Law to encourage teleworking

The European Flexible Working Directive, which came into effect in the UK on 6 April, allows employees with children under six to apply for flexible working arrangements. These arrangements might include earlier start and finish hours, or four-day weeks. However, one of the most attractive options for firms and staff is likely to be teleworking, which would allow employees to work from home.

Telework technology and its potential benefits have attracted a lot of interest recently, and it is likely that IT departments will face a growing responsibility to support staff at home. IT managers should therefore make plans now to cope with this demand.

The first step in the preparations is to estimate how many people are likely to require support, and the answer may depend on company policy rather than the availability of technology.

To ensure that requests for flexible working are dealt with efficiently and without recriminations, firms should decide which flexible-working options can be offered, and which job functions will be eligible. Obviously, a cleaner could not be offered a telework option, but flexible hours might be a possibility. Similarly, certain white collar workers may have to be present in the office if their jobs involve meeting customers.

Deborah Amlot, a solicitor in the Employment Group at law firm Nabarro Nathanson, said the law merely gives staff the right to apply for flexible arrangements - it does not give them an automatic right to receive such arrangements. "So, whilst employers must comply with the statutory timetable in responding to employees - for example holding meetings to discuss the request - they can refuse the request to work flexibly on lots of business-related reasons," said Amlot.

Requests may be turned down for a number of reasons, including potential harm to the quality of work, or the burden of additional costs. But the law prohibits companies from ignoring requests or having a blanket ban on flexible working. "If firms do not comply with the regulations, employees can bring a claim to an employment tribunal and if successful be awarded compensation of up to eight weeks' pay," Amlot said.

If firms do not have systems in place to handle requests for flexibility, they are more likely to face such penalties. In a recent survey by employee management specialist Crown Computing, almost two thirds of HR professionals said their firms were unprepared for the changes to the law.

To establish the eligibility criteria for teleworking, HR departments and IT teams should liaise closely, and the costs of supporting home workers should be estimated.

"Meeting the IT requirements to facilitate working from home is likely to be expensive for employers and relatively few will currently be in a position to make the necessary investment," predicted Matthew Tom, a solicitor in the Employment and Resourcing Department at law firm Tarlo Lyons. Teleworking also brings additional health and safety considerations for employers, who remain legally obliged to provide a safe working environment - including responsibilities for workstations and VDUs. "These costs, as well as the additional management difficulties, are likely to justify a refusal of employees' requests in many cases," Tom commented.

However, for some firms an investment in teleworking could reduce costs and improve productivity. If more staff work from home, office space might be saved.

Telecoms giant Nortel Networks, which has 12,000 teleworkers out of a total 35,000 UK staff, found that 71 percent of its home users felt more empowered, and 41 percent felt more motivated by home working.

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