31st July 2023 3 MIN READ •Employer advice
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Employers have seen an increase in the number of flexible working requests, particularly since the pandemic. The Government is keen to support flexible working, and the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 completed its Parliamentary approval on 20 July 2023 and is expected to come into force in early 2024.
Flexible working law what’s changing?
The changes are designed to make it easier for employees to request flexible working arrangements by reducing the formality for employees making a request:
- Employees may make two flexible working requests in any 12-month period (up from one).
- Employers must respond within two months of receipt of a flexible working request (rather than three months).
- Employers must have consulted with the employee before they can refuse any request.
- Employees will no longer have to explain the expected effect of granting flexible working or how that might be dealt with.
When will flexible working law come into place?
The government have also proposed that the current requirement of 26 weeks’ continuous employment before a new employee can make a request could be removed in further regulations (not yet final), possibly making this a day one right when it comes into force next year.
ACAS are consulting (until 6 September) on an updated draft code of practice for handling flexible working requests. This is more detailed than the previous version and emphasises that employers should keep an open mind and grant requests unless there is reason not to.
How will flexible working changes affect employers?
Employers will still be able to reject flexible working requests for business reasons, as under the current rules, and there is no new restriction on an employer’s ability to reject requests.
On the face of the rules, this is a relatively minor change, simply making it easier for employees to make flexible working requests. At the moment, many flexible working requests are made but are simply dealt with informally because they do not comply with the current rules on how they should be made. If a flexible working request from an employee does not have the right information in it, then employers do not have to follow the regulations.
By simplifying the rules for employees to ask for flexible working, more of the informal requests will have to be dealt with by employees under formal procedure. This could be a backdoor route through which employers are placed under more pressure to grant flexible working requests.
What does this mean for employees?
That might be beneficial for society as a whole, but for HR professionals, it means you need to pay closer attention to flexible working requests when they come in, and you will need to update internal policies and procedures once the ACAS code of practice is final and the new rules are brought into force.
Guest content provided by Keelys Solicitors.
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