Flexitime is informal. It does not change your contractual working time or hours but is intended to give flexibility to allow you to manage your hours in a way that can help you without impacting the overall service.
There are some general principles to flexi time below however, depending on your service area, your personal circumstances, or the job that you do, there may be varying degrees of discretion as to how these are interpreted.
Not all services are entitled to flexi-time. Your contract will stipulate whether you are entitled to use the scheme or not.
UPDATE: With effect from Monday 29th August 2022 the flexi-time clock has been ‘retired’. Please see here for further details. Therefore all references to using the flexi-time clock will shortly be removed. Please note there is no change to flexi-time itself and you may continue to take it in agreement with your manager (if eligible).
If you would like to continue to record your working time using spreadsheets you are welcome to do so. Additionally/alternatively your manager may continue to require it for specific reasons. Please speak to them if you are unsure of the position regarding your service.
General Principles:
- Flexi is not a right and cannot therefore be booked months in advance. Generally flexi-leave should only be booked within the current and next accounting period, so if you need to take a specific day off, you should request annual leave first, converting this later to flexi if appropriate.
- Many organisations do not provide flexi-time but expect employees to input the hours required to complete their roles. Flexi-time should only therefore be regarded as a way to re-coup some additional hours from time to time, when the demands of your role facilitate this. It is not expected to be viewed as a time limit, facilitating a work to rule mentality.
- The flexible hours bandwidth is therefore Monday – Friday 07:00 -19:00.
- If you work before 07:00 or after 19:00 weekdays, or any time at the weekend, these hours cannot recorded through our systems.
- Although it is not anticipated that you should need to do significant, ongoing additional hours beyond your contractual ones, there may be times, where keeping in touch or working outside normal hours is necessary or may avert situations which could save you (your team, or the wider organisation) time overall.
- Your manager is expected to discuss your hours with you regularly. This is one of the reasons why we encourage you to record your hours, to discuss them at least monthly with your manager, and to check you are taking regular breaks.
- You should request flexi-leave via Employee Self Service
- Up to one day’s flexi-leave (or two half days) can be taken each flexi period (pro rata for part-timers)
- Flexi leave is always subject to your manager’s (prior) approval.
Flexitime Clock
- If you have flexi entitlement you need to record your hours of working that fall within the bandwidth in the flexi-system.
- You should record your working times as close to the working day as you can. Your manager will keep an eye on your hours on a regular basis as part of our duty of care towards you. He/she may ask you to print a record off.
- Sickness should be recorded on the flexi system and closed down on Employee Self Service
- Under Working Time Regulations most employees should have at least a 20 minute break every 6 hours, 11 hours rest within every 24 hour period and one rest day for each 7 days’ period (or 2 in every 14 day period). Different rules apply for younger workers.
- Travelling time on council business (in excess of normal home to office travelling time) is recorded as work time.
- Hours for which other payments are made, e.g. evening meetings, payment for training for elections, overtime etc., are not recorded on the flexi time system.
- No more than ten additional hours or seven deficit hours can be carried forward each month. This is pro rata for part time workers (the system works this out).
- You can not carry forward debit hours across more than one period. If you are in debit at the end of a period you need to make the time up so that you are not in debit at the end of the next period. Credit hours can be carried forward from period to period.
- There is no facility on the flexi time system for recording TOIL hours accrued (see TOIL section). However, you can enter onto the flexi time system when you take TOIL hours. Guidance on how to do this is in the ‘Using the Flexi Time System’.
- If a change is required to your set up on the flexi time system (e.g. because of a change in contractual hours), your Manager should notify IT who will make the necessary changes.
- If you need guidance on how to record your time, how to view the time recording of anyone in your team, or any other aspects relating to how to use the system, please refer to the Procedure document. If this does not help please contact the IT team via the helpdesk on Molly.
- Deliberate misuse of the scheme may be considered gross misconduct.