Flexible Working Bill
One of the major changes in working culture that the pandemic of 2020 brought about was the advancement of flexible working patterns with the increased need for employees to not only work remotely but with altered availability due to the development of digital forms of communication.
Last month saw another key step take place in the advancement of flexible working as the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill was passed into law with the achievement of Royal Assent on July 20th.
But what change does this really mean for employers and employees who are keen to develop their use of flexible working, and, have the changes introduced in the new bill gone far enough to provide true flexibility as desired by the UK workforce?
What is the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill?
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill was first introduced by MP Yasmin Qureshi (Labour, Bolton South East) in June 2022 to make provision in relation to the right of employees and other workers to request variations to particular terms and conditions of employment, including working hours, times and locations.
In the following 13 months that the bill passed through the legislative steps of Parliament, the debates and amendments resulted in the provision of four main changes to the existing flexible working arrangements (Acas, 2014) that will come into force some time in late 2024. These are:
New requirements for employers to consult with the employee before rejecting their flexible working request
Permission to make two statutory requests in any 12-month period (rather than the current one request)
Reduced waiting times for decisions to be made(within which an employer administers the statutory request) from three months to two months
The removal of existing requirements that the employee must explain what effect, if any, the change applied for would have on the employer and how that effect might be dealt with.
So what does that mean for me?
As an employer it should allow you to develop your stance as an inclusive and adaptive workplace if you are to adopt the new policies. For example, by advertising this in job advertisements you can open up your recruitment process to a wider talent pool and create a more productive working environment from satisfied employees.
One struggle we often see from employers is that post-pandemic the dual challenges of skills shortages and talent retention have reared their head more than ever. By offering a flexible work pattern this can go a long way towards tackling these problems – especially if employers can provide this agreement from day one.
As an employee it obviously opens up the ability for people to work remotely or in a hybrid fashion from the very start of their employment. This should also open up the conversations on flexible working requests with the idea that a sensible employer should be open to discussing these requests more often and with less prejudice than before.
It also should have a direct impact on the millions of parents and carers in the UK who rely on flexible working to enter and stay in employment, without needing to work full-time for the 26-week qualifying period before being able to begin the request consultation.
What are the criticisms of the Flexible Working Bill?
There are three main criticisms that experts have lodged at the new bill that focus on these elements:
1) The grounds for refusing a flexible working request have not changed
2) The changes are ‘practical’ but do not make flexible working the ‘default’ for all
3) The lack of procedural requirements may open employers up to grievances
Although the bill does provide a few positive changes to flexible working requests (i.e. being able to start a new role on flexible hours) it falls short of making this style of work the preferred starting point for new working opportunities.
In the agreed legislation the new policies ‘allow’ businesses to open up to make new flexible working roles more commonplace, and ‘allow’ employees to make more requests for flexible work, but both cases remain at the discretion of the employer – especially as none of the eight statutory grounds for refusing a flexible working request will change.
But it isn’t just the employee who may miss out. A potential lack of procedural requirements, as highlighted by Danielle Ayres an employment law partner at Primas Law, could endanger employers if steps are not followed appropriately during a flexible working request consultation. So calls for further details from the government remain ongoing prior to the rollout of any new legislature.
What are the next steps?
Now that Royal Assent has been provided for the bill, the government expects the new measures in the Act and secondary legislation to come into effect in around a year’s time (Q3 2024) – which gives employers some time to prepare for the changes.
The new measures in the Act will be supported by a statutory Code of Practice. This Code is being developed by Acas and is under consultation from July – September 2023.
At the closure of this consultation and the drafting of the Code of Practice more details will be revealed about the new measures that employers and employees can prepare for in the lead-up to rollout in 2024.
Of course, if you want further help on this legislation, flexible working requests or any other employment matters relating to providing a flexible and adaptive workplace you can always contact dolen HR.