Proposed new laws would give workers the right to choose to work from home upon starting a new job. The government wants to allow for more flexible working, including job-sharing, flexi-time and staggered hours to improve the work-life balance.
According to The Mail Online:
It will be seen as a boost for employees who have domestic commitments such as caring for their children or elderly relatives.
But critics last night said it could be a blow for smaller businesses and carry on starving city centres of commuter footfall which hasn’t fully returned since the Covid-19 pandemic.
At present, workers can only demand to work from home after six months in a new job.
The proposed legislation would bring this forward to the first day.
Small businesses minister Kevin Hollinrake last night said: ‘Giving staff more say over their working pattern makes for happier employees and more productive businesses. Put simply, it’s a no-brainer.
‘Greater flexibility over where, when, and how people work is an integral part of our plan to make the UK the best place in the world to work.’
But former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith said there was ‘no evidence’ for what Mr Hollinrake was saying.
He said: ‘For small businesses there are real issues here. They’re worried about this sort of thing, because what you end up with if you’re not careful is small business finding it difficult to get certain jobs done because people just say “I’m heading off home”.
‘The Government needs to make it clear there’s a way small businesses will be able to cope with this.
‘If you’re a great big multinational that’s got tonnes and tonnes of people around it’s not such a problem.’
Campaigners are also demanding job adverts list the flexible working on offer and given the legal right rather than just requesting it.
Trades Union Congress boss Frances O’Grady said: ‘Flexible working should be available to everyone.
‘It’s how we keep mums in work, close the gender pay gap and give dads more time with their kids, and it’s how we keep disabled workers, older workers and carers in their jobs.
‘Allowing working people to ask for flexible working from their first day in a job would be a small step in the right direction, but we’d like the Government to go much further to ensure that flexible work now becomes the norm.’
