Craig Ludlow speaks on flexible working at successful Acas conference

13th May 2022

3PB's Head of Employment and Discrimination Law Team, Craig Ludlow,Craig LudlowCall: 2002 pictured here, joined Acas and other guest speakers at the Acas conference to discuss key legal considerations for flexible work requests.

A recent Acas survey found that half of employers in Great Britain expected an increase in demand for flexible forms of working from employees, including hybrid options.

However, there is growing evidence to suggest that there remains a significant mismatch between employees' preferences towards different types of flexible working and employers' offerings, leading to various degrees of costly workplace conflict.

The benefits of flexible working are often seen as "all pro-employee" when there are actual real business benefits too.

Discussions included key legal considerations for flexible work requests including potential unintended consequences (positives and challenges), relevant case law and Acas conciliation.

Craig was presenting and discussing the issues alongside:

Susan Clews, Acas: Chief Executive - Susan will reflect on how the pandemic has greatly impacted working life, the shift towards flexible working, including hybrid working. Susan will discuss how Acas has worked with the Flexible Working Task Force to develop guidance for employers in navigating the challenges, issues, and opportunities for these dynamic ways of working.

Matilda Quiney, TUC: Head of Management Services and Administration - Matilda will discuss how making genuine flexible working the default, could be an important catalyst for promoting greater workplace equality.

Stephanie Elton, HS2: Senior Employee Relations Manager, Case Study - Stephanie will talk through the HS2 journey to develop an automated flexible work request dashboard tool, scalable for any business size. The tool is designed to support line managers with objective and evidence-based discussions aiming to arrive at a fair, lawfully compliant decision for formal flexible work requests.

Maggie Steven, Acas: Senior Advisor - A pragmatic session where Maggie will discuss several practical toolkits and other resources available to support workplaces, whether a large or SME organisation and the importance of linking flexible work requests to other policies.