What should my employer do when they get my flexible working request?

The Employment Rights Act 1996 and regulations made under it set out your employer’s duties when dealing with a flexible working request. They are explained in the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working.   

First, your employer must deal with your flexible working request in a reasonable manner. When the Employment Rights Bill comes into force, their decision on whether to agree the request must also itself be reasonable. 

If your employer agrees to your request, they do not need to consult you or meet you to discuss it. 

However, your employer cannot reject your request unless they consult you first.   

This means they should arrange to discuss it with you, and they must do this “without unreasonable delay”. The discussion does not need to be face-to-face and can be held online or, if that is not possible, by phone. The meeting must be private. 

There is no longer a statutory right to be accompanied by a work colleague or trade union rep, but the Acas guidance says it is 'reasonable' to allow this. Your union may have negotiated a right for you to be accompanied under your employer’s policy.  

Your employer must consider your request carefully, weighing up the benefits to you against any adverse business impact.  

Your employer can only reject your request for one of the specific business reasons set out in the legislation. It makes sense to consider these before you make your request so that you can anticipate your employer’s response and think of pragmatic ways around any likely objections. The legitimate reasons for refusal are:  

• the burden of extra costs; 
• inability to organise work among existing staff; 
• inability to recruit extra staff; 
• detrimental impact on quality; 
• detrimental impact on performance; 
• detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand; 
• insufficient work for the periods the employee wants to work; and 
• a planned structural change to the business.  

You can only make two requests every 12 months, so it is important to put your best case.  

Your employer needs to give you written confirmation of the decision as soon as possible, and at the latest within two months of the request unless you agree a longer timeframe.  

If the request is accepted, there should be a discussion as to how best it can be implemented and, if appropriate, how it is going to be kept under review.  

Your employer might want to trial it over a short period to find out the real impact of your suggested working pattern on the business. 

While there is no statutory right to appeal, the Acas Code says it is good practice to allow an appeal. The appeal outcome should be given to you within the two-month period.  

Make sure you keep the lines of communication with your employer open throughout and keep a good record of what is discussed and agreed.