April 08, 2011
The Government has announced a u-turn over regulations, due to come into force on 6 April this year, to extend the right to request flexible working to parents of children under the age of eighteen. At present the right is only available to those who have children under seventeen, disabled children under eighteen or who are carers for a dependant child or adult.
The change in policy is a result of the Government’s ‘Plan for Growth’, which is designed to remove regulatory burdens from businesses in an attempt to stimulate their growth.
In addition, the Plan for Growth includes commitments not to extend the right for employees to request time off work to undergo training that will make them more effective and productive in their jobs to small businesses with less than 250 employees; to disapply the requirement contained in the Equality Act of 2010 that businesses must take steps to prevent harassment of their staff by third parties, who they will have no control over; and not to introduce the dual discrimination rules contained in Section 14 of the Equality Act 2010 that include in the definition of discrimination less favourable treatment on the grounds of a combination of two protected characteristics (from the following list: age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation).
Furthermore, the Government has stated that no new domestic regulation will be imposed on small businesses with less than ten employees and start-up businesses for the next three years as from 1 April 2011.
