Businesses reminded to avoid employee 'April showers'

Business owners have only one month left to prepare for major changes to their employees' rights, the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) has reminded employers.

From April 6 this year, workers will be allowed to seek radical changes in their working conditions to allow them to spend more time at home with their young children.

From that date, new fathers will be able to claim two weeks' paternity leave and working parents with children under the age of six (or, in the case of disabled children, 18) will have the legal right to ask their employers to agree to vary their working conditions. This might include a request to work at home or to work fixed-shifts to enable them to be at home for their children at set times every day.

All employees who have been employed by the same firm for 26 weeks continuously are eligible to benefit from the new right, providing that they are the mother, father, adopter, guardian or foster parent of the child, or the spouse or 'partner' of a person who meets one of these criteria. There are no limits to the changes individual workers can propose - other than that they must be in writing on a pro-forma form.

Applicants must also suggest to their employers how they think their requested variations can be accommodated.

John Davies, Head of Business Law at ACCA, said: "Requests under these new regulations are going to become a standard feature of the workplace environment. All employers will be affected directly by them sooner or later.

"Businesses should note, however, that the right is only to ask: the employer can turn the request down provided there is a valid reason on business-related grounds, such as an inability to re-organise work among existing staff. It will not, however, be sufficient to refuse the request by simply insisting that the terms of the employee's existing contract must be respected."

Employers and employees wishing to find out more should obtain a copy of the DTI's guide on 'flexible working' (ref PL 520), available free of charge from the DTI Publications Orderline (0870 1502 500) or at www.dti.gov.uk.

(MB)