Flexible working

Flexible working legislation was introduced into UK Law in 2014 and it is a way of working around your needs – such as your home life.

Employees can make a flexible working request, also known as a statutory request, provided that they have been employed by their employer for at least 26 weeks. This is not an exclusive right to parents or carers and anyone can make a flexible working request.

Making a flexible working request

When making the request, you must ensure that you do so in writing including the following information:

• the date
• confirming that this is a statutory request
• how you expect to work flexibly
• when you would like to start working flexibly
• how you think your flexible working might affect the business and how you propose that it be dealt with.

You should bear in mind that an employee can only make one application in any 12 months’ period. This means that you should make sure that your request maximises your chances of it being accepted and you should also state in the application if and when you last made an application for flexible working.

You should also state what type of flexible working you are requesting. The different types include:

• part time
• working from home
• job-sharing (i.e. two people doing the job of one person by splitting the hours)
• changing working patterns (e.g. working 10am to 6pm instead of 9am to 5pm)
• compressed hours (i.e. working the same number of hours but over a smaller number of days)
• annualised hours (i.e. there aren’t necessarily set working hours but there is an annual number of hours that you should work)
• phased retirement (i.e. older employees can reduce their hours and when they want to retire as there is no longer a compulsory retirement age).

For more information or advice

Contact Justin Emerson on:
Call: 01245 228101 or
email: emersonj@gepp.co.uk

Area of Expertise

• Appeals
• Contract variations
• Employment tribunal claims
• Refused flexible working hours