The Employment Act 2002 introduced the right to request flexible working for parents of children under 6 and disabled children under 18. It also introduced two weeks paid paternity leave.
The Act laid out:
“The eligibility criteria which must be met in order for an employee to apply for a flexible working pattern;
“A clearly defined framework for a procedure to be followed by employees and employers when making and considering requests for flexible working;
“The employer’s duties in relation to an application under the new provisions;
“The right for an employee to take their case to an employment tribunal; and
“What happens if a tribunal finds that an application has not been dealt with correctly.”
Who
- Employees who are parents of children under 6, and of disabled children under 18
- Including adoptive parents, and partners of the biological parent
- Not agency workers or members of armed forces
- 26 weeks continuous service
- Flexible working is to enable care of the child
How
- Formal application by the parent
- Covers hours, time, location – any or all may be varied
- Explain effect of the change on the employer
- Application must set out why the applicant is eligible
- One request a year
Employer
- Consider the application ‘seriously’
- Explain refusal in writing
- they must draw on any or all of eight specific business reasons for refusal. These are:
- The burden of additional costs;
- Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand;
- Inability to re-organise 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; and,
- Planned structural changes.
- they must draw on any or all of eight specific business reasons for refusal. These are:
Remedy
- Maximum eight weeks pay, capped at unfair dismissal basic award (£260 per week in 2003). This was financially barely worth challenging, and has not been changed – hence the use of Sex Discrimination legislation, where awards are uncapped.