If an employee asks to change their hours, work from home, or compress their week into four days, you may be familiar with the panic that follows. Can you say no? Do you have to say yes? What happens if you get it wrong?
You are not alone in feeling unsure. Flexible working law changed in 2024, and it is changing again. Lots of business owners may still be working from rules that are two or three years out of date, which is exactly how tribunal claims start.
This guide breaks down what flexible working requests actually are, when your team can ask for them and the eight reasons employers are legally allowed to say no. We will also cover the process you need to follow, because getting the process wrong can cost you, even when your decision is right.
A flexible working request is a formal ask from an employee to change when, where, or how they work.
That covers a lot of ground. It might be:
Here’s the bit that often catches employers out. This is not the same as a request under the Equality Act for a disability-related adjustment and it is not the same as informal chats about “working from home on Fridays.” A statutory flexible working request has to meet specific criteria to count and once it does, the clock starts ticking on your legal obligations.
Since 6 April 2024, every employee in the UK can request flexible working from their very first day in the job. There is no longer a qualifying period of 26 weeks’ service. This is often called day one right,” and it genuinely does mean day one.
Employees can make up to two statutory requests in any rolling 12-month period. They do not need to explain why they want the change, though most will, because it helps their case.
To count as a statutory request, it needs to be:
If an employee sends you a vague email or brings it up in passing at the coffee machine, it is worth asking them to put it in writing properly. That protects both of you.
You must give your decision within two months of receiving the request, and that includes any appeal. This window was reduced from three months under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, so if you are working from older guidance, update it now.
You can extend the deadline, but only with the employee’s written agreement. You cannot simply let it drift.
Miss the deadline, and an employment tribunal can award compensation of up to eight weeks’ pay, even if your eventual decision would have been perfectly reasonable.
This is the part every business owner needs pinned above their desk. You can only refuse a flexible working request for one of these eight reasons:
That’s it. There is no ninth reason, no “it just doesn’t feel right,” and no “we’ve never done it that way.” If your reasoning does not fit into one of those eight boxes, refusing the request is unlawful.
Imagine your reasons for refusal as a set of eight specific keys. If none of them fit the lock, you cannot get through the door, no matter how sensible your worry feels. A gut feeling that “the team won’t gel” or “customers prefer seeing someone at the desk” needs to be translated into one of those eight categories, with evidence, or it will not stand up.
Say a member of your admin team asks to start at 7am and finish at 3pm instead of 9 to 5. Your first instinct might be “no, because the office needs cover until 5.”
That instinct could actually map to reason two, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, but only if you can show it genuinely would affect service. If another member of staff could easily cover that hour, or if customer contact drops off after 4pm anyway, that reason falls apart under scrutiny. You would need to look for other cover options before refusing.
This is why generic, copy-paste refusals get overturned. Tribunals want to see that you thought it through.
Here is something else employers sometimes get wrong. You can’t simply read the request, decide “no,” and send a rejection email. Current guidance and the Acas Code of Practice expect you to:
A flat refusal with no consultation is a breach of the statutory process, even if your underlying business reason was completely sound. Reputational damage aside, this is one of the most common grounds for a successful tribunal claim.
If you do decide to refuse a request, your letter needs to:
Generic or vague wording will not cut it anymore. “We are unable to accommodate this request due to business needs” tells a tribunal nothing. You need specifics.
Only in very limited circumstances, such as if the employee fails to attend meetings arranged to discuss the request without a good reason. In that situation, you may be able to treat the request as withdrawn. Outside of that, skipping consultation is a risk you should not consider.
Even a procedurally perfect refusal can land you in trouble if it disproportionately affects people who share a protected characteristic. The classic example is refusing flexible hours in a way that disadvantages women with childcare responsibilities, or employees with a disability.
This means you need to look beyond “did I follow the eight reasons correctly” and also ask “could this refusal be seen as unfair to a particular group?” If the answer is yes, get advice before you send that letter.
If the request is disability-related, it is also worth checking whether reasonable adjustment duties under the Equality Act apply separately. Our team has written more on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion if you want a deeper look at how the two areas overlap.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 is set to tighten this area further, with a reasonableness test for refusals expected around 2027. In plain terms, employers will need to do more than tick the eight-reason box; they will need to show the refusal was genuinely reasonable in the circumstances, with a more prescriptive consultation process baked in.
If you are already following the current rules properly, this shift will not catch you out. If you have been relying on generic refusal templates, now is the time to review your policy.
Flexible working requests are not something to handle on instinct anymore. Every employee can ask from day one, you have two months to respond and you can only say no for one of eight specific business reasons, properly explained and properly consulted on. Skip the process and you risk a claim even if your decision itself was fair.
Getting this right protects your business and builds trust with your team. If you are unsure whether a request should be granted, refused, or somewhere in between, that is exactly the kind of situation our Employee Relations consultants deal with every week. You can also read more of our guidance over on the Centric HR news and insights hub.
No. The right applies from day one of employment, meaning their actual first day in post, not before they have signed a contract or started work.
It is not a strict legal requirement, but having one makes the process far easier to manage consistently and reduces the risk of inconsistent decisions that could be challenged as discriminatory.
They have the right to appeal. Your refusal letter should set out how to do this. If they remain unhappy after the appeal, they may be able to bring a claim to an employment tribunal.
Yes and it is often a smart middle ground. A trial period lets you test whether the new arrangement works in practice before committing permanently and it shows good faith during consultation.
Employees have statutory rights regardless of whether they work full or part time, from day one. Agency workers and genuinely self-employed contractors are treated differently, so it is worth checking someone’s employment status if you are unsure.
A mutually agreed flexible working request becomes a permanent contractual change and should be followed up in writing with either a variation to terms and conditions or a new contract and signed by the employee. If you are implementing a trial period first, this should also be in writing stating how long the trial period will last for.
