Common use of Flexible Working Clause in Contracts

Flexible Working. 14.1 Employees are able to request changes to their working arrangements pursuant to the employment Relations Act 2000, and employers must respond in accordance with the Act. There are two types of requests that can be made: a) A request under Part 6AA which any employee can make at any time; and b) A request under Part 6AB which can be made by an employee who is affected by family violence, for the purposes of assisting the employee to deal with the effects of being a person affected by family violence. A request under Part 6AB is for a short-term change in working arrangements (up to two months). 14.2 Working arrangements means 1 or more of the following: a) hours of work; b) days of work; c) place of work (for example, at home or at the employee’s place of work); and d) for requests under Part 6AB for persons affected by family violence only, additional terms that need variation. 14.3 Requests under Part 6AA must be in writing and contain the information required by Section 69AAC of the Employment Relations Act 2000. The employer must deal with the request as soon as possible but not later than 1 month after receiving the request, and any request under Part 6AA must be refused if it relates to working arrangements to which this collective agreement applies and would result in the employee’s work arrangements being inconsistent with this agreement. 14.4 Requests under Part 6AB for persons affected by family violence must be in writing and contain the information required by Section 69ABC of the Employment Relations Act 2000. The employer must deal with the request as soon as possible but not later than 10 working days after receiving the request, and must provide the employee with information about appropriate specialist family violence support services. The employer may require proof from the employee, provided the employee is advised of this requirement as soon as possible and within three working days of receiving the request. The employee has 10 working days to supply the proof, and if this does not occur, the employer may refuse the request. A request under Part 6AB will not be refused just because it relates to working arrangements to which this collective agreement applies and would result in the employee’s work arrangements being inconsistent with this agreement. 14.5 The employer can refuse a request if the employer determines it cannot be accommodated for 1 or more of the following reasons; a) inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff, b) inability to recruit additional staff c) detrimental impact on quality d) detrimental impact on performance e) insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work f) planned structural changes g) burden of additional cost