Flexitime is where an organisation offers its employees the opportunity of availing of a flexible working hours arrangement. A Flexitime system is designed to offer employees more flexibility in the workplace by giving them the flexibility to start and finish work at times that suit their transport arrangements, family responsibilities etc.
Essentially, an organisation will agree on standard or core working hours that must be worked by employees as well as flexible working hours where employees can come and go as they please, subject to organisational demands. Most companies will operate a system similar to the one below:
Pre-Flexi arrival – 04.00 to 07.00
Flexi arrival – 07.00 to 10.00
Core time a.m. – 10.00 to 12.30
Flexi lunch – 12.30 to 14.30 (min 30 min/max 2 h)
Core time p.m. – 14.30 to 16.00
Flexi leave – 16.00 to 18.30
An employee is obliged to work between the basic core hours and has the flexibility to clock in/out between the other hours. The idea is that employees have a bank of hours that are credited or debited to the employer over an accounting period of say, four weeks. In most organisations where Flexitime is in place, employees can work a debit or credit of hours which will be
(a) worked in the following month in the case of a debit or
(b) be taken as Flexi leave (in the following month) in the case of a credit or be allocated as overtime if a such policy exists.
