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Millions of workers across the UK will have the right to request flexible working from their first day in a job under a new law, giving them greater access to flexibility over where, when, and how they work.
Employees will be able to ask for flexible working options, including working from home, job sharing, compressed hours, part-time and flexitime working, as well as annualised hours and staggered hours.
About 1.5 million low-paid workers will also be able to work multiple short-term contracts, benefitting gig economy employees, students, and carers, who will be able to supplement their income with a second job if they want.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) said that workers on contracts with a guaranteed weekly income on or below the lower earnings limit of £123 a week will now be protected from exclusivity clauses that restrict them from working for multiple employers.
Small business minister Kevin Hollinrake said: “Giving staff more say over their working pattern makes for happier employees and more productive businesses. Put simply, it's a no-brainer.”
While BEIS has said millions of employees will benefit from the new law, the government department has not given a timescale for the new law to be introduced.
TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady noted it had already been a year since a consultation on flexible working closed and people were “tired of waiting for action”.
She added: “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.
“Ministers must change the law so that every job advert makes clear what kind of flexible working is available in that role, and they should give workers the legal right to work flexibly from their first day in a job - not just the right to ask.”
The news comes just a week after MPs and unions urged the government to give workers the legal right to request a four-day workweek with no pay cut.
Mr Hollinrake said the five-day week was “no longer conducive to the needs of the 21st century”, and was created over a century ago for an “unrecognisable” industrial and agricultural economy.
