Extension to flexible working rules should be ‘delayed’

The government has been urged to put back plans for extending the right to request flexible working to more employees.

The call has come from the EEF, the manufacturing employers’ organisation.

Employers, the EEF argued, still need time to adjust to the current legislation. To push ahead with an extension to the number of workers who can request a change to their working patterns would run the risk of denying employees with legitimate reasons for asking to work flexibly the opportunity to do so, the EEF said.

Prompting the EEF’s call was a survey of 440 employers showing that two thirds of those who responded had experienced practical problems implementing flexible working.

The most common issues reported were extra pressure on other employees, being left short-staffed and difficulty in managing flexible working practices.

Employers were overwhelmingly opposed to extending the current flexible working legislation, said the EEF.

If, however, the legislation is to be extended, it was felt that this should be done in manageable stages.

The survey also found that two thirds of employers had received requests from staff for flexible working.

Although aware of the problems that flexible working can bring, many employers also acknowledged its benefits. These included improving relationships with employees, increasing motivation and reducing staff turnover.

Peter Schofield, the EEF’s director of employment and legal affairs, said: “Whilst manufacturers have seen benefits from the introduction of flexible working, the last thing they need now is to have to consider more and more requests. They need to be given time before this right is extended to more employees. If it is extended, they are more likely to say ‘no’ and some people who really need to work flexibly could then miss out.”

The EEF believes the right to request flexible working should only cover employees with caring responsibilities.

Flexible working for other employees would come, the organisation said, on a voluntary basis as firms compete to attract and keep the best workers.

Should the right to request flexible working be extended to other groups of carers, such as the parents of older children, it needs to be done on a phased basis that allows employers to handle a gradual rise in requests from more employees, the EEF said.

The EEF also reiterated its view that employers must continue to have the ability to reject requests for flexible working on genuine business grounds and that the right to request flexible working should only apply, as now, after 26 weeks’ employment.

Peter Schofield added: “There is a limit to flexibility in any workplace and employers must, as now, be able to say ‘no’ where there are genuine reasons to do so.”