Summary Comments

We conducted a survey among our members about their experiences with Flexible Working in May and June 2023. Our survey revealed that there have been vast inconsistencies in the way that flexible working requests have been approached. There is a perception that whether flexible working requests are granted and honoured can depend on the employee’s rank and status, and relationship to the line manager. Some of our members have been asked to reduce their FTE from full-time to part-time to achieve a set pattern of hours and place of work. This is justified by a rigid timetabling system and is used to evade flexible working requests. Yet, the duties of their roles require 1 FTE rather than a partial contract: some of our members have found that they end up working the same number of hours outside of the working week to complete the tasks related to their role, but now for 80% of the pay. We found in our survey that these members do not have the confidence to challenge this situation due to their contract status and fear detriment to their work. In some parts of the University, employees who seek flexible working have been asked to go down from full-time to part-time. This contravenes the duties outlined by the Equality Act of 2010 and goes against the aim of flexible working to enable staff with protected characteristics to stay and thrive in their work and finally to narrow the pay gap (whether the pay gap is determined by disability, race, sex, maternity, or a combination of protected characteristics).

Last month, University management announced a new ‘bold vision’ for the ED&I Centre. We were told at the JNCC this week that two new project officers have been assigned to the Disability Hub, which is under the EDI remit. However, we learned that the new project officers will not actually be working with our members to achieve the working conditions they need to thrive in work. We also learned that the new report commissioned by PWC predicted a drop in the enrolment of international students in UK universities. In an adjacent report by PWC (‘Managing risk in higher education’) risks around infrastructure and energy use, in particular scope 3–emission sources related to staff and student travel, are highlighted. The PWC report recommends planning for blended tuition and flexible working models, and the implementation of digital technologies to ‘attract talent, promote growth, and to survive.’ In other words, hybrid working is inevitable. The risks identified by the PWC report touch on the policies discussed above at JNCC. We want to see the University’s frameworks for equality – as reflected by the principles of the Athena Swan Charter, Race Equality Charter, and Disability Employment Charter – enacted and embodied in the policies that have a day-to-day impact on our members’ working patterns and working conditions.

---

Below we set out our core suggestions for the UoB Flexible Working Guidelines, as submitted to the University of Birmingham in February 2024.

BUCU consultation on the Flexible Working Guidelines

We suggest that the University should review the Flexible Working Application form to ensure consistency between the documents, and the Application form should be reviewed by BUCU and UNISON as well.

We would like to see the Equality Impact Assessment on the revised Flexible Working Guidelines, which is an established and credible tool for demonstrating due regard to the public sector equality duty (PSED).

Introduction

The language of the Introduction should be more inviting to staff to seriously consider applying for Flexible Working. Please add a definition of Flexible Working. The below definition is from Advance HE. 

‘The term ‘flexible working’ describes any working arrangements which gives some flexibility on how long, where, when, and at what times employees work. Flexible working includes part-time working, term-time working, compressed hours, annual hours, flexitime, working remotely on a regular basis.’

The introductory comments should also acknowledge the environmental, economic, structural and personal situations of staff members, which Flexible Working should support.

We suggest you include this text: 

‘Due to the changing structural patterns in the workplace (for example, in a household, two people will have professional jobs that are at some distance from each other; changing health needs triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic; housing unaffordability in the vicinity of the University; the precarious nature of contracts which requires staff to change institutions often), many workers are living at some distance from their place of work; even pre-Covid19, this was an everyday reality for university staff. The statutory right to flexible working and a predictable pattern of work helps workers plan their commutes in advance. The right to flexible working and a predictable pattern of work will also help staff plan their budgets and environmental footprint, which are especially important in a context in which the cost of living (and surviving on low wages and precarious contracts) is increasing and the detrimental impact of travel on the environment is urgent. Flexibility offered to employees in good faith is an effective recruitment and retention tool; conversely, lack of employer flexibility leads to staff attrition.’

‘In our sector, it’s a sign of progress toward closing the gender pay gap that many of our members are part of dual-career households. Our sector, however, provides only rare roles for some of our specialisms. Some of our members have been recruited from across the country and around the world, and have moved vast distances in order to make positive contributions to this institution. Flexible working enables a predictable working pattern for those employees who travel long distances for work. Planning flexible and predictable working patterns enables our members to sustain their caring responsibilities, families, the extra work related to the everyday reality of being a disabled person in a disabling society, and to minimise their carbon footprint in the frequency and distance travelled. Flexible working, thus, would help narrow the pay gaps, minimise our carbon footprint, and ensure a better work-life balance for all members of the university community, including single parent, migrant and disabled employees.’

We suggest that the University also include provision for Flexible retirement. At other universities with this policy, this is defined as an arrangement which is considered a type of flexible working, involves a member of staff reducing his or her contractual hours prior to retiring in full from the University. This may allow the individual to access part of their pension benefits while continuing to work for the University.

Please add:

‘The University recognises that a better whole life balance can improve employee motivation, performance and productivity, and reduce stress. Therefore the University wants to support its employees achieve a better balance between work and their other priorities, such as caring responsibilities, leisure activities, further learning and other interests. The University is committed to agreeing to any flexible working arrangements, provided that the needs and objectives of both the organisation and the employee can be met.’

There should be separate guidelines for employees and managers and further details of different types of flexible working, including flexible retirement.

1.3 — We would like to see the Equality Impact Assessment on this policy. The Flexible Working Guidelines should be developed with reference to the Flexible Working Regulations 2024. In addition the University needs to refer to the following legislation:

Health and Safety at Work Act 1974

Employment Rights Act 1996

Employment Act 2002

Work and Families Act 2006

Equality Act 2010

Children and Families Act 2014

Flexible Working Regulations 2024

2.0 Purpose and Scope

2.1 – Aims of this Policy should also include: 

To ensure compliance with legislative requirements. The law relating to this policy include:

1. Health and Safety at Work Act 1974
2. Employment Rights Act 1996
3. Employment Act 2002
4. Work and Families Act 2006
5. Equality Act 2010
6. Children and Families Act 2014
7. Flexible Working Regulations 2024

To provide a framework within which managers may meet their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 to consider reasonable adjustments which might enable disabled staff to continue working

To enable employees with caring responsibilities to balance them with their role at the University.

To accommodate where possible the desire of employees to balance their role at the University with other commitments or interests

To facilitate flexible retirement, if appropriate.

Change the amount of work is varied to ‘the duration of the work’ — the language ‘amount of work’ assumes a reduction of hours

Remove this example ‘e.g. a reduction in hours’: work at the University is likely to be role- or task-driven — if so, then tasks would not necessarily be linked to a set amount of work or set hours.

2.2

There could be reference to core and flexible working hours here — for example, York University has adopted Flexi-Time 

https://www.york.ac.uk/admin/hr/policies/leave-and-absence/flexitime/

‘Working hours may be divided into bands of core time and flexitime. Unless away from work for some specific reason (annual leave, illness etc) staff are required to be present during core time bands, but, subject to conditions, may start and finish work at their discretion during flexible time bands. 

The table below contains example core time bands. These can be varied by departments to take into account operational requirements.

The core time bands are

10.00 am – noon

2.00 pm – 4.00 pm

Flexible time bands are

8.00 am – 10.00 am

12.00 noon – 2.00 pm

4.00 pm – 6.00 pm

A break, 30 minutes minimum, will be incorporated into the working day; this will normally fall within the 12:00 to 2:00 time band.

2.3: The Hybrid Working Policy which had been agreed with the Union needs to be reinstated.

Section 3.0 Who can request a flexible working pattern?

3.1 Brief definitions of all these terms needs to be included. We’ve provided some definitions of these terms, much of it drawn fromm York University’s Flexible Working: policy and procedure document.

Part-time working covers any arrangement where an employee is contracted to work anything less than typical full time hours for the type of work in question. The University believes that all posts will be available on a part-time basis, except where a critical examination by line management proves this to be impracticable. The suitability of posts for part-time working will be stated in any internal or external advertisements.

We suggest that ‘Term-time only working’ is replaced by ‘Annual hours’. Annual hours involve distributing agreed-upon annual working hours unevenly across the year, and allows for adjustments based on workload fluctuations. 

Job-sharing is an arrangement where a full-time post is divided into several part-time roles. The job holders then share the overall duties and responsibilities. Their skills and the hours each employee wishes to work must be compatible, and meet the needs of the organisation. Pay and benefits are shared in proportion to the hours each works. Job sharing can be considered where the creation of a single part-time post is difficult, or where two individuals wish to work part-time. The suitability of posts for job-sharing will be stated in any internal or external advertisements.

Compressed hours is where an employee works their usual hours in fewer days by working longer blocks meaning that there is no reduction in their pay. For example, a 5-day week is compressed into four days, or a 10-day fortnight into 9 days.

Staggered hours could also accommodate school drop off and pick up arrangements

Home-working is when an employee regularly carries out all, or part of, their duties from home rather than the employer’s premises. The employer can consider home-working being an occasional agreed day, a mix of home and office based work each week or a full time arrangement.

3.4 The University needs to consider whether the flexible working request is related to a reasonable adjustment or disability, which falls under the Equality Act 2010.

Section 4.0 Submitting a request

4.1 Add: At the meeting the employee may, if they wish, be accompanied by a workplace colleague or a trade union representative.

4.2 If the employee is making the request in relation to the Equality Act, e.g. as a reasonable adjustment relating to disability, this should be made clear in the application

Section 5.0 Considering the request

5.1 Where a flexible working arrangement is proposed the University will need to take into account a number of criteria including (but not limited to) the following:

• the costs associated with the proposed arrangement

• the effect of the proposed arrangement on other staff

• the need for, and effect on, supervision

• the existing structure of the department

• the availability of staff resources

• details of the tasks specific to the role

• the workload of the role

• whether it is a request for a reasonable adjustment related to disability

• health and safety issues

Add: The request may be granted in full, in part or refused. The University may propose a modified version of the request accompanied by the evidence used for this alteration, the request may be granted on a temporary basis, or the employee may be asked to try the flexible working arrangement for a trial period.

Add: and demonstrating that efforts are being made to accommodate the request.

5.2 Add: At the meeting the employee may, if they wish, be accompanied by a workplace colleague or a trade union representative.

The trial period needs to be explained further in greater detail. We suggest that this explanation should be further developed in separate guidance to employees making the request and managers in handling the request.

Section 6.0 Outcome

6.4 Business grounds must not be given greater weight than other considerations, such as the Equality Act 2010 and the Employment Rights Act 1996

Section 7.0 Appeals process

7.1 If the manager only replies within the two month period, and the two month period is about to pass, then this does not give the employee enough time to make the appeal. Employees should be given an additional 14 working days to make the appeal.

The appeal needs to be handled by a manager in another part of the university (a different department or college altogether). This would be consistent with grievance and disciplinary procedures and is in line with general fairness principles. If the appeal is merely a re-hearing by the same initial decision-maker or someone in the same part of the organisation, then there is no scrutiny of the fairness of the process.

We suggest that a TU representative, who can use both EDI and Health & Safety lens in the discussions, should be involved in the appeal process.

7.2 We suggest that someone with an EDI role and/or TU representative is also involved in the appeal meeting.

We suggest the University adds this statement at the end (adapted from ACAS Flexible Working)

The University is strongly opposed to any form of victimisation of individuals who work, or request to work under flexible working arrangements.If an employee feels that they have been treated unfairly or are dissatisfied with any stage of the flexible process, they should raise their concerns informally with the HR department and a TU representative. 

 If informal discussions do not resolve the matter to an employee’s satisfaction, they should raise a grievance under the organisation’s grievance procedure.For further information an employee should refer to the documents listed below and/or contact the HR department and a TU representative. 

Submitted 29 February 2024