From 6 April employers with 250 or more employees now have a legal obligation to give serious consideration to requests from employees who want to take time off work to undertake study or training. The obligation will be extended to all organisations, regardless of size, from April 2011.

The new legislation mirrors that which currently provides employees with the right to request flexible working. There is the obligation to seriously consider the employee’s request but no absolute obligation to agree to it. Just as with flexible work, if there is ‘a good business reason’ for doing so an employer will still be able to say no.

The business grounds for refusing appear similar to those that apply to flexible work requests. The refusal could be on grounds that there will be staffing problems as additional staff cannot be recruited, existing staff cannot reorganise and there would be a detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand or a detrimental impact on quality or performance.

It could be that the employee wants to reorganise hours to attend a course and there is insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work. Similarly it may be down to the fact that there are planned structural changes within the business.

In particular the request can be refused on the grounds that the proposed study or training would not improve the employee’s effectiveness in the business or its performance.

The burden of additional costs is also a valid reason for refusing a request. However the new obligations do not include any provision for the employer to meet the cost of the course or to provide the employee with paid time off.

The similarities don’t stop there either. The same eligibility requirements apply. The employee has to have at least six months service and not have made a similar request in the previous twelve months. There is also the same prescribed procedure that has to be followed when making or responding to a request.

The employee has to make the application in writing and the employer must either agree to it or hold a meeting with the employee within twenty eight days. There are further time limits for sending written notification of the decision, providing for an appeal, a further hearing and a final decision. 

These procedural requirements appear to be the main pitfall for employers as there is a wide scope to reject the request and unlike the flexible work regulations there would not be the obvious threat of a sex discrimination complaint.