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Active participation of staff and staff
representatives is vital for the introduction of new working practices. In
many if not most organisations this means input from trades unions.
Change often generates wariness about
what is involved for staff: mostly it is feared it will mean doing more
for less. And in some quarters, flexibility (not our website, I hasten to
add) has a bad name and is associated with insecurity
and exploitation.
But whatever the hopes and fears may
be, there is a welter of practical detail involved which needs
consultation, negotiation and agreement.
IPMS, the Institution of Professionals,
Managers and Specialists, has for some time offered guidance on both home
working and working time. Here we take a brief look at their guides.
IPMS Homeworkers' Guide
The focus in this guidance is primarily
on telework, as the membership are involved in professional occupations,
rather than traditional home-working occupations such as sewing or
stuffing envelopes.
The guide covers:
It also includes useful check-lists,
e.g. on home safety and advice about working away from the office. It also
includes sample agreements from organisations where employers and the
union have negotiated one.
The Negotiators Guide
to
Working Time
 For
many organisations the implantation of the EU Working Time Directive
raised a host of issues about working practices - in particular about the
numbers of hours worked and entitlement to breaks and holidays.
This guide from the IPMS deals with these issues, but also
goes further addresses the much wider field of working time issues.
In this guide you'll find advice on
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family-friendly employment practices
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alternative working patterns, such as part-time working,
job-share, flexitime, compressed working weeks, term-time working, etc
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parental leave and career breaks
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making time for training.
Throughout the guide there are "Negotiator's
checklists" for reference. The emphasis is of course on employee's
rights. But following the guidance here is also of value to employers for
setting up sound and durable flexible working schemes which achieve the
support of their employees.
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In a recent article we took issue to a large extent with the
negativity of a TUC report on flexible working.
Flexible work, like any area of workplace innovation and
working practice, is a legitimate area for trades union involvement.
Here we briefly feature two guides from IPMS, the union for
professionals, managers and specialist.
For further details, contact the IPMS,
or telephone +44 (0)207 902 6633 |
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