Flexible working: do we need more legislation or less?

There has always been an inherent contradiction in seeking to create flexible working arrangements through prescriptive legislation.  The most effective flexible working arrangements are likely to be those designed specifically to suit both workforce and employer in a particular organisation. This is something which a voluntary and imaginative approach is more likely to achieve than blanket or “catch-all” legislative prescription.

 

At the same time, employers in all sectors have sometimes been slow to grasp the benefits of flexible working arrangements, so that governments have felt the need for legislation which creates rights to flexible working patterns, either around specific events (such as childbirth or adoption) or ongoing  responsibilities (such as child or other form of care). Such legislation also, of course, has the benefit of securing equal treatment for employees in all sectors of the economy, so that equalities has often been the driver of flexible working legislation as much as the economic and organisational benefits of flexible working per se.

 

The UK’s worsening prospects of rapid economic recovery are likely to see the ongoing arguments over the relative merits of the voluntary and legislative approaches to flexible working come into sharp focus in the immediate future.

 

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