Kew Green Hotels acknowledges the importance of combining your career and family responsibilities, that is why we will endeavour to grant requests wherever possible. In order to be eligible to request flexible working you must have at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment with the Company at the date the application is made and have not made a statutory request within the last 12 months.
Flexible Working Request form.docxTo request flexible working, please print off and complete the Flexible Working Request form and give this to your Line Manager.
The form will ask you to specify the change you are applying for and the date you would like it to be effective from should the change become effective. In addition, the form will ask you to explain what effect, if any, you think making this change would have on the Company and how, in your opinion, any such effect might be dealt with.
Once you have submitted a valid application for flexible working, the Company will contact you to arrange a meeting, which will take place within 28 days of the application being submitted, to discuss how the pattern of working you have requested might be made to work.
You are entitled to bring a fellow colleague or a trade union representative to the meeting as a companion. If your chosen companion will not be available at the time proposed for the meeting, you can propose an alternative, mutually convenient time which falls within seven days after the day proposed by your manager, your manager will postpone the meeting to the time proposed. Alternatively, you should consider choosing another companion.
Within 14 days of this meeting, your manager will inform you their decision by a dated notice in writing.
You may agree with your manager to an extension of any of the time periods referred to. Such an agreement must be recorded in writing by your manager and specify what period the extension relates to and what date the extension will end. The agreement will be dated and a copy sent to you for your reference.
A mutual agreement could be reached where the proposed changes can be implemented for a trial period. At the end of the trial period a meeting will be held between you and your manager to review how the revised working pattern has worked in practice and if it would work on a permanent basis.
If a trial period is agreed the statutory time limit for reaching a decision on the flexible working request must be extended, agreed with you and put in writing, this will include:
The start and end date of the agreed trial period;
The changes to working pattern agreed during this time;
A clear record that the Company reserves the right, at the end of the agreed trial period, to require you to revert to your previous working pattern if, in their view the changes have not proved to be workable;
Signatures from both parties.
There is a statutory list of business reasons that your manager may use as justification for refusing your request for flexible working. The list is exhaustive, although quite wide in scope.
The valid reasons are that granting the request would:
impose an unreasonable burden of additional costs on the Company;
have a detrimental effect on the Company's ability to meet its customers' demands;
have a detrimental impact on quality;
have a detrimental impact on performance;
create unacceptable difficulties for the Company as we would be / have been unable to make arrangements to reorganise the work amongst other staff;
create unacceptable difficulties for the Company as we would be/have been unable to recruit additional staff;
create unacceptable difficulties for the Company due to an insufficiency of work during the periods you proposed to work;
be inappropriate due to planned structural changes.
You are entitled to appeal against the Company’s decision to refuse your application and must do so within 14 days after the date on which the notice of decision was given. The notice of appeal must be addressed to the senior manager in writing, setting out the grounds for appeal and be dated.
