A blank calendar on the month of January. Workers given the Right to request a predictable working pattern will have the opportunity to better plan ahead in their lives.

A proposal to give British workers and employees a statutory right to request a predictable working pattern is being backed The Government, making it likely to become law.

The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Bill is designed to address the “one-sided flexibility” often present for staff on zero hour or variable contracts, who must often wait for their employer to confirm the hours they will be working in the week(s) ahead.

Under the bill, if a worker’s existing working pattern lacks certainty in terms of the hours they work, the times they work or if it is a fixed term contract of less than 12 months, they will be able to make a formal application to change their working pattern to make it more predictable.

This is likely to have the largest impact on workers and companies in industries where shift patterns vary frequently with rotas and ‘casual work’ is the norm, such as hospitality and retail businesses.

What will this look like in practice?

Once passed into law, the right to request predictable working patterns would be made available to all workers and employees, including agency workers, once they have worked with their employer for a period of time – currently expected to be 26 weeks.

Given that this proposal is designed to support those with unpredictable contracts, staff will not have had to have worked continuously for that 26 week period.

Just as with flexible working requests, employers will have the right to refuse a request for a predictable working pattern on certain grounds, such as the burden of additional costs, insufficient work at times when the employee proposes to work, and more. Workers will be limited to making 2 requests a year.

Change afoot for workers’ rights in Parliament

This bill comes on the heels of several other proposals currently progressing through parliament which we have covered. These are:

Find out more about the proposal to give workers a statutory right to request a predictable working pattern here.

Our experienced HR team can provide a safe pair of hands for managing your employees working patterns, dealing with disciplinaries or absence management, implementing HR policies, recruitment and retention and much more. Get in touch for a free consultation or find out more on our website.