FLEXIBLE WORKING POLICY

1. Introduction

If you have 26 weeks' service you are entitled to request a change to your contract terms during the first five years of your child's life (or first 18 years if the child is disabled). If you wish to request flexible working you should follow this policy.

The opportunities for flexible working will depend on the needs of the business, but we recognise that you may be interested in reducing working hours, working at home or changing your working pattern owing to family commitments. We will make every effort to accommodate requests for flexible working, provided that your duties can still be effectively carried out on such a basis.

Where the demands of the post require full time cover, for example because of its managerial content or because of a heavy workload, then it may still be possible for two suitably matched and qualified people to carry out the duties on a job share basis. We will not reject any requests for flexible working without first considering whether arrangements can be made to accommodate them. If you change to working on a part time or job share basis or change your work location to working at home, you will be offered appropriately adjusted contracts of employment containing your new terms and conditions. Your continuity of employment and all related rights will be preserved.

Where a job share arrangement which is acceptable to the job sharers' manager cannot immediately be identified, you will nevertheless be encouraged to return to work full-time and will be offered a job share in a suitable post as soon as one becomes available.

2. Scope

To be eligible to make a request for flexible working, you must:

have worked for the organisation continuously for 26 weeks at the date the application is made;
make the application no later than two weeks before the child's sixth birthday, or 18th birthday in the case of a disabled child;
have or expect to have responsibility for the child's upbringing;
be making the application to enable you to care for the child;
not be an agency worker;
not have made another application to work flexibly under the right during the previous 12 months.

If you are eligible you will be able to request:

a change to the hours you work
a change to the times when you are required to work
to work from home.

Applications for a change in working pattern will not always require a significant alteration. For example, you may simply wish to start work half an hour later to take your child to school and make up the time later in the day.

3. Procedure

You must make an initial application in writing stating:

whether a previous application has been made and, if so, when;
that it is an application under Section 80F Employment Rights Act 1996 (ERA);
the change applied for and the date it is proposed the change should become effective;
the effect you think the change will have on the organisation and how any such effect might be dealt with;
how you meet the conditions as to the relationship of the child that are required ;
the date.

etc...

Staff-Handbook.com

FLEXIBLE WORKING POLICY

1. Introduction

2. Scope

3. Procedure