Surge in Flexible Working Requests Expected

April 2, 2024

By Fflur Jones

On 6 April, the law relating to flexible working requests changed. This happened at the same time as a raft of other employment law changes. We’ve set out the full changes here.

What changed?

On April 6, the following changes came into force:

• The right to make a flexible working request has become a day one right. This means that, unlike previously where employees needed to wait until they were employed for at least 6 months before making a request, they are now able to request to work flexibly from their very first day in the job.
• The number of requests that an employee can make in a year has doubled. Prior to this, an employee could only make 1 flexible working request in a 12-month period. Since 6 April, employees are now able to make 2 requests in a 12-month period.
• The time that an employer has to respond to a flexible working request has reduced by a third. Previously, employers had 3 months to respond to a request. Now, employers only have 2 months.

What impact does this change have?

Our employment solicitors have already seen a considerable increase in clients receiving flexible working requests. Previously, the main cause was the re-adjusting working landscape following the pandemic, with employees used to greater flexibility and employers looking to bring more employees into physical workplaces more often. The change that occurred in April however has caused a further increase.

 What should you do right now?

• Update your flexible working policy to reflect the new laws. Get in touch with usif you need help with this.
• Ensure that your updated policyis kept somewhere accessible to staff – e.g. as part of a staff handbook on an intranet or shared folder.
• Ensure that your managers and HR teams are familiar with your processes for dealing with requests (e.g. through trainingand good communication). This is the best way to ensure a consistent approach to requests. After all, a real legal risk arises when flexible working requests are dealt with inconsistently.
• Seek legal advice with any tricky cases – e.g. where a request presents An example might be when a flexible working request is made in connection with someone’s disability.

If you require any further advice on flexible working requests, contact a member of our employment team, Fflur Jones on 02920 829 117 or fjones@darwingray.com for a free initial chat to see how we can help you.