Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill receives Royal Assent

On 20 July 2023, the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill received Royal Assent.

When section 1 of the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 comes into force, it will vary the Flexible Working Request procedure so that:

• When making a request, an employee will no longer have to explain what effect, if any, the employee thinks their requested change would have on the employer and how any such effect might be dealt with.
• The current limitation restricting an employee to one request in any 12-month period will be revised. An employee will be entitled to make two requests in any 12-month period. However, it will not be possible to make a further application while another application to the same employer is already proceeding.
• An employer will not be permitted to refuse a request unless the employee has been consulted.
• The time for an employer to make a decision will be reduced from three to two months (although it will remain open for the parties to agree a longer period).

Announcing that the Bill was to receive Royal Assent, the government referred to the right to request flexible working becoming a “day one” right. While this is not an amendment made by the Act, the announcement reiterates previous government statements that the current requirement for an employee to have at least 26 weeks’ continuous employment by the date of a request will be removed by secondary legislation. The government expects section 1 of the Act and secondary legislation to come into force in approximately a year’s time, to give employers time to prepare.