Workers with kids are set to deliver a twin whammy to employers in Shropshire, says law firm FBC Manby Bowdler LLP.
The right to request flexible working arrangements has now been extended to all parents of children aged under 16 – and mums now keep all contractual benefits throughout their maternity leave.
The changes to flexible working have been introduced following business secretary John Hutton’s acceptance of the recommendations of an independent review by Imelda Walsh, HR director of J Sainsbury PLC.
The review found that awareness needed to be raised among both employees and employers of the right to request flexible working, and that there were compelling arguments for parents to work flexibly while their children were still of school age.
Shaista Anjam, employment associate at FBC Manby Bowdler, says that employees have the right to request flexible working arrangements, but businesses can refuse an employee’s request for a number of reasons:
- Burden of additional costs
- Detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand
- Inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- Inability to recruit additional staff
- Detrimental impact on quality or performance
- Insufficient work during the periods during which the employee proposes to work
- Planned structural changes
Shaista says: “More than 90% of flexible working requests were approved by employers last year. Smaller businesses have traditionally been more accepting of flexible working but with 4.5 million more parents now entitled to request it, it will be interesting to see how businesses cope and whether the percentage of requests that are approved will reduce.”
Also, recent changes to maternity rights give women contractual benefits such as a company car, gym membership, holiday entitlement and medical cover for the whole of their maternity leave, rather than the first 26 weeks of their maternity leave – the period known as ordinary maternity leave (OML).
The changes in legislation mean that women with a due date on or after 5 October 2008 will be entitled to their contractual benefits for their OML and their additional maternity leave (AML), the second 26 weeks of maternity leave.
Shaista continues: “The new regulations are a response to a challenge by the Equal Opportunities Commission that the existing law did not comply with European law relating to maternity rights. The European Court of Justice found that there was no justification for treating an employee on AML differently to one on OML.”
The new regulations do not change the fact that remuneration is not payable during maternity leave. Shaista says: “There is some confusion over whether the new law affects pension contributions. Currently, the employer has to continue making them while a woman is receiving maternity pay. As a result of the changes it is possible that a woman could claim entitlement to pension contributions as a contractual benefit for the period of AML after their statutory maternity pay has run out.”
For further information please contact Shaista Anjam on on 01902 578000 or s.anjam@fbcmb.co.uk
