What is flexible working?
Flexible working is an umbrella term used to describe any method of working which deviates from a standard working pattern.
The statutory flexible working scheme is rooted in the Employment Rights Act 1996, but has been heavily updated by subsequent legislation, most notably the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 and the Employment Rights Act 2025 framework. These newer pieces of legislation place stricter obligations on employers to accept reasonable requests.
Under the legislation, an eligible employee may request a change to their employment terms relating to:
- A change to the hours they work
- A change to the times when they are required to work
- A change to their place of work (as between their home and any of the employer’s workplaces)
Common examples include part-time or term-time working, or changes to the working day such as altered start or finish times. However, the term is broad enough to encompass almost any atypical arrangement including, but not limited to, annualised hours, compressed hours, home-working, hybrid-working and shift-working.
Who is eligible to request flexible working?
Since 2024, all employees have the right to request flexible working from day 1 of their employment.
Note that a statutory request can only be made by an employee (as opposed to a worker or contractor). Requests cannot be made by agency workers (except for those returning to work from a period of parental leave).
Employees can make two flexible working requests under the statutory scheme in any 12-month period.
Types of flexible working requests
The employee can request a variety of alternative working arrangements, but these generally fall into one or more of three categories:
- Hours of work;
- Times or patterns of work; and
- Location of work.
The type of arrangements that might be suggested could include working from home, job-sharing, flexi time, term time working, part time working, compressed time, staggered hours, split shifts, annualised hours or self-rostering.
If the employer agrees to the change proposed by the employee, the change is permanent so the organisation needs to consider the long term impact of the change before agreement is given.
However, some employers agree to changes subject to a trial period or include a right to revert to the previous arrangements (in specified circumstances) as a safety net. Any clauses to this effect need to be in writing and unambiguous.
The process for requesting flexible working
The statutory flexible working scheme is supported by the Acas code of practice on requests for flexible working which sets out best practice.
Essentially, an employer must deal with a request in a ‘reasonable manner’ and respond within a period of two months (unless extended by agreement). A right of appeal against refusal should be offered.
Considering the request ‘reasonably’ is likely to involve meeting with the employee to discuss the request and considering other options if it is not possible to grant the working pattern asked for.
Grounds for rejecting a flexible working request
An employer may only refuse a request based on one of eight business reasons specified in the Employment Rights Act namely:
- the burden of additional costs,
- detrimental effect on 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; or
- planned structural changes.
If the employer decides that they have legitimate business reasons for refusing the employee’s request, they must write to the employee setting out the grounds for the refusal and why those grounds apply.