Benefit Directorate Flexible Working Hours Agreement
- Contractual Start and Finish Times -
Paragraph 2.5 of the BD FWH Agreement states "An employee cannot be required to come in earlier or stay later than their contractual start or finish times. However, an employee may choose to do so where there is work available to be completed, in agreement with their line manager."
An employee's contractual start or finish times will be as stated in their contract, or in their agreement using the Working Pattern Agreement Template or in the case of original standard contacts for full time employees, as used in DSS and DWP, which did not state specific start and finish times, be within the terms of the Working Patterns Glossary of Terms definition of a "Standard Working Week" which is "36/37 net weekly hours worked in a standard pattern between the hours of 08.00 - 17.00 Monday to Friday."
However, employees recruited over the last 10 years may have been employed on a contract for a "Non-Standard Working Week" which is defined as "weekly contracted hours worked in a standard pattern over a maximum of any 5 days (including Saturday and/or Sunday) within the service day of individual businesses." Some employees may therefore have a contract which supports a management requirement to work to 19.00. The problem DWP appears to have is that they cannot, using their own records, simply produce a list of who these staff are.
Most full time employee's are not employed under the terms of a "Non Standard Working Week" contract so the standard working pattern for full-time employees, to which most employees default if flexi time is suspended, would be:
- Monday to Friday, 08.36 – 17.00 or 08.00 – 16.24 (National); or
- Monday to Friday, 08.48 – 17.00 or 08.00 – 16.12 (London Pay Zones).
