The government's reforms to flexible working under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) are expected to take effect in autumn 2027. Ahead of these changes, the government consulted on a range of proposals relating to flexible working. The government has now published its response to that consultation.
Previously, we looked at the key focus areas of the consultation, including the impact of the April 2024 reforms, a proposed new light touch process for consulting on flexible working requests, and the training, resources and support that might help businesses to navigate flexible working requests.
In this article, we examine the government's response and what this might mean for employers.
Currently, all employees have a statutory right to request flexible working, regardless of length of service. Employers can refuse such requests for one or more of eight prescribed statutory reasons (such as a detrimental effect on quality or performance). The test currently focuses on whether the employer considers one or more of the grounds applies, rather than whether the decision to dismiss is reasonable.
The ERA 2025 will introduce changes to the flexible working framework, which the government intends to take effect in autumn 2027. Although the statutory grounds will remain unchanged, the ERA 2025 will introduce a new reasonableness test to the process. This will require employers to demonstrate that the refusal of any request was...
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