What do you do when your staff ask for flexible workdays?

Under Fair Work Legislation, every business must provide a family friendly work environment for their employees. Providing staff with the option to work different hours or work from home does not have to mean a loss of productivity. In fact, even smaller businesses are finding it advantageous to accommodate their staff’s needs for flexible work arrangements.

However the initial request for more flexibility is often confronting for many employers. Here are 3 points you need to consider.

1.  It’s not a one-way exchange

While it may not be applicable to every member of your team, most employers have loyal, hardworking staff members they know they can trust. If you wish to keep these people, you need to be adaptable as they balance their work and family obligations.

Unhappy workers leave their current jobs – especially if their new employer promises more opportunities to gain work/life balance. So if you want to keep your best workers, you will need to consider their request for flexibility.

Building a culture of trust

Accommodating a staff member’s needs for flexible work arrangements makes a strong statement that you trust and value their contribution to your organisation.

When workers feel valued, they tend to work harder and be more loyal to their employer. So while the initial request for flexible work arrangements may seem inconvenient for your business, it could provide a boost in productivity.

2.  A request for flexibility is the start of a conversation

The legislation around providing flexible work arrangements clearly states that a business can refuse requests for flexible working arrangements “on reasonable business grounds”. The key word here is reasonable and this is where personal biases can cloud an employer’s decision.

The legislation also states the request for flexibility must be made in writing describing what the request is and the reasons for it. The employer must then respond within 21 days. Use this time to become less emotional about the request. Instead, focus on the impact to your business if the staff member takes unplanned leave or resigns from your organisation.

Negotiate if you can’t say “yes”

If you are unable to completely satisfy your employee’s request for flexibility, try to negotiate a middle ground that satisfies the needs of both the employee and the business. For example, if your employee asks to work from home 3 days a week, maybe they could work from home 1 or 2 days a week with a review of the situation after 3 months.

3.  Explore ways to create a flexible workplace by redesigning work flow practices

Technology and customer service expectations are both changing the way the world does business. Many industries now operate in a 24/7 environment with businesses of all sizes embracing the cost savings of running virtual offices.

For some businesses offering 9 day fortnights or longer work days in exchange for rostered days off are proving a viable way to remain profitable and customer focused. They often report other benefits such as reduced unplanned leave because workers have the flexibility to balance their work and home responsibilities.

A fresh approach could help your business

In order to adapt to the changing expectations of employees and legislators, many businesses seek help from experts in the field. End2End Business Solutions offers SMEs a range of outsourced HR services tailored to your needs.

To discover if End2End can help your business, call 02 8977 4002.

Community Service Leave

Employees, including casual employees, are entitled to take community service leave for particular activities under the Fair Work Act, including:

• Voluntary emergency management activities
• Jury duty

With the exception of jury duty, community service leave is unpaid.

An employee is involved with a voluntary emergency activity when:

• The activity involves dealing with an emergency or natural disaster.
• The employee participates in this activity on a voluntary basis
• The employee was either requested to participate in an activity , or it would be reasonable to expect such a request would have been made if circumstances permitted
• The employee is a member of, or has an association with a recognised emergency management body.
• A recognised emergency management body is:
• A body that has a role or function under a plan that is for coping with emergencies or natural disasters.
• A fire fighting , civil defence or rescue body
• Any other body which is mainly involved in responding to an emergency or natural disaster including SES, the Country Fire Authority and the RSPCA.

Community service leave is likely to carry greater consequences in high risk and rural areas, especially during the summer when the threat of bushfires is much greater.

There is no limit on the amount of community service leave an employee can take however an employee who takes community service leave must give their employer notice of the absence as soon as possible and the expected period of absence. The employer can require the employee to give the employer evidence that would satisfy a reasonable person that the absence is because the employee has been, or will be, engaging in the eligible community service activity. An employer can face serious penalties for dismissing an employee that tries to take community service leave. A violation of a provision of the National Employment Scheme can result in penalties of up to $10,800 for an individual and $54,000 for a corporation.

Community service leave to volunteer in an emergency situation is unpaid leave under the National Employment Standards, although some State and Territory laws have created an obligation to pay employees for the time off. Queensland, Tasmania and Western Australia all expect you to pay ordinary wages during an employee’s absence.

Under the National Employee Standard, you are obliged to pay an employee jury duty for their first 10 days of service at their usual base rate of pay.

Proposed changes to the Fair Work Act

The proposed changes to the fair work act the federal government has introduced to parliament could have a significant impact on the existing fair work act if implemented.

To outline how these changes could affect your business, here are some of the main points within the bill and how they could affect your business.

• Extending a period of unpaid parental leave – An employee taking unpaid parental leave under the fair work act, may request to increase their leave for a period up until 12 months. The amendment would require the employer to give the employee the opportunity to discuss the request in person or over the phone before refusing it. The discussion cannot be had by email or sms.

• Payment for unused annual leave – under the Government’s proposed amendment, payment for unused annual leave is to be made at the employee‘s base rate of pay for ordinary hours as applicable immediately before dismissal (unless an applicable modern award, enterprise agreement or employment contract expressly provides for a more beneficial entitlement).  Base rate of pay does not include penalties, loadings, allowances or any other separately identifiable amounts.

• Taking or accruing leave while receiving workers’ compensation - An employee who is absent from work due to workers compensation is unable to take or accrue leave under FW act during the compensation period.

• Transfer of Business -The transfer of business provisions will not apply to the transfer of an employee between associated entities where the employee sought the transfer at their own initiative. The proposed amendments would “switch off” the FW act transfer of business rules when an employee becomes employed by an associated entity of his or her former employer if the employment was sought on the workers own initiative before termination of employment with the old employer.
  
  For example if an employee is looking to progress their career or change their lifestyle and pursues a career opportunity within their own company or affiliated company this would be considered seeking his or her own initiative. If an employee who was made redundant accepted alternative employment this would not be considered his or her own initiative.
  
  Note that this change would only apply to transfer of enterprise agreements and not to continuity of service-based entitlements. The automatic continuity (subject to exceptions) provided in the FW Act when employees transfer between associated entities would continue to apply.

• Fair Work Commission (FWC) hearings and conferences - The proposed amendment would allow the FWD to dismiss an unfair dismissal claim on certain grounds without a hearing. The FWC will be able to do this if the applicant has failed to attend a conference or hearing, comply with a FWC order or discontinue an application after a settlement agreement.
  
  This would also apply where the FWC found the application to be frivolous or had no reasonable chance of being successful. The FWC must invite all parties to provide further information to the FWC to show its use is warranted before exercising this power.

• Individual Flexibility Arrangements - All employees party to an IFA made under a modern award flexibility term would need to sign a 'genuine needs' statement.
  
  Employees entering an independent flexibility arrangement are required to give a written statement indicating why they believe an independent flexibility agreement under a modern award or enterprise agreement meets their needs and leaves them better off.
  
  Individual flexibility arrangements allow for unilateral termination only upon 13 weeks of notice, as opposed to the current 28 days of notice.
  
  The proposed amendments improve the utility of individual flexibility arrangements by requiring enterprise flexibility terms to permit individual flexibility about all five minimum matters listed in the model flexibility term; namely arrangements about when work is performed, overtime rates, penalty rates, allowances and leave loading.

• Greenfields Agreements –The FWA amendment proposes many changes to the Greenfields agreement process intended to avoid employers being convinced to agree to inflated wages and conditions and employment preference to avoid delays in a project. Under the proposed changes, an agreement would provide for pay and conditions consistent with the prevailing standards and conditions within the relevant industry for equivalent work. The FWC may take into account the prevailing pay and conditions in the relevant geographical area.  These changes include the extension of good faith bargaining requirements to single enterprise Greenfields agreements. They also include provisions for an employer to apply to the FWC for an agreement to be approved where the parties are unable to reach agreement in a reasonable period following a three month negotiation period notified by the employer.

• Protected action ballot orders - The Amendment Bill proposes that an application for a protected action ballot order will not be able to made until the employer is obliged to give employees notice of representational rights in bargaining.

• Right of Entry - The amendment bill introduced changes to the right of entry rules regarding the rights of union officials who hold entry permits. The employer will no longer be required to organise transport and accommodation arrangements for permit holders in remote areas.
  
  Interviews with employees by union officials or permit holders must be held in an area agreed between the business and the permit holder or in the place the business employees take lunch breaks. The FWC will also be able to deal with disputes regarding the frequency of visits by permit holders.