FLEXIBLE WORKING REQUESTS

An employee's guide on flexible working requests from the employment law experts

Marjon Law, specialist employment lawyers is owner-led by Marc Jones, who is ranked and recommended in legal publications as a leading employment law solicitor, with over 20 years of experience practising solely in employment law.

The Flexible Working Regulations 2014 amended the Employment Rights Act 1996 and govern statutory flexible working requests. The statutory process is supplemented by the Statutory Code of Practice: Handling in a reasonable manner requests to work flexibly.

(1) Who can make a flexible working request?

Only employees have a statutory right to request flexible working.

The right does not apply to self-employed contractors, consultants or agency workers. There is no automatic right to be granted flexible working.

You have the right to request flexible working from day 1 of your employment, you can:

make a maximum of 2 requests during any 12-month period
only have one 'live' request with the same employer at a time.

(2) What are the requirements for making a valid flexible working request?

A statutory request for flexible working must:

be in writing
be dated
state that it is a statutory request
the change that is being requested (eg to work from home)
when the change should start
if any previous statutory flexible working requests were made to the employer
the date of any previous requests.

(3) How should an employer deal with a flexible working request?

On receipt of a flexible working request under the statutory process, your employer must:

deal with the request in a reasonable manner
hold a meeting with you to discuss the request
allow you to be accompanied to the meeting
allow you the opportunity to appeal its decision
notify you of its decision, including any appeal within 2 months of the request (unless otherwise agreed with you).

Your employer can only refuse your request for flexible working on one or more of the statutory grounds:

the burden of additional costs
detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand
inability to reorganise work among existing staff
inability to recruit additional staff
detrimental impact on quality
detrimental impact on performance
insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
planned structural changes.

If your employer does not act reasonably in dealing with your flexible working request, you make have grounds to bring a claim for constructive unfair dismissal. You should seek legal advice before taking any action as soon as possible.

The statutory process is governed by the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working.

This blog does not constitute legal or other professional advice. Appropriate legal advice should be sought for specific circumstances and before action is taken.

This blog was originally created in January 2023 and amended in July 2024.

Why choose Marjon Law for advice on flexible working requests?

We have been involved directly and indirectly with hundreds of employment tribunal claims for over 20 years, some of which have involved flexible working.

As specialist employment lawyers, your interests are paramount to us.

We will ensure that you receive the best advice possible.

We will advise you on the process before and after making a flexible working request and any subsequent employment tribunal claim.