As discussed in our previous article on the changes to leave
entitlements under the amendments to the Employment Relations Act
2000, the modern workforce has many different variations of working
hours and arrangements.
The changes to leave entitlements reflect this, as do the
changes to flexible working requests. Flexible working arrangements
reflect the fact that even with varied shift patterns of work or
ways of working for groups of employees, an individual may seek a
specific change to accommodate a desire to balance work with
personal activities.
Flexible working requests are for arrangements relating to the
hours an employee works, the days and times an employee works or
the location an employee works at. Flexible working requests are
for a permanent change in an employee's working arrangement and
can only to be changed by mutual agreement. Flexible working
requests are not required for an occasional change to working hours
or days.
