Government to extend right to flexible working

The right is currently restricted to parents whose children are under six or disabled, but an independent review by Imelda Walsh, human resources director of supermarket giant Sainsbury, said the right should also apply to parents of children up to the age of 16.

The Government said it would now consult on how the proposals would be implemented.

Business Secretary John Hutton said: "This is an excellent report that will give a big boost to busy parents who need more help balancing work and family life. It can also help employers who often find they get the best out of mums and dads when they allow them to work flexibly.

"It is important that employers retain control over deciding whether it suits their business to allow people to work flexibly, but extending the right to request to parents of older children will allow families to take priority when decisions are made."

The review said that any change should be implemented at once rather than staged, and added that more needed to be done to raise awareness of the right to request flexible working among employees and companies.

Around six million workers currently have the right to ask for flexible arrangements, although the Government believes more than 14 million people work flexibly. Flexible working arrangements include working from home, part-time work, compressed hours and flexi-time.

According to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR), more than nine out of 10 requests for flexible working were approved last year.

Business response

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) said an extension of the right to request flexible working together with new rules on agency workers could create an "employment nightmare" for small business owners.

FSB employment chairman, Alan Tyrrell, said: "The announcement puts small businesses in an impossible position. You can't have an extension of flexible working and at the same time clamp down on the means by which many small businesses cope with it, which is often through temporary workers.

"The current flexible working regime seems to be working, but the Government should be cautious about extending it too far, which could be damaging to small businesses and, as a result, the millions of people they employ."

Interestingly, the review found that small businesses generally had a better record on accepting flexible working requests than larger ones.

Recent research conducted by the Cranfield School of Management found flexible working helped employees to reduce and manage stress levels. However, there was also some evidence to suggest that for some people, flexible working itself could become a source of stress.

The review (pdf) can be found on the BERR website here.