Are My Employees Entitled to Flexible Work Arrangements?

The landscape of modern work continues to evolve, with flexible working arrangements playing an increasingly important role in maintaining work-life balance. From managing childcare responsibilities to pursuing personal development, employees may need to adjust their working patterns to better align with their life commitments. As an employer, understanding how to handle flexible working requests is not just about legal compliance: it is about fostering a supportive workplace culture that benefits both your business and your team. This article defines flexible working and outlines recent changes to your employees’ rights. 

What is Flexible Working?

Flexible working involves making changes to an employee’s usual pattern of working. Though flexible working is most commonly associated with ‘working from home’, flexible working can take on several forms, including:

• working part-time hours;
• starting or finishing the day at a different time, or working the same hours but in fewer days (commonly referred to as ‘compressed hours’);
• working remotely (or from another location, which in some instances could be overseas); 
• hybrid working; and 
• job sharing a role with another employee. 

What Are the Key Changes to Flexible Working in 2024? 

Under the previous Conservative government, reforms were announced to change how flexible working would operate in England and Wales. As of the 6th of April 2024, these changes have since come into effect. These key changes are detailed in the table below. 

What Has Stayed the Same?

Some parts of the process are unchanged, as outlined below: 

• Making Requests: Employees will still need to submit a formal written request and confirm whether they have submitted a previous request. This request should outline:
  • the changes that they are requesting;
  • the date that they would like this change to take effect; and 
  • that this request is a formal statutory flexible working request. 
• Rejecting Requests: You will still be able to reject a flexible working request on one of eight bases, discussed further in this article.
• Excluded Categories: Wider categories of workers, such as agency workers or contractors, will not have the right to make a statutory flexible working request. 

When Can I Reject a Flexible Working Request?

As an employer, you still retain the same eight reasons for refusing a flexible working request. This applies as long as you have a good business reason to do so. These reasons are: 

1. Additional Costs: The request would cause extra costs that would harm the business.
2. Reorganising Work: The work cannot be reorganised among existing staff.
3. Recruiting Staff: The business cannot recruit additional staff to do the work.
4. Quality: The request would affect the quality of the work.
5. Performance: The request would affect the performance of the employee or their colleagues.
6. Customer Semand: The request would make it difficult for the business to meet customer demand.
7. Lack of Work: There would be a lack of work during the proposed working times.
8. Structural Changes: The business is planning changes to the workforce.

What is the Process After an Employee Makes a Flexible Working Request?

If an employee makes a formal flexible working request, you have a duty to respond and deal with all flexible working requests consistently within two months (including any appeal). 

In the first instance, you should hold a meeting to discuss the proposed changes. Your employee should also generally be able to bring a colleague to this meeting, though it is not a legal right. 

After this meeting, you will need to consider whether the flexible working request should be:

• accommodated;
• altered; or
• rejected on one of the eight business bases. 

If the flexible working request alters an employee’s contract of employment, you must confirm the change to the contract terms in writing, in addition to confirming the outcome of the flexible working request. 

What Can an Employee Do if They Disagree With the Outcome?

If an employee disagrees with a rejected flexible working request, they may decide to appeal against the decision. If this happens, you should look at your workplace policies to see the best course of action. However, if a procedure is not outlined in your workplace policies, you should seek to address the appeal as soon as possible and ensure that it is in writing. 

Alternatively, an employee may raise a complaint if they are not satisfied with the outcome of their request. If this is the case, it should be dealt with in accordance with any grievance policies in the first instance. If an employee is still unhappy with the outcome or feels discriminated against, they may wish to pursue a case in the Employment Tribunal. 

Key Takeaways

As an employer, your employees have the legal right to make a flexible working request from day one of their employment. With the recent changes to the flexible working regime, it is important to ensure that you comply with the updated obligations. This includes consulting employees when they submit flexible working requests and only rejecting them based on one of the eight approved business reasons. 

If you need help understanding flexible working arrangements, our experienced employment lawyers can assist as part of our LegalVision membership. For a low monthly fee, you will have unlimited access to lawyers to answer your questions and draft and review your documents for a low monthly fee. So call us today on 0808 196 8584 or visit our membership page.

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