Who is entitled to request flexible working

We use cookies to improve your experience of our website. You can find out more or opt-out from some cookies. Flexible working is the name given to any type of working pattern which is different from your existing one.

This is a request which is made under the law on flexible working. Only certain employees are entitled to make a statutory request. To have the statutory right to ask for flexible working arrangements, you must be an employee.

You must also have worked for your employer for 26 weeks in a row on the date you make your application. Your employer might also have their own scheme with rules that are more generous than the statutory scheme. For example, it might be open to all employees regardless of how long they've worked for your employer. If your employer agrees to your flexible working request, it will mean a permanent change to your contract.

You can both agree a trial period to make sure the new arrangements work. Being paid pro rata is when you get a share of the equivalent full time salary - for example, if the full time role is 35 hours a week and you work It is also seeking views on whether the three month time period to consider the request should be reduced and how long an employer needs to respond.

This may apply, for example, to support a child settling into school or an elderly parent moving into a care home. In addition, the government is also considering other steps to help make flexible working the default including:. The consultation closes on 1 December and is available on the GOV. UK website if you would like to respond. Read consultation. Changes to the legislation and the way employers are required to handle flexible working requests are likely to be introduced at some point next year and with this in mind, employers should continue to review working practices to consider what has been working well and not so well during the pandemic and what the effects are of any new hybrid working arrangements.

The situation will continue to evolve and employers will need to be prepared to adapt procedures to deal with differing flexible working requests as employees adapt to different challenges as they return to work.

If you have any questions about how these developments will affect your business, please contact Katie Russell or anyone in the Burges Salmon Employment team , who will be happy to advise you. This guidance notes gives general information only and is not intended to be an exhaustive statement of the law. Asking for flexible working How to make a flexible working request If your request is approved If your request is turned down If you want to appeal the decision. Last reviewed. Print Download.

Print close X. Download close X. Key takeaways Soon employees could have the right to work flexibly from the first day of their employment. Trainee Solicitor Amy Tully also contributed to this article. Sign up. Key contacts Devan Khagram. Sarah Gill. Keep in touch. Looking for someone? Generic filters Hidden label. Hidden label.