Flexible and hybrid working are important for managers and their teams. According to a 2025 survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, flexible working is “pivotal to the attraction and retention of talent”.
Under the Employment Rights Act 2025, employers will have to explain why it’s reasonable to refuse a request for flexible working. In this article, we consider your statutory rights and what they mean in practice for hybrid working in the NHS.
All employees have a day-one right to request flexible working for any reason under section 80F of the Employment Rights Act 1996. This could be a request to change your:
This opens up a range of flexible working practices, including hybrid working. Your request must be in writing, state that it is a statutory request and include details of any previous requests. Two requests can be made in any twelve-month period.
Your employer must:
The ACAS Code of Practice on flexible working requests says employers should arrange a meeting without unreasonable delay and allow employees to be accompanied by a trade union rep.
The grounds for refusing a flexible working request can include any of these wide-ranging business reasons:
You can only bring a tribunal claim on the grounds that, in refusing your request, the employer:
In one tribunal case, the employer had changed its requirement for working in the office from two days a week to three. It refused one employee’s request to keep working two days, based on evidence that his presence in the office would help improve ways of working, collaboration, problem solving and performance, and that accepting his request would have a detrimental impact on quality, performance and meeting customer demand. The tribunal accepted this was the factual basis for the refusal and rejected the employee’s argument that his employer was simply applying a diktat from above.
An employer refusing a hybrid working request could still face a claim for indirect discrimination. Requiring staff to work a certain number of days in the office is likely to amount to a ‘provision, criterion or practice’ putting women at a disadvantage because of caring responsibilities. The employer must then justify the refusal as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim.
In one case, an employment tribunal rejected the employer’s claim that data protection, health and safety, cost and the possibility of the employee being distracted by her children amounted justification for refusal. There had been no complaints when the employee had previously worked from home and evidence that productivity had improved.
In another case, where an employee’s mental health impairment prevented her from leaving home, the tribunal held that the employer’s failure to consider home working instead of dismissal was a failure to make a reasonable adjustment.
When granted, a statutory flexible working request will generally lead to a permanent change in your contract. But you can also agree a temporary change with your employer, for example to cover a short-term caring need or following bereavement. In such cases, you should agree with your employer in advance the duration of the temporary flexible working arrangement and that you will revert to your previous terms and conditions when it ends.
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