DTI defines "carers" for flexible working requests

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) has issued a definition of "carers" for the purposes of requesting flexible working.

The right - which currently exists only for the parents of a child under six or a disabled child under 18 - enables employees to request changes in their working patterns in order to care for the child. Their employer must "seriously consider" any such request, and can only reject it for a good "business reason", which must be one of those specified in the Employment Rights Act 1996, section 80G.

From 6 April 2007, the Work and Families Act 2006 will extend the right to carers of adults. For this purpose, a carer will be defined as "an employee who is or expects to be caring for an adult who:

* is married to, or the partner or civil partner of, the employee; or

* is a near relative of the employee; or

* falls into neither category but lives at the same address as the employee".

"Near relatives" include parents and siblings (including in-laws), adult children, uncles, aunts, grandparents and step-relatives, the DTI says.