Bosses could be forced by judges to allow their employees to work from home under proposed workers’ rights laws.
Reforms in the Employment Rights Act came into force this week and ministers are consulting on a suite of additional measures. These plans would shift the burden onto businesses to justify any refusal of a flexible working request.
Under the proposals, workers would be able to challenge decisions through an employment tribunal, which could force bosses to reconsider, and potentially overturn, a refusal if it was judged to be “unreasonable”.
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The first tranche of reforms under the act came into force on February 18, including making it easier for unions to strike. Ministers are consulting on a number of other measures, including how to improve access to flexible working.
The consultation document said that employers must accept statutory flexible working requests that are “reasonable and feasible”, and give a written explanation if they refuse them. It also detailed how if an employee believes a request has been unreasonably rejected, they would be able to bring a claim before an employment tribunal, which could order the employer to reconsider the decision and award up to eight weeks’ pay in compensation, capped at 719 per week.
The consultation closes on April 30, and the plans aim to make it “more likely that flexible working requests are accepted”.
Ministers said that they wanted to shift expectations...
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