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Are Employers Required to Approve Requests for Flexible Working?
Published on: 06/02/2024
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Article Authors The main content of this article was provided by the following authors.
Chris Fullerton
Chris Fullerton

Are Employers Required to Approve Requests for Flexible Working?

The aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic has driven an exponential increase in working from home and hybrid working opportunities. Flexible working can have inclusion and well-being advantages for employees and can be useful to employers when attracting and retaining talent. However, do employers always have to allow employees flexible working arrangements?

Under the Flexible Working Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, an employer must seriously consider any application from an employee for flexible working arrangements, provided they have worked for the employer for at least 26 weeks. However, it is important to note that employees have the right to ask for flexible working but not the right to have it approved.

Employers can reasonably decline an employee’s application for flexible working for one of the following business reasons:

  • Burden of additional costs;
  • Detrimental effect on the ability to meet consumer 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;
  • Planned structural changes.

Employers are required to inform employees of any decision to decline an employee’s flexible working request within 14 days of the date of the employer’s meeting about the application. This decision should take place within 3 months of the date of the request (or longer if agreed with the employee).

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Disclaimer The information in this article is provided as part of Legal Island's Employment Law Hub. We regret we are not able to respond to requests for specific legal or HR queries and recommend that professional advice is obtained before relying on information supplied anywhere within this article. This article is correct at 06/02/2024