the UK Government has stated that it has “no plans to impose a four-day working week on employers or employees”, but that it will be consulting on its proposed employment law changes and still aims to set out its plans within its first 100 days. That means that the plans should be published no later than 12 October 2024.
What might this mean for employers?
We already know that the sweeping employment law changes being planned also include a right to allow all workers and employees in the UK to make flexible working requests from day 1 of their employment, as well as protecting those workers from being unfairly dismissed from the start.
Based on the recent reports, as well as what we know from previous announcements and from information set out in the Labour Party’s manifesto before coming to office, it is most likely that the Government plans to strengthen employee rights in the area of flexible working, but not to make it compulsory for employers to accept all flexible working requests (including requests to work a 4-day week).
Measures to strengthen the right may include narrowing the situations in which an employer can reject a request, applying the right to more workers (as is currently planned), and potentially tightening up the process which employers have to follow when a flexible working request is made.
Is there anything employers need to do now?
For now, we advise employers to watch this space and keep on top of any further announcements about these changes and the other proposals due for release by 12 October. Darwin Gray’s live employment law updates page contains further information about upcoming changes, and will be updated as soon as the new Employment Rights Bill is published or any other announcements are made. Keep checking back on this page for the very latest information.
If you would like employment law advice or HR support from our experts, contact Rachel Ford-Evans on 029 2082 9120 or rford-evans@darwingray.com for a free initial chat to see how we can help you.
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