Flexible Work Hours – Will it be Compulsory?

The Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee has now reported back to Parliament on the Employment Relations (Flexible Working Hours) Amendment Bill. Following wide consultation, the Committee has recommended that the Bill be passed with amendments.

The Bill, if passed, would amend the Employment Relations Act 2000 to provide the statutory right for certain employees to request change to their working hours.

The original Bill would have provided employees who care for children under five years or children under 18 years who have a disability, the right to request flexible working arrangements.  Such changes could include either the days or hours they work.

The Committee's suggested amendments widen the Bill's scope by including employees who care for a dependent relative and not limiting the age of a disabled child to 18 years.  Employees are also able to ask their employer to change the place they work, such as requesting to work from home.

Although the Bill provides employees with the right to request such changes, there are a number of grounds on which employers can reject such a request.  The grounds are:

• 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;
• Planned structural changes;
• Burden of additional costs;
• Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand;
• Undermining the terms of a collective agreement where the work done (by the employee making the request) comes within the coverage clause of the collective agreement.

If an employer declines a request and the employee is dissatisfied on "reasonable grounds" with the refusal, employees would have the ability under the Bill to ask a labour inspector to attempt to resolve the matter.  If dissatisfied with the result of that process, employees have the statutory right to refer the refusal to mediation.  If no resolution is reached at that point, the employee can proceed to the Employment Relations Authority.

The Bill will now proceed to its second reading where Members of Parliament will debate its main principles and the amendments the Committee has recommended.

Erin Davies
Partner
t: +64 9 979 2177
m: +94 29 622 2300
e: Erin Davies

Last updated: 4 September 2007