If you are the parent of a child under 17 (under 18 if your child is disabled) or caring for an adult, you have the right to ask your employer for flexible working. You must also have worked for your employer for at least 26 weeks.
Flexible working can include working part time, working school hours, working flexitime, home working, job sharing, shift working, staggering hours and compressing hours (where you work your total number of agreed hours over a shorter period).
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Although you have the right to ask to work flexibly, your employer doesn’t have to agree to it. However, they must give your request serious consideration and have a good business reason if they decide not to agree.
If you are asking for flexible working because you’re a parent, you must be responsible for your child on a day to day basis.
If you are caring for an adult, the adult must be one of the following:
* your husband
* your wife
* your civil partner
* your partner
* a family relative, such as a mother, father, grandfather, brother or sister
* someone who isn’t related to you, but lives at the same address as you.
You can make one request to work flexibly each year. This must be in writing. You should say how you think the change in your working pattern will affect your employer’s business and how this might work in practice.
Your employer must also follow a standard procedure for considering your request. This includes having a meeting with you. If your employer wants to turn down your request for flexible working, they must give their reasons in writing. You have the right to appeal if your request is turned down. You must do this in writing, within at least 14 days of getting your employer’s decision. You should give your reasons for appealing and make sure your appeal is dated.
If your appeal for flexible working is refused, you may be able to:
* ask ACAS to help you sort out your dispute with your employer (in Northern Ireland this is the Labour Relations Agency). ACAS has set up a flexible working arbitration scheme to deal with this type of dispute. You can find out more on the ACAS website at (New window) www.acas.org.uk
* complain to an employment tribunal.
You can only complain to an employment tribunal under certain circumstances, for example, where your employer hasn’t followed the procedure properly for considering your request or where they haven’t taken the right information into account when making their decision.
You may also be able to make a claim to an employment tribunal for sex discrimination. For example, you can make a claim if you are a man and your request to work part-time to look after your children is refused when a request by a female employee would be accepted. If you are a woman, you may be able to make a claim on the basis that refusing to allow you to work flexibly is ‘indirect sex discrimination’. This is because more women than men have childcare responsibilities.
There’s a strict time limit for making a claim to an employment tribunal. This is usually three months minus one day from the date when the thing you are complaining about last happened.
This is a very complicated area. If you want to make a claim to an employment tribunal because your employer has refused your request for flexible working, you should get advice from an experienced adviser, for example, at a Citizens Advice Bureau. To search for details of your nearest CAB, including those that can give advice by email, click on (New window) nearest CAB.
You should also bear in mind that an employment tribunal may not be able to over-turn your employer’s decision. However, it may be able to force your employer to reconsider your request or to award you compensation.
For more information about the right to flexible working, go to the Directgov website at: (New window) www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment. Directgov has an interactive tool which can help you work out the rights and options for your own particular circumstances.