By Matthew Broersma, 7 April 2009 11:07
NEWS
As of Monday, businesses are now required to consider flexible-working requests from more of their employees, a change in the law that is likely to boost home working.
Legislation dating from 2003 allowed parents with children under the age of six to request flexible-working conditions from employers, who were obliged to "seriously consider" such applications and reject them only if there were "good business reasons for doing so".
The law has now been extended to parents with children up to the age of 16, making approximately 4.5 million more employees eligible. Six million parents and carers are already covered by the law. The change is designed to make working conditions more family friendly, the government said in a statement.
More than 95 per cent of all requests for flexible-working conditions from working parents and carers are now accepted, according to government figures. The government insisted that flexible working has business benefits as well, including increased productivity and reduced costs for recruitment due to increased staff loyalty.
Employment relations minister, Pat McFadden, said in the statement: "The business benefits of flexible working are well documented and this remains the case in tougher economic times."
The government said companies may need to plan for increased IT support costs for arrangements such as remote working.
Intellect, a trade body representing IT and software organisations, said businesses could use the law as an opportunity to develop a flexible-working strategy.
Carrie Hartnell, head of industry strategy at Intellect, told silicon.com sister site ZDNet UK on Monday: "Flexible-working opportunities can make a business more attractive to different types of employee.
"For example, this could be an opportunity to bring more women into the workforce, particularly in the IT sector. This could also allow workers to be located potentially across the country."
She said flexible working could be especially useful to smaller businesses, which could make their workplaces more attractive through offering these opportunities.
About one-third of flexible workers work from home, and a slightly smaller percentage, 32.2 per cent, work part-time, according to a survey carried out in 2008 by the IT Job Board. The survey found that of more than 900 IT workers polled, more than half worked flexibly.
But those polled said a significant stigma was still attached to flexible working, with nearly one-fifth saying they believe it has a negative effect on career progression.
Hartnell acknowledged that while it does still carry a stigma, the extension of flexible working could help improve this situation. "If more people start to work flexibly, hopefully this stigma will change," she said.
Comments
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1. Timn Jackson
If flexible working makes business sense, why do we need legislation to promote it?
Have we come to the situation where lawmaking and advertising have merged? Where laws are not about drawing a line between rights and responsibilities, but are about "sending a signal"?
Why do we need laws to give us a right to ask anyway? Has it ever been illegal to ask? Has asking for something ever been fair grounds for dismissal?