Flexible working

While the government committed to “making flexible working the default from day-one for all workers”, it is hard to see how the provisions in the bill achieve this aim.

The right to request flexible working is already available from day one as a result of changes brought in by the last government but it only applies to employees and not all workers. Labour’s promise of a single status of worker would remove this limitation, but those changes to employment status are not part of the bill. They may, however, be in place by the time the bill and all the associated regulations are in place and consultation on employment status is likely to overlap with consultation on the provisions of the bill.

A right to request flexible working is not the same thing as making it the default.

What the bill does do is introduce a requirement for the employer’s refusal of a request for flexible working to be “reasonable”. The statutory reasons for which the employer can refuse a request remain the same.

If the employer refuses the request, they will have to explain why they consider their refusal was reasonable as well as specifying the reason for it.