New flexible working rules

With effect from 6th April 2024 all employees, regardless of their length of service, will have the right to request flexible working. The Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023, which were published in December 2023, make it clear that flexible working will, for applications made on or after 6th April 2024, become a day one right for all employees.

Alongside this change, the government published wider changes to flexible working last autumn. The wider changes are as follows:

• Removing the requirement for employees, in their written request, to set out what effect the proposed flexibility would have on the employer’s business and how any effect could be dealt with. 

• Increasing the number of flexible working requests which can be made in any 12-month period from one to two.

• Reducing the primary time period within which flexible working requests must be dealt with (including any appeal) from three months to two months. As before, it will remain possible, by agreement with the employee, to extend this time period.

These additional changes came into effect at the same time that flexible working became a day one right (i.e. for applications on or after 6th April 2024).