Plans to permit workers to request versatile working from their first day of employment are as a consequence of come into drive from April 2024. Laws have been laid earlier than Parliament this week eradicating the requirement for 26 weeks’ service to ask for versatile instances and locations of labor, as a consequence of come into impact on 6 April subsequent 12 months. Beneath the Versatile Working (Modification) Laws any requests created from 6 April don’t want any service requirement, that means that workers will have the ability to make a versatile working request from day one among employment.
The principles may also cut back the present affordable timeline to cope with requests from three months to 2 months, eradicating the requirement for the worker to set out the influence of their requested preparations and elevated the variety of statutory requests permitted each 12 months from one to 2. There may also be a brand new requirement for employers to seek the advice of with an worker earlier than refusing a request. It’s possible that each one the adjustments will come into impact on the similar time, however the authorities has but to verify the main points.
No date for the implementation of the Employment Relations (Versatile Working) Act 2023, which acquired Royal Assent earlier this 12 months, has been set, though it’s anticipated to return in on the identical day because the day-one proper to request versatile working. When enacted, this regulation will permit workers to make two versatile working requests in any 12-month interval.
Additionally this week, new parental depart rules got here earlier than Parliament. The Maternity Depart, Adoption Depart and Shared Parental Depart (Modification) Laws 2024 will imply that the interval shielded from redundancy for these on maternity depart will embrace the whole being pregnant, in addition to 18 months from the primary day of the estimated week of childbirth (though the worker can change this to the precise date of start in the event that they inform their employer previous to the top of their maternity depart).
