New training time employment law ‘a mystery’ to some employers

Posted 04/03/2010

UK businesses have been warned that they must be ready for a new employment law regarding training that is set to come into effect in spring 2010.

As of April 6th this year, employees who have worked for a company for longer than 26 weeks will be able to request time off for training or study, as long as it will be a benefit to their current work in the long-term.

However, research carried out for XpertHR and cited by Personnel Today showed that a fifth of employers are unaware of this.

Although XpertHR warned companies that they need to be aware of the changes, Charlotte Wolff said it should not affect most firms too much.

“Employers will be able to get round this by demonstrating a good business reason for refusal,” she pointed out.

Similar to the current flexible working time requests arrangement, the new training requests must be considered by employers, but can be refused if it can be shown that time off would damage the business.

Managers must meet with employees who submit such requests within 28 days.