There exists a right to request time off for training or study, for employees in England, Wales and Scotland, who work for employers who have 250+ employees.
Information about this right from Gov.uk is here.
Certain employees have this right. To be eligible to apply you must:
- Be an employee (not an agency worker or self-employed) in England, Scotland or Wales
- Have worked with your employer continuously for 26 weeks at the date you apply for time off
- Only apply for time off for training or study once in every 12 months (although your employer can consider more frequent requests they have no statutory obligation to do so)
- Work for an organisation with 250+ employees.
The (legal) request for time off must be for training or study
- That has the purpose of improving your effectiveness in your employer’s business, or
- Improving the performance of your employers’ business.
The training or study can be provided by your employer or by an external provider and can take place at any time and can be supervised or unsupervised. The training or study does not need to lead to a qualification.
The request must be made in writing, including details of the subject matter of the training, where and when it will take place, who will provide it and if it’ll lead to any qualification. Your employer has a legal duty to consider your request seriously, but your request can be refused if there are clear business reasons why they can’t accommodate your desired work pattern.
Your request can be refused if:
- The proposed study or training wouldn’t improve your effectiveness or the performance of the employer’s business
- Additional costs will be incurred
- It’ll have a detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand or quality or performance
- There’s an inability to re-organise work among existing staff or recruit additional staff will be required
- There is insufficient work during the period the employee proposes to work
- It’s incompatible with planned structural changes.
More information
After you’ve made a request, your employer needs to meet with you within 28 days (unless they agree to your request without needing a meeting). You can be accompanied to the meeting by a work colleague.
After the meeting, your employer needs to let you know their decision, in writing, within 14 days. If they refuse your request they need to explain why (from the reasons above) and notify you of your right to appeal. If they agree, your employer needs to confirm in writing the details and set out any changes to your working hours.
If you’re unhappy with your employer’s decision you can appeal against it, within 14 days of receipt of the decision. An appeal meeting must be held and the employer must notify you of the appeal decision, in writing, within 14 days of the meeting.
If your request is refused again at appeal – your employer should write to you to explain the grounds and reasons for refusal – you should discuss the matter informally and/or contact your Trade Union official if you’re a member and/or use your employer’s grievance procedure, before finally complaining to an Employment Tribunal.
You can bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal:
- If your employer fails to follow procedural requirements
- If the refusal was based on incorrect facts
- With a complaint in relation to the reason for the refusal – but only after an appeal has been heard.
If a tribunal upholds your claim it can order an employer to reconsider the request and can make an award to you of compensation of up to eight weeks pay (subject to the statutory limits of a weeks pay).