The case for five day’s statutory
paid leave for carers is being discussed by the government. This is good news
for everyone, including employees and employers.
The government has set up a working
group comprised of representatives from various departments and the Treasury to
look into the implications of giving carers certain employment rights.
Around one in nine UK workers
find themselves juggling caring responsibilities with paid work and a third of
working age carers hold down full time jobs. One in six carers had at some
point given up their jobs in favour of dedicating their time to their caring
duties, and almost three million reduced their working hours to allow
sufficient time for caring responsibilities. These are significant figures.
Recommendation
to revise the Flexible Working Regulations
It has been recommended that the
Flexible Working Regulations 2014 should be revised so that the right to
flexible working is in place starting from an employee’s first day in the job.
This right currently only applies to those with 26 weeks’ of continuous
employment.
The government has set up a
taskforce to investigate how flexible working could be promoted, taking into
consideration the Prime Minister’s call for businesses to advertise all jobs as
flexible from the outset, unless genuine commercial reasons exist not to. This
would mean a shift of responsibility from the employee requesting flexible
working, to the business offering it as standard.
Raman Sankaran is chief
commercial officer at health insurance provider Simplyhealth. He has said that
there is a strong business, economic and social imperative to get support for
working carers right.
“The government has identified
the need to increase the status of carers, sharing its vision for them to
receive the same recognition in the workforce as parents.
However, for any attempt to raise
awareness of the challenges facing working carers to initiate a permanent
change in workplace culture, this must be underpinned by the introduction of
practical measures and working practices that can help alleviate the pressures
they face on a daily basis,” he said.
As an employer, you may be
waiting with anticipation to learn whether there will be any new legislation
introduced covering flexible working for carers. You may however decide that
your workers are too valuable to you to wait, and perhaps consider offering
flexibility to those members of staff who have caring responsibilities. It is
of course currently up to you, but in the name of goodwill and staff morale, it
may be something to think about. You could always discuss it with your local bookkeepers if you have any concerns.
