The new Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 will allow millions of British workers to have more flexibility over their work, including the hours they choose to work and the location in which this is undertaken. The need for more flexible working is obvious from recent research carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), which is set out in a corresponding report of April 2022. This highlights that 4% of employees changed jobs in the year preceding the report specifically due to a lack of flexible options, and that 9% left their profession/careers almost altogether due to a lack of flexibility.
The Act will make changes to both when and how employees can request flexible working arrangements from their employers, delivering on a 2019 commitment by the Government to encourage flexible working and with the aim of improving the CIPD statistics. The Act is also a reflection of the post-covid work environment, in which employers have become increasingly used to dealing with flexible working requests. In the last week, the Act has received Royal Assent and is now set to become law. When this happens, its changes will take effect.
At present, flexible working is governed under the Employment Rights Act 1996, which states that any employee who has worked at a company for 26 weeks or longer is permitted...
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