Flexible Working

Flexible Working Policy Update

Significant change brought about by PCS.

The flexible working policy is an important policy for our members. Through this process changes to working hours, when these hours are worked and where these hours are worked can be made. Many members have used this to assist their work life balance especially around childcare and caring issues.

After changes are agreed, members will receive an altered contract reflecting their new working arrangements. However, in the past the Home Office has insisted that, as a condition of changing the contract, a review clause is inserted. This means that local managers were able to review flexible working arrangements, in light of local “business need” with a potential view to changing and altering members’ contracts.

PCS opposed the initial inclusion of this provision in the policy. It was our belief that changes to contracts should be permanent, and that a review clause meant that members were unsure of their future working arrangements. Furthermore, having a review clause allowing management to alter their terms and conditions without consent put them at a disadvantage to members who did not have the review clause.

PCS has recently engaged with a review of the Flexible Working Policy and have again argued our position that changes should be permanent, meaning that any future alterations would require agreement of the member of staff. In addition to the issues around fairness and potential for discrimination we pointed to the fact that refusing a flexible working request on grounds that a member did not want to include a review clause was not a permitted reason under the Employment Rights Act.

We are pleased to announce that we have been successful in our arguments around why the policy needed to change. This means that in the newly published Flexible Working Policy all statutory changes to contracts will be permanent. Of course, members are at liberty to review their situations and consider applying to alter their hours if their situations change in the future, but it will be their decision to apply to alter their contracts and it cannot be forced upon them.

Whilst this has taken some time for us to be able to change what we believed to be a discriminatory element of the policy, PCS firmly believes that this is a change for the better, and that members can have more security in the continuance of their flexible working arrangements.

This change, as with the many other positive actions taken by PCS demonstrates the importance of PCS membership and reassures members that we are continually working to bring about change for the better for our members.

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Pete Wright (Group Vice President, Personnel Lead), James Cox (Group President)