Should everyone have right to flexible working?

Children's minister Beverley Hughes said extending that right from parents to all workers would help all 29 million employees balance their home and work lives better.

"Everyone has a life outside work, not just parents," she wrote in a new book for the Institute for Public Policy Research. "We must redefine the 'ideal worker' and accept it is a fantasy to expect people to have none other than work commitments."

Only parents of children under the age of six, or disabled children under 18, have the right to request flexible working. The right will be extended to people with a caring responsibility from April, but Ms Hughes said everyone should be able to ask their employer if they could change their working patterns.

She also argued that all jobs should be advertised as part-time, job-share or flexi-time unless there was a sound business case not to. The minister suggested that paternity leave should be doubled to a month, while maternity and paternity pay should rise.

The book will be published in May, to mark the 10th anniversary of Labour's 1997 election victory.

Phased extension

The CBI's director of HR policy, Susan Anderson, said: "So far, the right to request has worked well. It helps working parents with young or disabled children to balance responsibilities and increases the retention of these staff.

"Over 90% of employers are shown to be granting requests to work more flexibly and from April the right will extend to adult 'carers'. It is vital that the impact of this change is fully reviewed before any further groups are included, however. Only by having a gradual and phased extension can we avoid firms being deluged under a

sudden increase in requests.

She added: "Firms must have the time they require to accommodate the varying needs of their staff and it would be foolish to put the continued success of the policy at risk. We must also bear in mind the fact that companies still need to get the job done."

Louise Bland, head of employment at solicitors Lupton Fawcett and spokeswoman for Leeds Legal, was sceptical about the minister's proposals.

"As it stands the current legislation has no teeth. Employees only have the right to request a flexible working pattern, whilst employers have a wide range of different arguments that can be used to turn down such a request."

'Not the answer'

Louise Bland added: "The suggestion of extending this legislation is unlikely to achieve Beverley Hughes' desired outcome of fundamentally changing Britain's working culture, firstly because employers will continue to be able to turn down requests without suffering significant repercussions, and secondly as it will be virtually impossible to accommodate the varying needs of the industries that operate throughout the UK."

The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said that further legislation on the issue of flexible working "was not the answer".

David Frost, director general of the BCC, said: "There has been a real sea change in employers’ attitudes to work life balance. Companies are recognising that offering employees opportunities to work flexibly can have enormous benefits for productivity and staff retention.

“What small and medium sized businesses do not need however is restrictive legislation inhibiting their flexibility to offer working hours that reflect the reality of running a business under difficult circumstances."