Fergal Dowling, partner and Head of Employment law at the
Midlands' offices of law firm Irwin Mitchell.
A new right for employees to request time off work to study or
for training came into force on 6th April. It applies to businesses
with 250 or more employees and will be extended to all employers,
regardless of size, from 6 April 2011.
Fergal Dowling, partner and Head of Employment law at the
Midlands' offices of law firm Irwin Mitchell, said: "On the one
hand, this law could potentially have a huge impact with the
government anticipating that the new right will affect some 11
million employees in Great Britain, which could impact upon
productivity if they are off work.
"However, the legislation will not have a significant impact on
employers who are already providing employees with training.
Furthermore, employees do not have a right to be paid for the time
off so the impact on the bottom line for employers is
minimised.
"Employers are, however, required to consider all requests
seriously and may only refuse the request if they consider that one
of a number of specified business reasons apply. The employee
will have a right to bring an employment tribunal claim if the
employer fails to comply with the procedures under the new
legislation or refuses a request for a reason that does not fit in
one of the permissible grounds."
Reasons to refuse training include the cost burden, inability to
reallocate work, affect on the ability to meet customer demand, or
the employer's belief that the training would neither improve the
employee's effectiveness nor business performance.
Fergal adds: "Employees will also be protected from suffering a
detriment as a result of having made a request as any dismissal on
the grounds that an application has been made will be automatically
unfair."
The new right to time off for training means that employees with
at least 26 weeks' continuous service will be entitled to make a
request for time off. The training must be for the purpose of
improving their effectiveness at work and the performance of the
employer's business although it does not have to lead to a formal
qualification.
The right will not apply to agency workers, school age children
or young employees who qualify for the separate right to time off
for training applicable to 16-18 year olds.