Johannesburg - Flexible working in South Africa is more common than was previously thought, although there has been no empirical investigation into the practice, according to a labour law specialist.
It is now more prevalent with corporates in Sandton in Johannesburg.
A system of flexible working hours or flexitime gives employees some choice over the actual times they work their contracted hours.
Flexitime allows employees to vary their start and finish times around predetermined core hours or work their standard hours in fewer than five days by varying the length of each workday. Most of the employees who opt for flexitime do so because they have child-care responsibilities.
Aadil Patel, a director and head of employment practice at law firm Cliffe Dekker Hofmeyr, said yesterday that a number of corporates in Sandton had already introduced flexitime and others were considering it.
He said flexitime was most prevalent in the banking industry. Traffic congestion in and around Sandton was the motivating factor, Patel said.
“Other corporates have introduced it to optimise office space or to alleviate parking constraints,” he said.
Patel said the off-peak discount offered by the Gautrain would encourage firms to embrace flexitime.
From this year, the UK proposes to extend flexitime to all employees in an effort to promote economic growth through a strong and efficient labour market, following a consultation exercise in 2011.
Flexible working in the UK was brought into force in 2003.
Moneyweb reported in January that some of the corporates in Sandton that have embraced flexitime include law firm Norton Rose Fulbright, Discovery Health, EY Africa and Nedbank.
Research released by Regus yesterday confirms that mindsets are rapidly changing as 83 percent of South African firms believe companies that will not employ women who are returning from maternity leave are missing out. - Business Report