New rules regarding employee requests for flexible working are due to come into force on April 1st next year, it has been announced.
According to Bytestart, under new legislation parents with children aged between six and 16 will have the right to make applications to flexible hours.
This is in contrast to the current rules which state that only carers of adults, parents with under-six-year-olds or those with disabled children under the age of 18 can apply.
Approximately 4.5 million people will be able to apply when the new law comes into force.
Richard Gill, director of operations for the East Midlands Regional Business Link service, said on Bytestart that "employees should be offered as much flexibility as possible and doing so will be beneficial as staff are more likely to be loyal".
A new report called Legal Lives has been published this week which claims that flexible working is better than the traditional long hours spent working at desks, according to the Times.
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