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Flexibility in Europe

Employees Have the Right to Request Flexibility.

In Germany, the UK and Holland "light touch"laws that encourage employers to respond positively to requests for flexibility have been in force for the past two years. In these countries, if employers do not have a good business reason not to grant flexibility, they must allow it.That experience shows that the concerns employers have about offering flexibility broadly tend not to materialize.

  1. Concern: More people will want to work flexibly than employers can handle.

Actual Experience:

  1. Most employers received one request; few more than five. Eighty percent of large employers received requests for flexibility; only 16% of small employers did.
  2. The Netherlands – a leader in part-time employment – had the most requests for permanent part-time – from 14% of employees. In the UK, 3.5% requested it; a smaller numbers applied for compressed work weeks, regular home-based work and temporarily reduced work hours. In Germany (with high unemployment and recession), the number was <.5%.
  1. Concern: Employee requests for flexibility will not work for employers.

Actual Experience:

  1. Most requests were found by employers to be acceptable. In Germany, 9 out of 10 requests were accepted; in the UK, 7 out of 10; 6 in 10 in the Netherlands.
  1. Concern: It will create additional costs for the company.

Actual Experience:

  1. In the UK, less than 13% of employers reported cost as a problem.
  2. In Germany, most employers accommodated the requests or reduced hours through the redistribution of work, without additional costs and, in fact, realized savings.
  1. Concern: It will be hard for managers.

Actual Experience:

  1. In the UK, 9 in 10 employers reported no significant problem with implementing flexibility.
  1. Concern: Flexibility has limited application -- it is primarily for women.

Actual Experience:

  1. While more women than men requested flexibility, one fifth of requests for part-time work in Germany came from men. In the UK, 1 in 10 male employees requested flexible work.
  2. Men asked for slightly different forms of flexible work. Fewer men chose to reduce their working hours when children were young (although 1 in 10 fathers of preschooler in the UK did so). As children reach school age, the differences even out. Men are more likely to work flexibly full-time, from home, or to temporarily reduce their hours. Men’s requests in the UK are more likely to be rejected by their employer than women’s.
  1. Concern: Legal complaints will be filed.

Actual Experience:

  1. The relative number of cases in Netherlands and Germany was small – fewer than 30 requests resulted in court action in the laws’ first 2 years. In the UK, 400 claims were filed, but which amounted to less than 1% of all claims. Judgments were not favorable for employers who claimed that flexibility was infeasible but did not demonstrate that alternatives had been explored in good faith. In cases where factual and specific business reasons were given, the judges tended to find for the employers.
  2. Other factors in the legal cases were operational issues, e.g., employer delays in responding to requests and not actually allowing the employee to work on the agreed upon flexible schedule or for the agreed less-than-fulltime amount of hours.

The laws are the Dutch Working Time Adjustment Act 2000, the German Part-time and Fixed Term Employment Act 2000 and the UK 2002 Right to Request Flexible Working.

These European laws were a catalyst that encouraged large numbers of employers to allow flexible work practices and helped them test new ways of organizing work. In short, employers’ experience was generally absent the risk and headaches that many feared.

Source: Employers and European Flexible Working Rights: When the Floodgates Were Opened, Ariane Hegewisch, 2005. Center for WorkLifeLaw