Flexible working for parents and carers

In April 2003 the Employment Act introduced the right for parents of young and disabled children to apply to work flexibly. An employee can request to work flexibly if they care for:

A child under 17
A disabled child who is under 18 and who is in receipt of disability living allowance

From April 2007 this right was extended to cover carers of adults. The definition of a carer is an employee who is or expects to be caring for an adult who:

Is married to, or the partner or civil partner of the employee
Is a relative of the employee
Falls into neither category but lives at the same address as the employee

The 'relative' definition includes parents, parent-in-law, adult child, adopted adult child, siblings (including those who are in-laws), uncles, aunts or grandparents and step-relatives.

An application to work flexibly can cover:

Hours of work
Times of work
Place of work

Applying

The employee’s application must:

Be made in writing
Confirm the employee's relationship to the child or adult
Set out the employee's proposal and explain what effect the employee thinks this will have on the employer's business and how this may be dealt with
Specify a start date for the proposed change giving the employer reasonable time to consider the proposal and implement it
State whether a previous application has been made and if so the date on which it was made
Be dated.

Employees should be aware that if the employer approves their application, the variation in contractual terms is a permanent one and the employee has no automatic right to change back to their previous pattern of work, unless the application seeks the variation for a specified time period only. A trial period may be agreed.

The employer’s response

In order to comply with procedural requirements the employer must:

Arrange a meeting with the employee within 28 days of receiving the application
Allow the employee to be accompanied by a work colleague
Notify the employee of their decision within 14 days of the date of the meeting, either to:
- Accept the request
- Confirm a compromise agreed at the meeting
- Reject the request and set out clear business reasons for the rejection together with notification of the appeals process

Refusal by an employer?

Applications for flexible working arrangements can be refused only for the following reasons:

The burden of additional costs
Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand
Inability to reorganise work among existing staff
Inability to recruit additional staff
Detrimental impact on quality
Detrimental impact on performance
Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
Planned structural changes.

What can an employee do if an employer refuses an application for flexible working?

Wherever possible it is better to reach agreement on flexible working within the workplace, including:

Informal discussions with the employer
Use of the appeal process and if appropriate, the employer's internal grievance procedure
Assistance from a third party such as a trade union representative

If it is not possible to reach agreement within the workplace, the employee may consider making a complaint to an Employment Tribunal.