Parents of children aged 16 or under, or disabled children under the age of eighteen (Working parents), have the right to apply to their employer to work more flexibly if they have:

• worked for their employer for 26 weeks continuously at the date that the application is made
• not have made another application to work flexibly under the right during the past 12 months

The request can cover hours of work, times of work and place of work and may include requests for different patterns of work.

You must make the request in writing and your employer has a statutory duty to consider the request seriously and to refuse it only if there are clear business grounds for doing so. When you make your application you have the right to be accompanied at the meeting by a fellow employee.

The 2007 Work and Families Act also introduced a new right for carers of adults to request to work flexibly. A 'carer' is defined as an employee who is or expects to be caring for an adult who:

• is married to, or the partner or civil partner of the employee; or
• is a near relative of the employee; or
• falls into neither category but lives at the same address as the employee.

The 'near relative' definition includes parents, parent-in-law, adult child, adopted adult child, siblings (including those who are in-laws), uncles, aunts or grandparents and step-relatives.

Continuous shift systems provide cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Non-continuous shift systems cover less than the total hours in a week, eg five 24-hour periods in seven days or 12 hours out of 24.

Parents of children aged 16 or under, or disabled children under the age of eighteen (Working parents), have the right to apply to you to work more flexibly if they have:

• worked for their employer for 26 weeks continuously at the date that the application is made
• not have made another application to work flexibly under the right during the past 12 months

The request can cover hours of work, times of work and place of work and may include requests for different patterns of work.

The request must be made in writing and you have a statutory duty to consider the request seriously and to refuse it only if there are clear business grounds for doing so. Employees making applications for flexible working have the right to be accompanied at the meeting by a fellow employee.

The 2007 Work and Families Act also introduced a new right for carers of adults to request to work flexibly. A 'carer' is defined as employee who is or expects to be caring for an adult who:

• is married to, or the partner or civil partner of the employee
• is a near relative of the employee
• falls into neither category but lives at the same address as the employee

The 'near relative' definition includes parents, parent-in-law, adult child, adopted adult child, siblings (including those who are in-laws), uncles, aunts or grandparents and step-relatives.

The downsides are that shiftwork increases your wage and labour costs and can disrupt your employee's social and domestic lives. It can also upset their body rhythms and cause them to lose sleep. To help you analyse the link between shift patterns and employee fatigue the Health and Safety Executive has produced a risk index. (opens in a new window)