FLEXIBLE WORKING (2014)
Employees will be entitled to new flexible working arrangements, following a government consultation. The new rights were announced at the same time as the new rights for sharing parental leave.

Every worker with six months' service, rather than just those who are parents or caring for elderly relatives, will have the right to request to work flexibly. And the government intends to simplify the right to request to work flexibly. The statutory right to request procedure will be scrapped and replaced by a simple duty on employers to deal with requests in a 'reasonable' manner and within a 'reasonable' period of time. There will be a statutory code of practice, together with guidance, on what reasonable means in this context. The changes are expected to be legislated on next year and come into force in 2014, a year before the shared parental leave rights.