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A bill that proposes to give workers the right to flexible working from the first day of their job has been introduced in parliament with wide cross-party support. Labour MP Tulip Siddiq introduced the Flexible Working Bill under Parliament’s Ten Minute Rule yesterday. She said it would “require employers to offer flexible working arrangements in employment contracts and advertise the available types of such flexibility in vacancy notices”. If taken forward and enacted into law, all workers would receive a right to flexible working from their very first day of employment, except in “exceptional circumstances”. Under current employment legislation only people classified as employees have a right to request flexible working, and only if they have worked at their organisation for 26 weeks and they have not made any other flexible working request in the previous 12-month period. The Labour MP for Hampstead and Kilburn, who is shadow children’s minister, said flexible working should be a “right for all, rather than a perk for the few”. She told the House of Commons: “Overall, the impact of flexible working is most on women and that’s something we can’t deny. “In this country the childcare responsibilities… largely fall on women and the statistics show that if women can flexibly work and go back to their jobs, they’re more likely to not quit their jobs after they’ve had a child and to go back to their careers. “The statistics show that men can flexibly work as well, women are twice as likely to excel in the career that they’re pursuing, if they have their husbands helping them
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