Labour has said it would widen the definition of flexible working and make it mandatory so most employers would have to accommodate it – if it were to form the next government.
Shadow secretary for the future of work Angela Rayner announced that the party would make flexible working the default for organisations for which it was applicable. She said this would help ensure “Work fits around people’s lives instead of dictating their lives”.
Employers would have a duty to offer compressed hours and flexibility around caring duties, including taking children to school or caring for them during school holidays, said Rayner.
She said that flexibility should be extended to staff in other jobs beyond white collar roles, many of which have been carried out from home during the pandemic.
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The plans would also mark the end to what she termed was “one-sided flexibility”, where employers were able to dictate hours to staff at very short notice.
“We’ve seen tremendous flexibility from employees during the pandemic,” she told the Good Morning Britain TV programme this morning. “We think things like compressed hours and being able to work around child care should be mandatory. It’s not just about being able to work from home, it’s about being able to fit your working life around your family life too.”
She was also critical of the government’s failure to bring forward its much-delayed Employment Bill, which did not appear in this year’s Queen’s Speech. “There’s nothing, after what everyone’s been through and the flexibility that has been shown,” she said.
Then interim director of labour market reform Matthew Taylor accused the government earlier this year of having lost interest in labour market reform.
The Conservative’s 2019 manifesto said the a Tory government would “encourage” flexible working and consult on making it the default unless employers had good reasons not to. But no action has been taken on this as yet.
Flexible work policy changes form part of Labour’s “new deal for working people” campaign, which Keir Starmer launched this week with a proposal for a single status of worker, to tackle perceived exploitation in the gig economy.
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