Grounds for Requesting and Refusing Flexible Working

Covering Assessment Criterion 4.3 of 5OS01 Specialist Employment Law, this video addresses the statutory framework governing flexible working requests and refusals. It examines the range of grounds on which employees may seek flexible arrangements, including religious observance — where requests may involve adjusting hours around the Sabbath, prayer times or religious festivals — and caring responsibilities, which extend well beyond childcare to include eldercare and support for disabled or unwell family members. The Carer's Leave Act 2023 and the Equality Act 2010 both feature as relevant legislative context, reflecting the way flexible working law intersects with discrimination protections around religion or belief.

The video also covers the lawful grounds on which employers may refuse a flexible working request. There are eight statutory business grounds, and the video makes clear that these represent the only basis on which refusal is permissible — grounds such as the burden of additional costs, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, inability to reorganise work among existing staff, detrimental impact on quality or performance, insufficiency of work during the proposed hours, and planned structural changes. A key point addressed in the video concerns the 2024 changes to the flexible working regime, specifically the removal of the requirement for employees to set out how the employer might accommodate the effects of the proposed change.

The relationship between citing a statutory ground and demonstrating that it genuinely applies to a particular request is also examined. The video makes a distinction between invoking a ground in principle and providing evidence that it holds in the specific circumstances of the request — for example, where claims about customer demand must be supportable given the nature of the role and the hours proposed. Remedies and the risk of unlawful discrimination arising from poorly reasoned refusals are included within the scope of what the video covers, keeping the focus firmly on the practical and legal consequences of how organisations handle flexible working requests under current employment law.