>Chris is a partner in the Employment Law Group of the Arthur Cox Belfast Office in Northern Ireland.
Chris has extensive experience dealing with both contentious and non-contentious employment law matters. Chris advises a range of employers on all aspects of employment law including executive appointments, severance, grievances, disciplinary issues and trade union matters. Chris has represented clients before the Industrial Tribunal, Fair Employment Tribunal and the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland in employment litigation such as unfair dismissal, equality/discrimination and whistleblowing. Chris’ practice area includes advisory work and corporate transactions.
Do employers have to grant a request by an employee to work part-time?
Employers are not legally required to accept a request to work part-time. However, employees do have the right to request flexible working if they:
- have been continuously employed for a period of at least 26 weeks;
- are not an agency worker (other than one returning from parental leave or the armed forces); and
- have not made a previous request to work part-time in the last 12 months.
It is important to note that a person who satisfies these conditions has the right to request part-time work but not necessarily to be granted that request. However, the manner in which employers respond to requests to work part-time is very important for limiting their liability for claims relating to unlawful direct and indirect discrimination on the basis of race, disability and sex.
Article 112G of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 provides a limited set of grounds for refusing an employee’s request. These could be summarised as “good business reasons” and specifically include:
- the burden of additional costs;
- the detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand;
- inability to re-organise work amongst existing staff;
- inability to recruit additional staff;
- detrimental impact on quality;
- detrimental impact on performance;
- insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; and
- planned structural changes.
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Protecting Yourself when Home Working | eLearning Course
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The phenomenon of home working has taken on a much greater significance since the pandemic. These benefits have brought remote working to the forefront of working life, with many employees now working from home on a permanent basis. However, home working can also present several health and safety risks and it's important for employees to know how to protect themselves from injury and ill health when working from home.
The purpose of this course is to provide all employees in your organisation with an overview of how to protect their physical and mental health whilst home working.
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