Flexible Working Just Got Harder to Refuse
Here's What's Changing
Flexible working has been a "day one" right since April 2024, meaning employees can ask from their first day rather than waiting six months. The Employment Rights Act 2025 goes a step further, and employers who still treat flexible working requests as an easy no should take note.
What's changing
Under the current rules, an employer can refuse a flexible working request on any of eight statutory business grounds — things like burden of additional costs, inability to reorganise work among existing staff, or detrimental impact on quality. In practice, many employers have relied on ticking one of these boxes without doing much more.
Under the Act, that gets harder. Employers will only be able to refuse a request where both of the following apply: the refusal falls within one of the existing statutory grounds, and it is reasonable for the employer to refuse the request on that ground. That second test — reasonableness — is new, and it shifts flexible working from a checklist exercise to something closer to a genuine judgement call that could be challenged.
A government consultation on improving access to flexible working closed on 1 April 2026, looking specifically at what process employers should follow before rejecting a request — likely including a requirement to properly explore and explain why alternatives weren't workable.
Why this matters beyond the individual request
Flexible working refusals rarely arrive in isolation. They often sit alongside other employee relations issues — a grievance about unequal treatment, a disability discrimination claim where flexible working was a reasonable adjustment, or a resignation that later becomes a constructive dismissal claim. A poorly reasoned refusal can become supporting evidence in a much bigger dispute.
This is particularly relevant for requests linked to caring responsibilities, health conditions, or disability, where a blanket "no" — rather than a genuine, documented exploration of alternatives — is increasingly likely to be viewed unfavourably if challenged.
What employers should do now
Move away from template refusals. A one-line reference to a statutory ground, with no explanation of why it applies to this specific request, is unlikely to meet a reasonableness test.
Document the thinking, not just the decision. If a request is refused, the file should show what was considered, what alternatives were explored, and why they didn't work.
Train managers handling first-line requests. Many flexible working conversations happen informally between an employee and their direct manager before HR ever sees them — and that's often where the reasoning (or lack of it) is set.
Treat patterns of refusal as a risk signal. If your organisation refuses flexible working requests significantly more often for certain roles, teams, or employee groups, that pattern is worth investigating before someone else does.
Flexible working reform doesn't carry the same headline weight as unfair dismissal changes, but it touches a huge volume of everyday HR decisions. Getting the reasoning right, consistently, is a much smaller task now than defending inconsistent refusals later.
Blue Rock Investigations helps employers investigate and resolve disputes that arise from flexible working decisions, discrimination concerns, and related grievances, independently and fairly.
