Flexible working hours under threat, claims TUC

Government plans to promote flexible working could backfire because ministers plan to weaken the law forcing firms to take the issue seriously, Brendan Barber, the TUC's general secretary, has claimed. In a submission released on Monday, the TUC said that a proposal intended to extend the right to request flexible working hours could actually make it easier for employers to say no because the requirement would no longer be statutory. Labour gave parents the right to ask to be allowed to work more flexible hours. The "right to request" originally applied only to parents with young children but it was extended to cover parents with children under 17 (or under 18 if they are disabled) and some carers. The government is consulting on plans to extend the right to request flexible working to all employees. But the TUC is concerned because, as part of the proposals, employers would no longer have to follow a statutory process when considering requests. Firms would just have a duty to consider requests "reasonably". In its formal response to the government consultation, which ends on Monday, the TUC said this would allow employers to reject flexible working requests without considering them seriously. "Weakening the right to request flexible working will give bad employers the wrong message and is the excuse they've been looking for to ignore requests," Barber said. "The government should remember how successful and popular this right has been for parents over the last decade and put their needs ahead of the same old carping from business lobbyists." The government says that getting rid of the statutory process will "enable employers to use their own management systems to consider requests". The consultation document also proposes giving fathers a month of parental leave to use in the first year after the birth of their child. This is more than the two weeks of paid leave already available, but the TUC said government research suggests only 8% of fathers will use it because it is only paid at £129 a week.