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The Work and Families Act 2006, which received Royal Assent on 21 June 2006, makes provision for the existing right for employees to request "flexible working" to be extended to carers of adults.
The existing "flexible working" provisions allow employees to apply for a contract variation in order to care for a child under the age of 6, or a disabled child under the age of 18. Eligibility for this right is limited to an employee who has been continuously employed for not less than 26 weeks and who is the mother, father, adopter, guardian or foster parent (or the partner of, or married to, one of those people) of the child concerned.
The Work and Families Act widens the scope of these existing provisions by allowing "flexible working" applications to be made by persons who have caring responsibilities for adults aged 18 or over.
After reviewing the responses to a consultation document that was published in January 2006, the Government has confirmed that a "carer" will be defined as an employee who has at least 26 weeks' continuous employment, who is or expects to be caring for a person aged 18 or over, and who:
- is married to, or the partner or civil partner of the employee, or
- is a relative of the employee, or
- falls into neither category (1) nor (2), but lives at the same address as the employee.
A "relative" in this context will be defined as
- an immediate relative, including mother, father, adopter, guardian, parent-in-law, son, son-in-law, daughter or daughter-in-law, and
- a near relative or step-relative, including brother, brother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, uncle, aunt or grandparent.
A "partner" in the context of caring for both children and adults will be defined as the other member of a couple consisting of
- a man and a woman who are not married to each other but are living together as if they were husband and wife, or
- two people of the same sex who are not civil partners of each other but are living together as if they were civil partners.
The Government has declined to include a definition of the level or nature of the care involved or to require evidence of caring responsibility, preferring a "light touch" approach to the legislation.
The Government's intention now is to lay the Regulations in Parliament before the end of 2006, to come into force on 6 April 2007.
...UK Payroll News - Latest
Further information:
Draft Flexible Working Regulations - Summary of Responses and Government Response to the 2006 Consultation
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