Flexible working

The law on flexible working changed significantly on 30 June 2014. Since that date all employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service have the statutory right to request a change to their contract terms to work flexibly. There is no longer any need to be a carer or to have a special reason to justify the request. The request can only be turned down for one of the eight statutory “business reasons” listed on page 246. In other words, the employer’s focus should be on whether the request can be met, taking into account the business reasons listed in the legislation, and not on the employee’s personal reasons for wanting to work flexibly. However, personal reasons are not irrelevant under the new regime, because the employer’s legal duty not to discriminate unlawfully means that any policy must take account of protected groups, in particular employees with caring responsibilities and disabled workers.

This new law is found in Part 8 of the Children and Families Act 2014 (CFA 14).

The new law abolishes many features of the old statutory request procedure and replaces it with a broad duty to deal with applications in a “reasonable manner” (section 80G(1)(a), amended by section 104 CFA 14).

Acas has produced a Code of Practice, and guidance: Handling requests to work flexibly in a reasonable manner. The Code should be taken into account by tribunals.

Only one request to work flexibly can be made in any 12-month period. Any contract change will be permanent unless the parties agree otherwise. There is nothing to stop employers agreeing to temporary arrangements to respond to short-term challenges, such as bereavement or a short course of study.

The Acas guidance encourages employers to develop a policy for handling flexible working requests to ensure consistency covering, in particular:

• how to make the application — who to make it to and what it should include;

• confirmation that the employer will consider the request and only reject it for one of eight statutory business reasons;

• arrangements for employees to be accompanied to any meeting to consider the request. There is no statutory right to be accompanied under the new regime so this must be negotiated;

• arrangements for appeals; and

• time limits for dealing with requests.

www.acas.org.uk/media/pdf/f/e/Code-of-Practice-on-handling-in-a-reasonable-manner-requests-to-work-flexibly.pdf