Flexible Working
If you are a parent or guardian of a child under 6 (or a disabled child under 18) you can usually ask ask your boss to change the way you work. You can ask to change the number of days or hours you work, work different days, flexitime, work from home, or stagger or compress your hours.
To be entitled you must have worked continuously for your employer for at least 26 weeks at the time of making your request and you must be an employee but not an agency worker. (If you are unsure see Who is an employee?)
You must be a parent or guardian (including adoptive or foster parent) or the partner/spouse of the parent or guardian of a child under 6 years old. If the child is disabled, this right continues until the child is 18 years old. In addition you must have responsibility for the child's upbringing.
From April 2007 if you care for someone aged 18 or over you also have the right to ask to work flexibly. The person you care for must either be your spouse or partner, relative or be living at the same address as you.
Your application must be made in order to allow you to care for the child. You can only make one application every 12 months and you must make the application by 2 weeks prior to the child's 6th birthday (or 18th if disabled).
Making the request
Your application should be in writing and should state that you are requesting a change in your terms and conditions of employment. You should explain how you want your working pattern to change and suggest a start date for the changes to become effective.
Your application should outline the effects your proposed pattern would have on your employer's business and how you think those effects might be dealt with.
You should then explain how you satisfy the eligibility criteria for this right to request flexible working - e.g. that you are the partner of a parent of a 3 year old child, that you will have responsibility for the child's upbringing, that you are making this request to enable you to look after the child and you have not made a request to work flexibly, to that employer, in the past 12 months. If you have not made any previous requests you should say so and if you have made previous requests, give the dates of those requests. You should then date your application.
It's really important to get things right at this stage, so if you can it's always a good idea to get some help putting the application together from someone like a union representative or adviser.
Your employer's response
Your employer should meet with you within 28 days of receiving your written request for flexible working. This meeting is to give you and your employer a chance to explore your proposal in detail and/or consider alternatives. You have the right to be accompanied to this meeting by a colleague if you wish.
Within 14 days of the meeting your employer should write to you to agree to a variation in your work patterns and the proposed start date or provide details of the business reasons for the refusal of your request and advise you of the appeal procedure.
If for any reason the different steps cannot be completed within the time frame, the time limits can be extended if both you and your employer agree and the extensions are recorded in writing with you receiving a copy of the details of the extensions. The meeting can be postponed once, if the person who was going to go with you isn't available. You should make the request in writing within two days of your employer proposing a date.
You may appeal against an unfavourable decision within 14 days of being notified of the decision. Your employer should have given you details of who to appeal to in the written reasons.
You are entitled to withdraw your application before a decision is made, verbally or in writing. If you fail to attend a meeting without reasonable cause on more than one occasion or you fail to give your employer information required in order to make a decision on your application, then your employer can treat your application as withdrawn.
You should note that a withdrawal means that you are not entitled to make another application for one year.
The effect of flexible working on your terms and conditions of employment
If your request is accepted by your employer you will have agreed to a permanent change in your terms and conditions. Your boss should write to you detailing the change to your terms and conditions and giving a start date for the changes within 14 days of the date of the meeting. You don't have the right to return to your old working pattern, unless you and your boss agree otherwise.
Remedies
If your request is refused and you do not feel that it was properly considered or if your request was not dealt with in accordance with the proper procedure, you may wish to complain using internal procedures like the appeal or grievance procedure.
If this is not satisfactory, you and your employer could agree to have your dispute heard by an ACAS arbitrator, although you should be aware that an arbitrator's decision is final and usually there is no right to challenge the decision or proceed to an Employment Tribunal.
Alternatively, you may wish to consider a Tribunal claim on the basis that your employer did not follow the correct procedure, or that your employer's reason for refusal was not a permitted business reason or that your boss based their decision on incorrect facts.
The Tribunal can award compensation or tell your employer to properly consider your request, but it will not grant your request for flexible working.
You are protected by the law from unfair treatment or being sacked as a result of your requesting or seeking to request flexible working. It is also possible for a refusal to grant flexible working to be a basis for an unlawful discrimination claim. For more information about discrimination see our special feature.
