Study and training rights: what are they?

A legal right to request (not to have) study or training is given to certain employees. The right only applies to businesses who employee 250 or more people. Furthermore, the training in question needs to relate both to the employee’s own effectiveness, and the performance of the business itself.

The request for study or training needs to be made in a certain format, and needs to be responded to within a set timeframe by the company, usually after having had a meeting.

The reasons a company may have/give for turning down an application are limited to the required reasons for turning down a flexible working request e.g. burden of additional costs, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, inability to reorganise work among existing staff, detrimental impact on quality or performance, etc.

The process to be followed is very similar to the statutory process around requests for flexible working.


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