In the past, it has been very difficult to maintain a work-life balance. However, recently employees been given more rights enabling them to request flexible working arrangements. This can include part-time working, job-sharing, annualized hours as well as others. The rationalization behind this is that it increases an employee’s productivity and allows companies to “retain talent during times of recession.” The article focuses on laws in Italy, UK, US, Germany and France. For more information please contact the authors, who are all Ius Laboris members: Emanuela Nespoli is a partner at Italian law firm, Toffoletto De Luca Tamajo e Soci; Lucy Lewis is a partner at UK law firm, Lewis Silkin; Matthew Gilley is a partner at US law firm, Ford Harrison; Gerald Wiedebusch is an attorney at German law firm, Kleimt & Vollstädt. Jean-Baptiste Chavialle is senior associate at French firm, Capstan

1. How flexible working
arrangements vary around the
globe
On 1 May 2015 in Family-friendly working
International governments are offering employees
increasing rights to request flexible working arrangements,
as organisations see that family and work can complement,
rather than compete with, each other. However, the law and
good practice vary around the world.
Companies have discovered that flexible working solutions,
such as part-time work, job-sharing, home working, compressed
hours, flexitime, annualised hours, staggered hours and phased
retirement, may boost productivity and allow them to retain
talent during times of recession. However, attitudes towards
flexible work are widespread and are still evolving in many
countries in different ways.
In June 2014, the UK Government introduced the right to
request flexible working to all employees with at least 26 weeks’
service.
With the aim of creating a “modern workplace”, it removed the
parental/caring requirement and moved the discussion away
from the reasons why employees need to work flexibly onto how
flexible working will work for businesses.
The process for requesting flexible arrangements has been
simplified, but employees still continue to have only “a right to

2. ask”, and employers can refuse a request if they are able to
demonstrate that it will not work within their organisation.
Subject to meeting certain qualifying conditions, parents with
children due (or placed for adoption) on or after 5 April 2015 are
able to take advantage of the new Shared Parental Leave
Regulations. The system is complicated, but, essentially, a
mother will be able to choose to share most of her maternity
leave and pay with her partner or the child’s father. The main
changes from the current additional paternity leave scheme are
that:
 Both parents can be off at the same time (i.e. both on shared
parental leave or the mother on maternity leave and the partner
on shared parental leave); and
 The leave can be taken discontinuously (i.e. it does not need to
be taken in a single block, although it does need to be taken one
week at a time).
US
Business necessity and legal compliance are the main drivers
for flexible working arrangements in the US, where a
comprehensive national programme addressing flexible working
arrangements does not exist.
The need to retain and attract good employees with family
obligations, and the need to reasonably accommodate qualified
employees with a disability in order to comply with the legal
requirements, are common catalysts for flexible working
arrangements.
Because the statutes and circumstances that commonly lead
employers and employees to consider flexible working
arrangements in the US are fact-specific, working arrangements
there are like snowflakes – no two are the same. One common
option (often the archetype) is working from home, especially
when the employee has family care responsibilities or a
temporary disability that renders commuting difficult.
Another option often used is adjusted work hours; for instance,
an employee may be allowed to arrive at work early in the
morning and leave earlier in the afternoon (or vice versa).
On occasion, the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and its
associated regulatory interpretations may compel employers to
adjust work schedules for employees with a serious health
condition in certain “intermittent leave” circumstances, although
FMLA does not require this leave to be paid.
Finally, all employers in the US should be aware of the robust
protections afforded to employees with military service
obligations pursuant to the Uniformed Services Employment
and Re-Employment Rights Act (USERRA).

3. Italy
Like the UK, Italy is in the process of increasing flexible working
arrangements to tackle high unemployment rates and make the
job market more dynamic and attractive. At the same time, its
Government wants to improve work-life balance for employees.
Provisions for flexible working have been provided in law and in
national collective agreements for some time, with part-time
working being the most popular. The provisions mainly
target parents and people with recognised medical conditions,
or those who need to assist relatives with severe health
problems.
Reforms to be enacted in 2015 will introduce important
experimental provisions aimed at giving more maternity
protection and increasing work-life balance for employees.
Mothers will be able to make up the days of maternity leave lost
due to premature childbirth, even when this exceeds the
compulsory period of five months of maternity leave provided by
law. Mothers may also suspend and reactivate their maternity
leave in the event of the hospitalisation of their child.
In addition, the period during which parents can share parental
leave of 10 months has been increased from eight to 12 years.
The period in which parents receive payment of 30% of their
salary during paternity leave has also been extended from when
the child is aged three to when the child is six.
It is also possible that employees will be able to request that an
employer changes their employment contract from full time to
part-time for the duration of parental leave. Adoptive and foster
parents could be granted almost the same rights as natural
parents.
Also within the framework of offering a better work-life balance,
changes are planned in relation to telework, which up until now
has not been covered by law, but regulated by special
agreements and provisions of national collective bargaining
agreements. The reform aims to incentivise the use of telework
by employers, and plans to exclude teleworkers from the quota
of employees used as reference for the application of some laws
that imply greater restrictions on larger companies (for example,
regulations on individual and collective dismissals).
Another innovation planned is the introduction of three months
fully paid leave to be used over a period of three years for
women who are victims of abuse, and are participating in
protection programmes against gender violence.
Germany
In Germany, there is no special government programme
providing flexible working arrangements, even though there has
been growth in flexible working and numerous statutory
provisions offering flexible working models.

4. Those who have been employed for more than six months in
organisations with more than 15 staff may request a reduction
of working time, but the employer can deny the request on
operational grounds. In addition, employees in companies with
more than 15 staff with newborn children may take a break from
work for up to three years. Employees who provide nursing care
for family members may take a break for up to six months.
Larger companies offer a wide variety of flexible working time
options, for example flexi-time, working hours based on trust
between the employer and employee, on-call working or
annualised hours working, often regulated by collective or
collective agreements.
However, for flexible and individual non-conventional working
arrangements such as home working, job sharing, sabbaticals
or phased retirement, a consensual agreement between
employee and employer is needed.
France
Flexible working arrangements have been offered for a long
time in France, but recent legislation introduced a new concept
of flexibility. This was not only for the benefit of the employees,
but also to allow businesses to adapt to change.
The importance of maintaining a good work-life balance has
been recognised by French law for many years, but now the
Government is considering provisions for employers’ needs for
flexibility. In particular, recent laws facilitate the use of short-
term work in order to avoid redundancies and the annualisation
of working time to avoid overtime payments in periods of high
activity.
Employers must be cautious when considering such
arrangements, because tracking and compensating the time of
an employee working flexibly can be difficult and because
business licence requirements in various cities, counties, and
states may require some form of registration for employees
working from home.
Conclusion
The overview above shows that, despite different legislation
regimes, flexible working arrangements are becoming more
established internationally. This is due to the realisation that
flexible solutions are no longer an exclusive need of employees
but also of employers. The latter are, in fact, finding ways to
exploit this kind of flexibility, while governments are providing
regulatory recognition of the existence of such flexible solutions
by introducing substantial reforms in order to allow a better
work-life balance.
Both businesses and HR departments need to analyse these
new solutions and assess the benefit to the organisation, as well
as the need to promote a better work-life balance for employees.

5. Authors: Emanuela Nespoli is a partner at Italian law firm,
Toffoletto De Luca Tamajo e Soci; Lucy Lewis is a partner at UK
law firm, Lewis Silkin; Matthew Gilley is a partner at US law firm,
Ford Harrison; Gerald Wiedebusch is an attorney at German law
firm, Kleimt & Vollstädt; and Jean-Baptiste Chavialle is senior
associate at French firm, Capstan. All firms are members of
global HR and employment law firm alliance, Ius Laboris
This article was originally published in Personnel Today. The
online version can be found here.