Employment Law Advice Birmingham Law Solicitors Birmingham

An employee has a statutory right to request flexible working arrangements; an agency worker or a member of the armed forces do not have a statutory right to apply for flexible working.

If an employee:

Is the parent, adopter, foster parent or guardian for a child; and

has or expects to have responsibility for the child's upbringing; and

has six months continuous employment; and

the child is under the age of 6 years old or 18 years old if the child is disabled; and

have not previously applied for flexible working in the past 12 months then;

an employee has a statutory right to apply for flexible working. If a previous application was unsuccessful, 12 months need to have passed before another application is made.

An employer must give serious consideration to a request for flexible working and follow certain procedures, such as meetings and providing detailed written reasons.

An employer can only refuse a request if there are good business reasons for doing so.

When making an application an employee should indicate what change to the working pattern would best suit the circumstances to enable discussions to take place and possibly adapt the proposal.

If an employer refuses a request without giving it serious consideration then an employee has three months to apply to the employment tribunal for compensation and/or an order for the employer to reconsider their refusal to allow flexible working.