Handling Flexible Working Requests: UK Legal Guide

Every employee has the right to request flexible working from day one of employment under ERA 2025. Employers must respond within two months and must consult with the employee before refusing. A refusal must be based on one of eight statutory business reasons — there is no catch-all provision for employers who simply prefer everyone in the office.

The eight reasons are: the burden of additional costs; detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand; inability to reorganise work among existing staff; inability to recruit additional staff; detrimental impact on quality; detrimental impact on performance; insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; and planned structural changes. You can cite more than one reason, but each must be genuine and relevant to the specific request.

The most common mistake is refusing without genuine consultation. A quick email saying "your request has been considered and refused because of business needs" does not meet the standard. You need to meet with the employee, discuss the request, explore alternatives, and only then refuse if no workable arrangement can be found. Mellow tracks flexible working requests with a consultation step built into the workflow — the request cannot move to refused status until the consultation meeting has been logged.