Key takeaways
The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act has now received Royal Assent. The Act will allow employees to make up to two statutory requests for flexible working in any 12-month period (currently only one request can be made each year) and employers will be required to decide whether to grant the request within two months (currently three). Employers will be required to consult with the employee before rejecting a request, and employees will no longer have to explain what, if any, effect the change would have on the employer and how that might be handled.
The Act does not itself change the law, but allows the Secretary of State for Trade and Business to make regulations which will bring the changes into force. The government has said that at the same time that the above changes come into force, new regulations will also make the right to request flexible working a “day one” right (requiring no length of service – at present, employees must have been employed for 26 weeks before they make their request).
The government expects the measures in the Act and secondary legislation to come into force approximately a year after Royal Assent to allow employers time to prepare.
The government has also announced a call for evidence on non-statutory flexible working, the responses to which will increase understanding of the role of informal flexible working in meeting the needs of both employers and employees, and will shape future flexible working policy.
Acas is updating its statutory code of practice for employers on how to handle requests for flexible working reasonably. The code was last published in 2014 and needs updating to reflect the significant shift in attitudes towards flexible working, as well as the anticipated reforms to legislation referred to above. The consultation will close on 6 September 2023.
To discuss what these changes mean for your business, please get in touch with your usual Baker McKenzie contact.
