Amazon launches term-time contracts - could other businesses in the UK do the same?

Workers who care for children will be familiar with the scramble to book time off to coincide with school holidays when many of their colleagues are trying to do the same.

Online marketplace Amazon recently announced it was allowing workers to opt for a contract whereby they would work during term time only.

Every worker in the UK has the right to request flexible working - not just parents and carers - after they have worked for the same employer for at least 26 weeks.

An employer has to respond to the request in a "reasonable manner" and can only refuse the application if they have a good business reason.

But Amazon's move is slightly different in that a worker doesn't have to go through these steps, and they don't have to be employed for a certain amount of time before they benefit from the new working pattern - they can have it from the moment they start work because it's in their contract.

Sky News has now looked at whether other companies were already doing this or if they thought it was an idea that could work for them.

Financial services company Hargreaves Lansdown said: "We don't currently offer this but would be open to exploring how it would fit in with our people and business priorities.

"Naturally, school holiday periods see colleagues with children take the majority of their annual leave and, therefore, we would need to continue to ensure we had sufficient cover across the business during these times.

"As the UK's largest savings and investment provider, the tax year end period - broadly March into mid-April - is our busiest time, and the timing of the Easter break can already create problems with holiday planning."

Retailer Marks & Spencer told us that it offers term-time working as a flexible working option, adding: "While not a specific 'term time contract', colleagues can use a combination of holiday and unpaid leave to create shift patterns that work around their family commitments."

Professional services firm Deloitte said it is "committed to supporting greater agility around how and when our people work" and that it offers "various informal and formal flexible working arrangements, which can include working at certain points in the year".

It said it considers requests for term-time working.

At Rolls-Royce, there are flexible working arrangements available but a spokesperson did not mention a term-time-only contract as an option.

Virgin Media said a term-time-only contract "is not something we've looked at" but that they have "similar" flexible options for employees.

John Lewis also don't offer term-time only contracts and did not outline plans implement them when contacted by Sky News. A spokesperson said they have a "flexible first" policy where job vacancies are advertised as flexible unless not operationally possible.

"We consider all requests from partners to work flexibly, as flexible working gives our partners freedom over their work life and helps us to retain talented people in our business," a spokesperson said.

Sky News also asked HSBC, Barclays, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Severn Trent, Atom bank, Imperial Brands, Next, PwC, Royal Mail and Serco - but they either did not respond or declined to comment.

At Amazon, the term-time contracts are aimed at parents, grandparents and guardians of school-aged children, and they guarantee time off for the six-week summer break, as well as the two-week Easter and Christmas holiday periods.

Amazon said this option does not affect the employee's benefits and was trialled at three sites before being brought in across all of the company's fulfilment centres - where items are stored, picked and packed for sale.

The contract will also be offered at sorting centres and delivery stations across the UK later this year.

-sky news