Flexible Working Law:
What you Need to Know
All employees have a legal ‘right to request’ flexible working. Employers don’t have to agree to the request but if they refuse, they need to provide one or more of eight ‘permitted business reasons’. In addition, employers will soon have to prove that any refusal was also ‘reasonable’.
This page outlines workers’ existing flexible working rights and employers’ existing legal obligations, as well as setting out expected changes in the Employment Rights Bill.
Your flexible working rights
All employees, not just parents and carers, have the right to request flexible working. Since April 2024, this right has existed from ‘day one’ ie. your first day with your employer, thanks to the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023. This law applies to Scotland, England and Wales, and amends previous flexible working legislation (set out in sections 80F to 801 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Flexible Working Regulations 2014), which stated employees had to have been in post for 26 weeks before they could legally request flexible working.
Employees can make two formal requests, known as statutory requests, in any 12-month period.
Many flexible working arrangements don’t need a statutory request because they are relatively small changes that can be informally agreed with your line manager. For example, if you need a few hours off during the day for an appointment, you’d like to work from home while a tradesperson is in your house, or you’d like to make a small change to your start and finish time, a conversation with your manager may be all that’s required to get the flexibility you need.
If you want to reduce your hours, or make other significant changes to your work pattern such as working part time or from home a set day each week, you will need to make a formal statutory request.
Many flexible working arrangements don’t need a statutory request because they are relatively small changes that can be informally agreed with your line manager.
Many flexible working arrangements don’t need a statutory request because they are relatively small changes that can be informally agreed with your line manager.
How to request flexible working
Start by talking to your line manager. Even if you need to submit a formal request, it’s best to have your manager in the loop, and hopefully on your side.
To make formal request for flexible working, you need to:
Depending on any internal policy, you need to send your request to your line manager, and your employer must give you an answer within two months.
Your employer may invite you to a meeting to discuss your request. Your employer is not allowed to refuse your request without meeting with you first.
Your employer’s policies may give you the right to appeal if they refuse your request. The right to appeal is not expressly granted by law but it’s considered good practice, so most employers allow this. If you feel the decision is wrong or unfair, this should be set out in your appeal. The appeal process is part of the request and therefore the response to the appeal should fall within the two-month time frame.
An Employment Tribunal claim can only be made if your employer does not follow procedural requirements, or a rejection is based on incorrect facts.
However, the law does protect employees from being treated badly by their employer because of a flexible working request, and your employer cannot dismiss you as a result of a flexible working request.
In addition, separate legislation, the Equality Act 2010, protects employees from discrimination. This means it’s illegal for employers to refuse flexible working requests because of discriminatory opinions, such as sexism, racism, or ageism.
If you’d like more detailed information, check out our page on how to ask for flexible working.
What are employers’ legal obligations for flexible working?
Our current flexible working legislation means employers must consider formal requests for flexible working arrangements in a ‘reasonable manner’. A decision must be given within two months, and the employer must weigh up the benefits for the employee and the business of a new flexible working pattern against any potential business impact.
Employers can refuse requests. But they must provide at least one of eight permitted business reasons, such as that customer service would be negatively affected. Employers cannot refuse requests simply because they don’t like different ways of working.
Employers must also meet with employees to discuss requests in full before they are able to refuse a request. Guidance in the ACAS code of practice sets out more detail, including that the employer should give the employee reasonable notice of the meeting, and that it should be in-person where possible.
What will change from the Employment Rights Bill?
The UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill aims to give workers more rights including easier access to flexible working.
Specifically, it will change when employers can legally refuse flexible working. The existing law says employers ‘shall only refuse’ a flexible working request if one of eight permitted reasons apply, such as the burden of additional costs, or an inability to recruit extra staff. The new law proposes making flexible working the default position for all roles, which would mean the onus would be on the employer to justify why a role couldn’t be done flexibly.
The new wording is very similar. But in addition to setting out set reasons flexible working can be refused, the bill also states it must be ‘reasonable for the employer to refuse the application on those grounds’.
In practice, this means employment tribunals will gain greater powers to scrutinise employers’ decisions to refuse flexible working and assess whether decisions were ‘reasonable’.
The Government is currently creating a code of practice to help employers understand what counts as reasonable or unreasonable, which will take into account differences, such as industry sectors and employer size because these are likely to impact whether refusing a request was reasonable or not.
The bill is due to receive Royal Assent in autumn 2025. But the change on flexible working is unlikely to come into force before 2027.
Legally approved
Specialist employment lawyer, Marianne McJannett, who is Partner at Aberdein Considine, kindly checked our content so you can rest assured it’s up to date and legally accurate.
She also had this message for employers: “We have seen the benefits of flexible working rise in the past five years, with this becoming an intrinsically expected benefit of many working environments. Although we still hearof challenges around the home working/office divide, it’s important to remember that flexibility in the workplace comes in various guises, and the spirit of the legislation is to show the benefits of flexible working to both employers and employees.
“Employers should revise their policies to make sure they’re up to date, and take time to ensure that staff are trained in understanding and handling requests. Businesses should also think about the different types of flexible working that could work for them, and the benefits that flexible working can bring.”
Marianne McJannett,
Partner at Aberdein Considine