FLEXIBLE working should be available for all and not just those working from home, the TUC said today after a government research group reported on remote working.

The Flexible Working Task Force is drawing up guidance, expected to be published before lockdown restrictions are due to end next month, to support the emergence of hybrid ways of working during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Taskforce co-chair Peter Cheese said that the crisis had demonstrated that people could work productively away from traditional settings, with a majority of firms reporting that home working had either improved or made no real difference to productivity.

“This is an opportunity to shift ways of working, which have barely changed for generations. It will allow more people with other life commitments to participate in work and it will improve wellbeing,” Mr Cheese argued.

But the TUC said that bosses must offer different kinds of hybrid arrangements to ensure all workers benefit, with Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development data showing nearly half of employees have not worked from home at all during the pandemic.

The union confederation warned that employers can turn down requests for flexible working under current law. TUC research in 2019 revealed that a third of applications for part-time working, job shares and flexitime arrangements were rejected.

TUC senior equality officer Sue Coe called for flexible working to be a “day one right that’s available to everyone. Workers shouldn’t have to go cap in hand to their managers to ask for it.

“Many struggle to balance their work and home lives. Allowing people more flexibility in how and when they do their work makes them happier and more productive.”