The Employment Rights Bill was published by the Government on 10th October 2024. The changes proposed to flexible working are only a very small section of this bill and in my view at present do not indicate a significant change for employers to deal with.
What is the current Statutory right to request flexible working?
Employees have a “day one” right to make a request for flexible working and can make two requests in any 12-month period. This must satisfy certain requirements including being in writing and specifying the change the employee is seeking and when they wish the change to take effect. The employer then has a two-month period (which can be extended by agreement) within which to consider the request and notify the employee of an outcome. The employer must deal with the application in a reasonable manner and can only refuse a request for one (or more) of eight reasons set out in the legislation. There is no definition of a reasonable manner and the ACAS Statutory Code of Practice on requests for flexible working provides guidance on an employer’s legal rights, responsibilities and good practice in making and handling statutory requests for flexible working.
For more details, please see:-
Code of Practice on requests for flexible working | Acas
What are the current 8 reasons for rejecting a statutory request for flexible working?
- The burden of additional costs
- Detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demands
- Inability to reorganise work among existing staff
- Inability to recruit additional staff
- Detriment impact on quality
- Detrimental impact on performance
- Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
- Planned structural changes.
What changes are proposed in the Employment Rights Bill on this?
The new Bill would require the employer’s decision to be reasonable if they refuse a request for flexible working which is an additional requirement. This refusal will still be on the 8 reasons already contained in current legislation as referred to above. However, other grounds could be specified by the Secretary of State by regulations.
The Secretary of State will also have the ability to make regulations to specify what steps an employer will need to make before rejecting a flexible working request, so there may be more steps that will be required to comply with the new right. It is not clear what would constitute a “reasonable” refusal and how this will limit the scope for employer to refuse a request. It is clear that employers will need to give more thought to their reasons and provide these when refusing a request for flexible working when this becomes law.
There is no commencement date yet for the Employment Rights Bill and it is not expected to be in force anytime soon. However, the second reading of the Employment Rights Bill will be on 21 October 2024.
Please see Employment Rights Bill – Parliamentary Bills – UK Parliament
If you would like further advice on flexible working on either the existing law or what is proposed then please do contact us.
The contents of this article are a general guide only at the date of publication. It is not comprehensive, and it does not constitute legal advice. Specific legal advice should be sought in relation to the particular facts of a given situation.