Employment Rights - Consultation on time off for training

Written by Ian Congreave - Filed under: Time off (paid and unpaid) on October 13th, 2008

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The Scottish Government has followed the lead of the UK Government and the Welsh Assembly and, on 28 September 2008, published a consultation document on the proposal to introduce a right for employees in the public and private sectors to request time off to train.

The key points of the proposals are:

employees must have worked for their employer for a minimum of 26 weeks
the training must be linked to helping employees be more productive and effective at work and to helping improve the performance of the business for which they work
employers would have a duty to consider any request but there would be no compulsion on employers to pay for training or to grant every request
employers would have the right to turn down requests based on clear business grounds and employees would have the right to appeal.
the training would not be bound to qualifications nor to any specific time or location – they would be matters for discussion and agreement between the employer and employee
requests would be limited to one in every twelve-month period but could cover more than one type or course of training.

National employment law already provides the right to paid time off for study or training for young people under age 18 who have finished full time secondary or further education but have not yet achieved a prescribed level of achievement, e.g. grades A* to C in five GCSE subjects.

Further information:
Consulting on a new right to request time to train for employees in England
Consultation on the Right to Request Time to Train for Employees in Wales
Ymgynghoriad ar yr Hawl i Ofyn am Amser i Hyfforddi i Weithwyr yng Nghymru
Consultation on the Right to Request Time to Train for Employees in Scotland

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Written by Ian Congreave -

Filed under: Time off (paid and unpaid) on October 13th, 2008