A Cautionary Tale For All Those Dealing With Flexible Working Requests

A delay in hearing an appeal against a refusal to permit an employee to work flexibly left an employer facing an Employment Tribunal claim.  Find out what happened and learn how not to make the same mistakes.

What happened in this case?

The claimant worked for Network Rail.  He submitted a flexible working request on 11 February 2019.  This meant that Network Rail had until 10 May 2019 to decide whether to accept or reject the request.  This “decision period” includes the completion of any appeal process.  The claimant's request was rejected on 7 March 2019 and an appeal was submitted on 13 March 2019.   Through no fault of either party, there was a delay in fixing the appeal hearing and it did not take place before the end of the decision period.