Employment law SOS: requests for time off work

Enhancing your workforce's skill base is a proven way to increase productivity. Those employers who invest time and money developing a structured training programme consistently outperform those who don't actively address the issue. Notwithstanding the proven advantages for employers of workers 'up skilling', those employees working in businesses of 250-plus employees, who have 26 weeks or more continuous employment, have a legal right to request time off work to undertake relevant training. Employers are obliged to consider such statutory requests seriously, but it is important to remember that the statutory right is to request time off to train, not to take this time off. Employers can refuse a request if they have a legitimate business reason for doing so. The key requirement for an employee seeking to exercise their statutory right is to demonstrate that the proposed training is 'relevant' – ie, that it will help improve the performance and effectiveness of their employer's business. A statutory request must be made in writing and, once received, should be dealt with in the same manner as is currently the case for considering statutory requests for flexible working, including following a prescriptive statutory timetable of meetings to consider the request and offering an appeal against a refusal. Employees do not have to be paid for time off work to undertake training. However, employers may be willing to continue to pay an employee and possibly pay for, or subsidise, the costs of the training if they see it as being of particular value. If you are particularly stretched, you can seek to agree that an employee work flexibly for a time in order to minimise the impact of agreeing their request.