Flexible working requests: your rights explained

Every employee in Great Britain can ask to change how, when or where they work, from their first day in a job. Your employer does not have to say yes, but they do have to take the request seriously, follow a set process and only refuse for specific business reasons. Plenty of employers still get this wrong.

This guide covers how to make a request that is hard to refuse, what your employer must do with it, and what you can do if the answer is no.

What counts as flexible working

A statutory flexible working request can ask for a change to:

• Your hours, such as going part-time or compressing five days into four
• Your times, such as a later start, school-hours working or flexitime
• Your place of work, such as working from home some or all of the week

Common examples include job shares, term-time working, staggered hours and annualised hours. If your employer agrees, the change becomes a permanent change to your contract unless you both agree it is temporary or a trial.

Who can ask, and how often

Since April 2024 the right has applied from day one of employment. There is no longer a 26-week wait. The rules are:

• You must be an employee (agency workers have a more limited right on returning to a hirer)
• You can make two statutory requests in any 12-month period
• You can only have one live request with the same employer at a time
• You no longer have to explain what effect the change would have on the business, though doing so helps

How to make your request

Put it in writing (email is fine) and include:

• The date, and a statement that it is a statutory request for flexible working
• The change you want and when you would like it to start
• Whether you have made a previous request, and when

The best requests do more than the legal minimum. Anticipate the objection and solve it. If you want to work from home three days a week, show how calls will be covered, how you will stay contactable and how the team managed when you worked from home before. Offer a three-month trial. An employer finds it far harder to justify refusing a request that has already answered their concerns.

What your employer must do

Your employer must deal with the request in a reasonable manner and give you a decision, including any appeal, within two months of receiving it, unless you agree to extend that period. The Acas Code of Practice on flexible working requests also says:

• If they are minded to refuse, they must consult you before deciding
• You should be allowed to bring a companion to discussions, although the strict statutory right to be accompanied applies to disciplinary and grievance hearings
• They should tell you the decision in writing and explain it
• They should offer you a right of appeal

The eight reasons for refusing

An employer can only refuse for one or more of eight business reasons set out in law:

1. The burden of additional costs

2. A detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand

3. Inability to reorganise work among existing staff

4. Inability to recruit additional staff

5. A detrimental impact on quality

6. A detrimental impact on performance

7. Insufficient work during the periods you propose to work

8. Planned structural changes

Under the current rules a tribunal mostly checks that the employer picked one of these reasons and that it was based on correct facts. It is not a test of whether the decision was fair.

What changes in 2027

The Employment Rights Act 2025 tightens this. The government's factsheet says that once the new rules take effect, expected in autumn 2027, a refusal will have to be reasonable, and the employer will have to explain why it is reasonable by reference to the eight grounds. Employers are also expected to have to hold a meeting before refusing. Until then, the current rules apply, but a refusal that is plainly unreasonable may still give you other claims, below.

If your request is refused

First, appeal, in writing, and address each reason given. Then check whether one of these stronger claims applies:

• Indirect sex discrimination. A blanket refusal of part-time or school-hours working can disadvantage women, who still carry more childcare. The employer then has to justify the policy. This is common after maternity leave: see returning to work after maternity leave.
• Disability discrimination. If you are disabled, flexible hours or home working may be a reasonable adjustment your employer is legally required to make. See disability discrimination.
• Procedural breaches. Missing the two-month deadline, ignoring the request or relying on facts that are wrong gives you a statutory claim, worth up to eight weeks' pay (capped at £751 a week).
• Detriment or dismissal. You cannot lawfully be punished or dismissed for making a request.

You can also raise a grievance at work if you think the request was handled unfairly.

When flexible working turns into a contract dispute

Sometimes it works the other way round: your employer wants to change *your* hours, location or shift pattern without your agreement. That is a different legal problem, covered in our guide to contract changes and fire and rehire. And if you are on a casual contract with no fixed hours, see zero hours contract rights for what you are entitled to.

Time limits

Tribunal claims about flexible working must start with Acas early conciliation. For most claims where the act complained of happened on or after 1 October 2026, the time limit is six months less one day, up from three months. Do not wait to see if things improve.

Worked example

Priya, a payroll officer, asks to work 9.30am to 3pm four days a week after maternity leave. Her employer refuses in one line: "the role is full-time". There is no meeting, no appeal offer and no reference to any of the eight grounds. She has a likely procedural claim, and potentially an indirect sex discrimination claim, which carries uncapped compensation including injury to feelings. That leverage is often enough to reach an agreed arrangement, or a negotiated exit.

Get advice

If your request has been refused, ignored or used against you, a specialist can tell you quickly whether you have a discrimination claim or just a frustrating answer. Our discrimination solicitors handle these cases every week. Tell us what happened and Match My Solicitor will match you with a vetted employment solicitor, free, within 24 hours.