At present, companies in the UK are not required to offer flexible working arrangements to their staff until they have 26 weeks – or six months – of continuous service. By introducing the right to flexible working from day one, the UK government hopes to make life easier for 2.2 million people. To this end, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy opened a consultation on 23 September – running until 1 December – on proposals to reform regulations in the area.
“Empowering workers to have more say over where and when they work makes for more productive businesses and happier employees,” said the UK Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng, as he commented on the launch of the consultation. He added that flexibility was “once considered a ‘nice to have’, but by making requests a day one right, we’re making flexible working part of the DNA of businesses across the country”. More specifically, flexible working requests would be granted from the first day of...
Do you have information to share with us?