Employers handling a flexible working application are expected to follow the ACAS Code of Practice on Flexible Working, and tribunals must take it into account when deciding whether a request was dealt with properly. While the Code is short and relatively straightforward, many small businesses are unaware of it and its importance to their decision … Read more
Employers cannot turn down a flexible working application for any reason they choose, since the flexible working request reasons to decline are fixed by statute. There are eight such reasons, set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996. A reason that falls outside the list, however sound it may be from a commercial standpoint, will … Read more
Refusing a flexible working request can be entirely lawful, and no employer is obliged to agree to every application it receives. That said, the law does require employers to handle requests properly, and it is the handling rather than the decision itself that most often causes problems. An employer with a perfectly sound commercial reason … Read more
A written flexible working policy is one of the most useful documents a small employer can have, because it turns an area of law that is easy to get wrong into a process that managers can follow consistently. Without one, decisions tend to be made on an ad hoc basis, different employees receive different treatment … Read more
Since April 2024, any employee can submit a flexible working request from their very first day in the job, and employers no longer have the option of waiting until someone has built up service before considering one. For owner-managed businesses, this has changed the way requests need to be handled. The process is governed by … Read more
