KEY POINTS:
A Wellington bank officer expects to be the first person to apply for flexible working hours when a controversial new law takes effect today.
The 43-year-old loans processing officer, who cannot speak to the media under the rules of his employer, the Bank of New Zealand, has had a pilot period working Mondays to Thursdays so he can share childcare with his wife, a nurse who works Fridays to Sundays.
But Andrew Campbell of the financial sector union Finsec said that when the pilot ended the bank told him to go back to a five-day week, despite the new flexible working hours law.
The new law, introduced by Green MP Sue Kedgley but taken up by the Labour Government, allows all employees with caring responsibilities who have worked for the same employer for at least six months to request flexible working arrangements from today.
Employers must respond within three months, either granting the request or specifying reasons they cannot agree - such as their inability to reorganise work by other staff or to recruit extra staff to cope.
The law was opposed by business groups and the National Party, but David Lowe of the Employers and Manufacturers Association (Northern) said yesterday that there had been little interest from employers in attending training sessions on the change.
"Workplace flexibility has long been a key issue for us, so what's changed?"
Mr Campbell said the BNZ's insistence that its employee had to work his 37.5 hours a week over five days instead of four would leave the man and his wife "significantly out of pocket" because of the need to pay for childcare on Fridays for their children aged 5 and 2.
"What he's been doing on Fridays is dropping his son at school, taking the other child to Playcentre, taking them to swimming lessons, putting them to bed, spending time with his wife," Mr Campbell said.
"For a company that made $300 million profit for the first six months of this year to say that they can't introduce some degree of flexibility, we think is pretty outrageous."
But the BNZ's general manager of people and corporate relations, Bridget O'Shannessey, said the bank had offered the man a compromise in the form of other options for more flexible work.
She said the bank was actually "passionate" about flexible working and that was why it introduced the pilot scheme last October. The pilot would be extended to all 6000 BNZ employees from tomorrow.
"Flexible working is about making sure we are able to provide our customers with a service everywhere and at every time of the day, and that we are able to provide our staff with a really good work life," she said.
"It's about making sure that both of those things meet. It's got to be a compromise."
Ms O'Shannessey said other options included working from a branch closer to home, providing parenting rooms in new facilities such as the new head office building under construction in Auckland, and more flexible leave.
The bank had allowed unlimited sick leave for the past three or four years, plus up to 10 days of domestic leave a year to care for people at home, and two days a year for community volunteer work.
"Our sick leave has actually reduced since we introduced unlimited sick leave. We don't get anyone trying to take advantage of it."
A Wellington lawyer, Susan Hornsby-Geluk, said the new law was "toothless" because it did not give employees any legal right to challenge an employer's reasons for not granting a request.
"The ability of an employee to challenge an employer's non-compliance is limited to failing to follow the process - responding within three months and giving the reasons why."
But she said that in Britain, which passed a similar law five years ago, 90 per cent of requests for more flexibility had been granted.
www.dol.govt.nz/worklife
FLEXIBILITY: WHAT EMPLOYERS SAY
Fonterra spokeswoman: "Fonterra has had a work-life-balance policy in place for a number of years now, allowing employees to request flexible working conditions including working from home, reduced hours and job sharing."
Telecom spokesman Ian Bonnar: "Telecom has supported flexible working practices for many years, and we have more than 600 employees with formal flexi working practices in place and thousands more who take advantage of our flexible start and finish times ... so nothing is going to change for us as a result of the act."
Progressive Enterprises general manager of human resources Catherine Flynn (Foodtown, Countdown, Woolworths): "The retail industry operates in a 24/7 context and therefore store managers are constantly managing flexibility to meet changing needs of the business and changing needs of our people."
Foodstuffs general manager of strategy Rob Chemaly (New World, Pak'n Save, Four Square): "It shouldn't affect us greatly at all because the stores are open for long hours and staff work relatively flexible hours anyway."
TVNZ spokeswoman Megan Richards: "We've had a handful of inquiries. The issue of flexible work is very definitely on our agenda because we see it as an integral part of attracting and retaining talented people."
Auckland District Health Board spokesman: "We prepared a training session and did that four times to about 70-80 managers so there is a consistent approach to how [the new law] is going to be managed. Application forms are going up on our intranet today."
NZ School Trustees Association general manager Ray Newport: "The effect in schools will be pretty small given that teachers need to front up to a class."
Hudson Recruitment human resources manager Roz Urbahn: "We have run workshops with our managers. We are already doing a lot, so this legislation really wraps it up quite nicely for employees to understand what may be available."
