It is trite law that any employee who fulfils the entitlement
criteria has a statutory right under the Employment Act 2006
("EA 2006") to make an application to
his or her employer to change his or her terms and conditions
relating to:
- how many hours are worked,
and/or
- when that work is done, and/or
- where that work is done.
Until recently the right to flexible working could only be
exercised for the purposes of caring for a dependent (as defined
under s99(6) EA 2006 (now repealed)).
The Equality Act 2017 and Flexible Working
The 2014 consultation document on the Equality Bill contained a
number of suggested employment law reforms which were unrelated to
the Bill's main proposals and which subsequently formed
Schedule 22 (employment legislation – miscellaneous
amendments) of the Equality Act 2017. One of the proposed reforms
was to widen the right to request flexible working, to be
accomplished by amending the relevant provisions in the EA 2006
