Proposed Legal Right to Flexible Working under Fire

The introduction of a statutory right for employees to seek to work under flexible working arrangements risks piling more regulation and pressure on hard-pressed businesses, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has warned in its response to the current consultation.

Under the Employment Act 2002, all parents of children aged under six, or of disabled children aged under eighteen, will be entitled to apply to work flexible hours. This right will come into effect in April 2003. All employers, including those in micro-businesses, will have a duty to consider seriously all applications from eligible employees.

In its response to the Government's consultation paper on flexible working, ACCA has warned that the new regulations threaten to raise employee expectations of what is possible in their circumstances and to put unfair pressure on employers, especially in the Small and Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) sector.
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