Unions, through the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU), strongly supported new legislation that gives workers with caring responsibilities the right to ask for flexible working arrangements.

The legislation came into effect on July 1st 2008. As of now, anybody with caring responsibilities for any person (a family member or friend) who has worked for the same employer for at least six months can request flexible work arrangements.

The legislation confines this right to people with caring responsibilities.

The CTU advocated for all workers to have this right, but we see the new legislation as an important first step. It's an essential step too, considering that 43% of employees responding to a Department of Labour survey have caring responsibilities.

Flexible working arrangements legislation was introduced in the United Kingdom (UK) in 2002 and has been positively received by UK employers.

This gave New Zealand unions a lot of confidence about the workability of flexible working arrangements legislation. Such legislation has also been in place for many years in other European countries.

New Zealand's legislation is more generous than the UK legislation, which restricts the right to flexible working hours to those caring for their own children under six years old, or an adult relative, or a disabled child. Changes are planned to the UK legislation to increase the age of caring to include older children.

A fundamental principle in unions' support for a legislative approach to flexible working arrangements was the ability of low-paid workers to access this new support. Low-paid workers are less likely to have strong bargaining power, which makes the legislative right even more important.

Unions can help to access this right by providing workers with information, and assisting with the application process.

The world of work has changed, and unions and employers need to have policies and agreements in place to reflect different realities and circumstances.

The new legislation is a response to recognise the increased pressures on working people. Caring for family members and loved ones is much more common now given shorter hospital stays, more emphasis on primary health care, ageing in place, and deinstitutionalisation policies.

During the development of New Zealand's flexible work legislation, unions were concerned that work rights that apply to everyone through collective agreements not be undermined by those of individuals (having requests granted that would impact negatively on the bigger workforce).

To overcome this concern, we have recommended that unions ensure that flexible working hour clauses are negotiated into collective agreements. This is to ensure that provisions that support fl exible working arrangements can be workplace specific. And this provides another benefit - collective agreements provide transparent and accessible information about workers' entitlements.

In a brochure produced by the CTU, it is suggested that while the legislative rights do not extend to all workers, this shouldn't stop any worker from asking for flexible working arrangements.

We recommend: Ask Anyway.

The new right for flexible work arrangements provides a different sort of flexibility than the one that many workers have been accustomed to in the past - flexibility through having work hours reduced or changed as a result of employer decisions.

The new entitlement recognises both the needs of the worker to respond to caring obligations, and the business needs of employers.

There is a lot of support for the view that if workers have more flexibility, they are going to be happier and healthier workers, which benefits everyone.

In response to the often argued position that people will make unrealistic demands for flexible work arrangements, research and evidence doesn't support this. Department of Labour research found that people are considerate of workplace needs; they don't have unrealistic expectations of their employers and workmates, or make unrealistic requests.

There were some differences during the legislative process between employers and unions, with employers wanting an educative approach to achieve better work/life balance for New Zealand workers.

Unions agree that education is very important in changing culture and work patterns, but believe that both legislation and education are needed for flexible work arrangements to be effective.

What do we mean by flexible working hours?

Flexible working arrangements can include:

• annualised hours,
• compressed working weeks,
• flexitime,
• working from home,
• shorter working weeks,
• or part-time hours

What does the Act say?

Provided that you have caring obligations for any person, and you have worked for your employer for at least six months, you may write to your employer requesting flexible work arrangements. You will need to include the following information in your request:

• The date and your name.
• That the request is made under the Employment Relations Amendment Act 2007 Part 6aa, Flexible Working
Arrangements.
• The change you would like, whether it is permanent or temporary and, if temporary, when it should end.
• How the change will help you to provide care.
• Any changes you think your employer would need to make to workplace arrangements if your request was
approved.

Union Advice

Under this legislation an employer has to consider a request. If your request for flexible working arrangements is turned down, a worker may try to reach a compromise with the employer. The CTU recommends that union members involve their union delegate in this negotiation process if they are unsure. And if you think an employer has not complied with the Act, the Department of Labour could be approached for help.

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