Flexible law a work success

But does National want us to know? Not when it was a Green initiative.

Kate Wilkinson, photo/NZH

Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson appears to have been coyly hiding some good news. According to a report by her own department, new legislation on flexible work arrangements have been such a roaring success that employers and workers want it extended. But the report has yet to be released by the department.

We wonder why that would be? Perhaps because the new laws on flexible work that took effect in 2008 were originally opposed by National and the Hon Kate Wilkinson, and were the result of a private members bill from Green MP Sue Kedgley.

The Labour Department report, released to the Listener, probed the impact of the 2008 law change under which employees who had care-giving responsibilities gained the legal right to ask their employers for arrangements such as part-time work, flexible start or finish times or working from home. The research surveyed 1800 employers and 1000 workers by telephone in 2010.

The Labour Department found that 42% of workers had asked for flexible work in their current roles, and 94% had been approved. Of staff who had asked for flexible work, one-third were men and two-thirds were women. Only half of the requests related to caring responsibilities.

Overall, 70% of employers report having some or all of their employees working flexibly, with the remaining 30% of employers reported that they did not have any employees working flexibly. Larger employers were much more likely to have none or only a small proportion of staff working flexibly, and small firms were much more likely to have all staff working flexibly.

Three-quarters of employers who had staff working flexibly said they incurred no costs as a result, and 87% of employers said flexible work had a positive impact on their workplace. Employers said they offered flexible work options for reasons such as  improving productivity, staff retention and recruitment and morale.

The survey found three-quarters of employers and employees supported all workers being eligible to make flexible work requests, not just those with caring responsibilities.