Changes to Flexible Working Requests in the Workplace

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From 6th April 2024 employees will be able to request flexible working from the first day of a job. Currently there is a minimum period of service required with an employer before being able to make a request.

What is flexible working?

A flexible working request could include asking for a change relating to:-

  • The hours worked.
  • The times required to work.
  • A change to the place of work, including the ability to work remotely and/or from home.

There is no limit to the type of flexible requests that could be made, and the different variations.

What other changes are there?

There is no limit to the type of flexible requests that could be made, and the different variations.

At present the employee has to explain, when making a request, how they consider the flexible working being requested that could impact the employer and what effect it would have. This is no longer mandatory but considered advisable.

From April there will be a requirement that employers consult with an employee before refusing a request.

When can a request be declined?

Employers remain obliged to deal with flexible working requests in a reasonable manner. This means that a flexible working request can only be declined on certain statutory grounds as follows:-

  • The burden of additional costs.
  • Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand.
  • Inability to reorganise work among existing staff.
  • Inability to recruit additional staff.
  • Detrimental impact on quality.
  • Detrimental impact on performance.
  • Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; or
  • Planned structural changes.

If a request is refused then an appeal should be made available to the employee. There are strict time limits as to when any request should be dealt with by the employer.

What is the impact of an employer failing to deal with a request correctly?

If an employer fails to properly deal with a flexible working request then the employee can bring an Employment Tribunal claim against the employer, including on the following basis:-

  • The employer has failed to deal with the application in a reasonable manner.
  • The employer has failed to notify the employee of the decision within the decision period.
  • The employer has rejected the application for a reason other than one of the stated statutory grounds.
  • The employer’s decision to reject the application was based on incorrect facts.
  • The employer has treated the application as withdrawn but neither of the grounds entitling the employer to do so applied.

A claim must be brought by an employee to an Employment Tribunal within three months of the date upon which the claim arose. The remedies available to the Employment Tribunal are limited. However, where a Tribunal finds that a claim is well founded it must make a declaration to that effect and may make either or both of the following:-

  • An order for reconsideration of the request. If it does this the date of the Tribunal’s order will be treated as the date of the request.
  • An award of compensation to be paid by the employer to the employee, of such amount as the Tribunal considers just and equitable, up to the permitted maximum of 8 week’s pay.

From the above it will be noted that it is very important that employers understand their legal obligations with regard to considering flexible working requests. Also, employees need to understand their rights and entitlements.

Our Specialist Employment Solicitor, Jennifer Carpenter, can advise employers and employees in relation to issues relating to flexible working. After all, in this day and age when everyone is so busy, and after a period of hybrid working as a result of the Covid 19 pandemic, flexible working requests are becoming more and more common place.

Please contact us for specific advice with regard to your circumstances, the above being a summary only of the provisions as of 6th April 2024.

Haverhill Rotary Club & District Young Citizens Awards 2024

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Our partner Jack Stewart was delighted to attend the Haverhill Rotary Club & District Young Citizens Awards dinner on Monday 18th March.

Participating schools were Castle Manor Academy, Samuel Ward Academy and Linton Village College who nominated students to receive the awards for service to the school and/or the local community and for living up to the Rotary motto ‘Service above self’.

The event took place at Haverhill Golf Club and was sponsored by Adams Harrison.

Congratulations to the worthy winners:

Mandy Lilley

Elliot Bruce

Finley Sisson

Antonio Blair

Holly Eden

Employment Law Update April 2024

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Greater protection for those that are pregnant or on maternity leave, adoption leave and shared parental leave from being made redundant.

New Regulations come into force on the 6th April 2024, the Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024. These Regulations extend the current legal protections that are in place from redundancy. Currently, where a redundancy situation arises when an employee is on relevant leave (i.e. maternity, adoption or shared parental leave) the employer is required to offer the employee a suitable alternative vacancy where one is available, over and above any other colleague. This protection will now be extended by the amended regulations so that it applies:-

  1. During pregnancy – the redundancy protection will start when the employee tells their employer about the pregnancy.
  2. There will be a period of additional protection after maternity leave. For those taking maternity leave the additional protected period will be 18 months after the baby is born. For those taking adoption leave the additional protected period will end 18 months after the placement of the child. For those taking six or more consecutive weeks of shared parental leave the additional protected period will end 18 months after the date of birth of the child.

These Regulations mean that employers will need to take extra care when considering redundancy situations where they have an employee afforded this protection. Failing to comply with the regulations is likely to amount to unlawful discrimination and any dismissal arising as a result of a redundancy when the regulations have been ignored would give rise to an unfair dismissal claim.

Jennifer Carpenter, our Specialist Employment Solicitor can give further legal advice to employers and employees about the Regulations and redundancy situations generally and can be contacted at [email protected]

Charity cheque presentation to Uttlesford Food Bank

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Continuing our tradition of donating to three local charities instead of sending Christmas cards Melanie Pratlett, our Senior Partner, met with Katy Mendes-Day from Uttlesford Food Bank on Thursday 5th January to present her with a cheque for £200.

Katy was able to tell us more about the Food Bank, which has been running since 2014 and started in a church. They have since moved to a warehouse and are already struggling for space. The pandemic and cost of living increase are two major events which have resulted in a 300% increase in demand at the foodbank but many other nationwide impacts and personal experiences may result in a person needing help from the Food Bank. Uttlesford Food Bank works by referral and once registered a person or family in need will receive a delivery of an emergency food and care parcel.

The Resolution Foundation predicts that those in absolute poverty will increase by three hundred thousand over the next 12 months.

We hope that we helped a little but the Food Bank needs help from anyone who can support them with food or money donations, or by volunteering or fund raising they can be found at https://uttlesford.foodbank.org.uk/

Adams Harrison Give Advice to Students at Uttlesford Careers Event.

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On 21st November staff from Adams Harrison attended the Uttlesford Careers Event which was held at Saffron Hall.

Students aged 14 – 18 attended the event from Saffron Walden County High School, Helena Romanes School, Joyce Frankland Academy and Harlow and Stansted Airport Colleges.

In the photo are (left to right) Partner and Solicitor Jack Stewart; Trainee Solicitor Briony Dodson; and Solicitor Tanya See. Also in attendance earlier in the day were Practice Manager Louise Taghi and Trainee Solicitor Luke Gardiner.

All staff from Adams Harrison were impressed by the level of interest and engagement demonstrated by the students and they were able to advise on the variety of roles in the legal profession and the different career options and routes to qualification.

Adams Harrison Christmas Party

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Adams Harrison enjoyed their 2023 Christmas party at the Hilton Hotel Cambridge on Saturday 9th December.

Lovely food and excellent service! A great time was had by all.

Adams Harrison’s Great Bake Off 2023

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Just when you thought there was no more GBBO news for the year Adams Harrison wanted to recap on baking efforts by our staff in the past 6 months.

Earlier in the year Adams Harrison held its own Bake Off competition over a 7 week period in collaboration with local Estate Agents, Cheffins. Staff in our 3 offices along with Estate Agents Cheffins were the judges. Everyone ate a lot of cake!

Funds were raised for the Brain Tumour Charity.

First place was Helen’s bake, second place was Jess’s bake, and third place was Joy’s bake.

It took a while for the prizes to be ordered but in the Autumn the winners were presented with their Star Baker aprons and engraved cake stand for 1st prize.

 

Here are some of the other great bakes.

 

Adams Harrison Staff Celebrate Christmas Jumper Day

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Adams Harrison celebrate Christmas Jumper Day and raise money for Save the Children

The staff in the Adams Harrison offices came to work today wearing Christmas jumpers in support of Save the Children.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed brightening the office and raising money for a worthy cause.

Welcome to new Family Solicitor Tanya See

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Tanya See Family Solicitor at Adams HarrisonThe partners are delighted to announce that Tanya See joined Adams Harrison on 25th September 2023.

Tanya is a Solicitor and will be based in our Sawston office, although she is also able to see clients at our other offices in Haverhill or Saffron Walden.

Tanya was educated in Cambridge and has attained a BA in Criminology and an LLM, and trained in local firms.

She enjoys helping clients navigate through the minefield of family law and helping them work towards a solution/settlement.

Menopause Symptoms and Discrimination

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A very interesting case has very recently been dealt with by Employment Tribunal Judge Wade (Lynskey –v- Direct Line Insurance Services Limited) on the 4th August 2023.

The case concerned an employee that was suffering menopause symptoms that were negatively impacting on her work performance. The Employment Tribunal held that the employer had treated this employee unfavourably because of something arising in consequence of her disability of menopause and had failed to make reasonable adjustments. The menopause and symptoms arising from it are not automatically considered to be a “disability” under the Equality Act 2010. A statutory test has to be satisfied in order to demonstrate that someone is suffering with a “disability”.

In this particular case the employer was aware of the employee’s menopause symptoms and the fact that prior to the onset of those symptoms she had four years good performance at work. The employer did in fact make some adjustments and provided additional support and training but the Tribunal considered that it should have done more!

The Tribunal found that performance procedure should have been abandoned, the employees targets lowered and a move to a different role considered. In the case the employer had given the employee an annual performance rating of requiring improvement (which resulted in not receiving a pay rise), a formal written warning and had ceased to pay discretionary sick pay before the employee’s entitlement ended. These were all found to be types of discrimination arising from a disability. The Tribunal Judge stated that a less discriminatory approach could and should have been carried and a referral to occupational health should have been made.

The employee was unsuccessful with a constructive unfair dismissal claim because whilst the Employment Tribunal considered that the employer had acted in serious breach of the Employment Contract when giving the employee the appraisal rating, written warning withdrawing the sick pay, the Tribunal considered that because the employee had remained with the employer for over 8 months before resigning that the employee had affirmed the contract.

The employee received an award of over £64,000.00 for the unlawful discrimination including £23,000.00 for injury to feelings. £2,500.00 was awarded for aggravated damages relating to the employer’s refusal to concede that the employee had a disability.

Our Employment Law Specialist, Jennifer Carpenter Solicitor and Managing Partner can provide advice to employers as to their duties and responsibilities in relation to any type of disability and the Equality Act 2010. Also, advice can be given to employees that consider they may have been treated less favourably as a result of a disability either directly or indirectly. If you think you need help please contact us at [email protected]