According to an article published at the end of last week in The Telegraph:
“Workers are to be given new rights to demand a four-day week in a law planned for this autumn.”
You might have seen it already.
It’s referring to compressed hours (i.e. doing five days’ work over four days, with those four days being longer).
Hang on. Deep breath. Don’t panic just yet!
Employees have been able to request compressed hours (and all other forms of flexible working) for over a decade. And it’s been a ‘Day One’ right since April this year. So is this anything new?
Well, we don’t really know. At the moment, broadly speaking (but caveat: this doesn’t constitute actual advice) to turn down the request, employers just need to hold a meeting or two, then say ‘no’ if they have a reasonable justification argument. And if they don’t, they might be liable for up to eight weeks’ pay.
Maybe the government is going to toughen up the law? Maybe tribunals will be able to say an employer’s reason for turning down a request isn’t good enough? Maybe the compensation will increase to something that employers care about?
But we don’t really know yet. We won’t know until the government’s draft employment Bill comes out in October. And even then, there will almost certainly be months of consultation to sort out the detail.
So watch this space and we will keep you updated.
If, in the meantime, you are struggling to know what to do with flexible working requests like this then please get in touch and we can help you navigate your way through and ensure that you are legally protected.