Employer not updating manual with policy changes - is this wrong?

[donttellthem]

I work for a professional firm with 120 people.

The head of staff has not updated the policies about the changes in flexible working, the carers act, and unpaid parental leave. These are significant changes.

I understand that he does not want staff to know and his attitude is that he'll wait and see if people find out. He was planning on updating the staff manual but not telling people (its on an intranet and dated when a new version is uploaded). But that hasn't happened yet, and the changes came in from 6 April this year.

I've put in a flexible working request on a form that is out of date so will see what happens.

If I my application is not handled with in line with the changes, what do I do?

And as a wider question, is this behaviour unethical, or just bad practice? I'd be interested to know how other employers deal with these updates.

If it is a statutory change then it is irrelevant if it’s in employers policies as Gov.uk sets out statutory criteria and entitlement.

Occupational is a contractual benefit on top of statutory and should be in policies. There is often a time lag in writing policies.