Work-life Balance in New Zealand
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007
We know that many employers already offer their staff flexible work. But for some employees and managers the prospect of discussing flexible work without a clear process can be daunting.
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working Arrangements) Amendment Act 2007 gives employees with caring responsibilities a statutory right to request flexible work. The Act will change the way some employees and employers make and respond to requests for flexible working arrangements.
When will the changes come into effect?
The new law comes into effect on 1 July 2008. However, many employers already offer their staff flexible working arrangements and the Act should not affect such good practice.
What are the changes?
The Act provides certain employees with the right to request a variation to their hours of work, days of work, or place of work.
To be eligible for the ‘right to request’ an employee must have the care of any person and have been employed by their employer for 6 months prior to making the request. When making the request, the employee must explain how the variation will help the employee provide better care for the person concerned.
The Act requires employers to consider the request for flexible working arrangements and provides the only grounds upon which they can refuse a request. The Act provides a process for how requests are to be made and responded to and also provides a process for resolving disagreements relating to a request for flexible working arrangements which may arise from time to time.
A review of the Act will be completed in 2010 and will consider whether the statutory right to request flexible work should be extended to all employees.
Where can I get more information?
Detailed guidelines on how the Act works can be downloaded here [pdf 25 pages, 985KB]. These guidelines are designed for both employees and employers and explain the process of requesting flexible working arrangements under the Act from start to finish.
A range of factsheets, templates, checklists and frequently asked questions can also be downloaded from the panel on the right. These resources are useful references for employees and employers and should help make the process of making and considering a request for flexible work easier.
If you have a question about the Act which isn’t answered in these resources you can contact the Department of Labour.