Government plans to strengthen day one employment rights

If successful, every employee in the UK will be given the right to request flexible working – regardless of time served - under plans to modernise the way we work.

Under the plans announced on 23 September 2021, around 2.2 million more people will be given the right to request flexible working. The period of consultation will end on 1 December of this year.

The proposals consider whether limiting an employee’s application for flexible working to one per year represents the best balance between individual and business needs. The consultation also looks at cutting the current three-month period an employer has to consider any request.

What if an employer cannot accommodate the request?

If an employer cannot accommodate a request, as can be the case, they would need to think about what alternatives they could offer. For example, if they couldn’t change their employee’s hours on all working days, they could consider making the change for certain days instead.

The consultation looks at a range of flexible working methods such as job-sharing, flexitime, compressed, annualised and staggered hours, as well as phased retirement – not just working from home. 

It allows employees to balance their work and home life, including helping people who are managing childcare commitments or other caring responsibilities and ensuring that people under-represented in Britain’s workforce, such as new parents or disabled people, have access to more opportunities.

However, there are some circumstances where businesses will not be able to offer flexible working. The government is clear that they should still be able to reject a request if they have sound business reasons and will also respect freedom of contract rather than prescribing specific arrangements in legislation.

Employment law solicitors

If you have questions about day one employment rights, our solicitors in Brighton, Eastbourne, London, Hastings, and Uckfield can help you understand your options.
 
Our solicitors provide specialist employment law advice, including employment contracts, employee rights, unfair dismissal, redundancy, workplace discrimination, settlement agreements, and equal pay issues.