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Morgan Cole urges businesses to get flexible working right
With Gordon Brown’s announcement that he will implement the recommendations from the Walsh report on flexible working (to be published later this month), law firm Morgan Cole is urging all businesses to ensure they have the right policies and procedures in place. Although new measures won’t come in until April 2009, many companies need to get to grips with existing regulations now.
At a recent employment law seminar, the firm ran a survey among attendees, to find out their current attitude to flexible working. In line with the CIPD’s recent call for flexible working to be extended even further, 50% felt that flexible working should be extended to all employees. The main reasons were for staff morale and to aid recruitment and retention.
Surprisingly, 70% of attendees consider informal as well as formal requests for flexible working. Matt Jenkin, Head of Employment at Morgan Cole, said: “Whilst we applaud employers’ willingness to consider requests for flexible working, we would urge caution when it comes to informal requests. Not having a consistent procedure, which applies to all staff, can put a company at risk of accusations of not creating an even playing field. It is crucial – particularly now that more people could have the right to put in a request for flexible working – that a company has workable and well-understood policies and procedures in place.”
The right to request flexible working has been one of the government’s most successful family-friendly measures. However, it causes confusion for many employers and employees and Morgan Cole has written clear, concise information for its clients, to help them understand the intricacies of the system.
Matt Jenkin says: “The most important thing to remember is that the right to request flexible working is exactly that – a right to request. It is not a right to work flexibly. That’s why businesses to be aware of the eligibility requirements and the prescribed procedure for making and responding to a request.”
Visit http://www.morgan-cole.com/news/6242.html for the full article.
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1. Morgan Cole is a UK law firm providing high quality legal services and commercially focused advice to public and private sector clients throughout the UK. The firm has more than 450 employees, including 50 partners, based in its offices in Cardiff, Oxford, Reading, Swansea and Bristol.
The firm is committed to providing legal services to the highest possible standards, and enjoys a reputation for being both commercially aware and progressive, offering strong and practical advice. Further details can be found at: www.morgan-cole.com
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