Flexible Working – Plans to extend the right to request to parents of children up to the age of sixteen.
As a result of an independent review the governments Business Secretary, John Hutton, has announced the extension of the right to request flexible working to parents of children up to the age of sixteen. It is not clear as yet whether the right will automatically extend to Northern Ireland nor when the right to request will come into full legal effect, however the change in the law could affect up to 4.5 million parents in the UK. The news of the future change to the flexible working law is detailed on the following link to the BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7402074.stm
and the press release from BERR on the announcement is here http://www.wired-gov.net/wg/wg-news-1.nsf/lfi/160867
In Northern Ireland the legal right to request flexible working is found in the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 http://www.opsi.gov.uk/si/si2002/20022836.htm#15 in Article 112F which relates to parents with children up to the age of six, or if the child is disabled, eighteen.
On 6th April 2007 the legal right to request flexible working was extended to cover employees who has caring responsibilities for certain adult relatives and this right is found in the The Flexible Working (Eligibility, Complaints and Remedies) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2007
in Regulation 3 which details the definition of a relative and so on.
The rights granted in both the Order and the Regulations above are to be found in Part IXA Flexible Working (112F) of The Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996
Currently it is normal for legislative changes to occur in April or October, however, it is not yet clear when the amendment will take place. The Labour Relations Agency will update this web-site accordingly when the date is confirmed.