The Labour government’s planned changes to give employees the right to request a four-day working week under plans to increase flexible working have hit the headlines. According to reports, the government is proposing to make it easier for employees to request compressed hours, whereby employees work their contracted hours in a shorter working week or other forms of flexible-working arrangements.
Although details are short at the moment, Labour has previously confirmed that it wants to make flexible working the default from day one for all employees, except where it is not reasonably feasible. Conservative shadow business secretary Kevin Hollinrake said businesses were ‘petrified’ by the plans, even though they are similar to those set out in the Conservatives’ 2019 manifesto.
While it may be a bit dramatic to portray employers as being especially frightened by these proposals, given that working compressed hours is not unusual in many sectors and businesses are now well accustomed to dealing with flexible-working requests, they will nevertheless be keen to properly know how the changes will work in practice.
In particular, organisations will want clarity on their ability to refuse flexible-working requests and to understand how tough it will be to show that arrangements such as compressed working are not reasonably feasible. At the moment, employers can rely on eight reasons to refuse these types of requests, including additional costs, inability to recruit additional staff and a detrimental impact on performance.
If employers are still able to rely on these types of factors to show that a request is not reasonably feasible, then this could provide some reassurance.
However, it seems more likely that any changes will force employers to show why flexible working cannot be accepted, rather than require the employee to show why it should. This will place increasing importance on businesses having a paper trail to demonstrate why it is legitimate to turn down a request, with direct reference to the requirements of the employee’s role. There will also be an even greater pressure on allowing a trial period before any final decision is made.
Nick Le Riche is a partner in the employment law team at BDB Pitmans
