Proposals for day one right to request flexible working expected ‘shortly’

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All employees may soon be able to ask to work flexibly when they start new jobs under imminent government proposals. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is set to allow workers to request flexible working from day one at a new employer, replacing the current 26-week period. The plans were part of the Conservative party's manifesto in the 2019 election but their introduction to parliament was delayed by the Covid crisis. Day one rights were also promised in Labour's manifesto. A right to request flexible working arrangements after six months in a new role has been in place since 2014, but it has not had the impact hoped for by flexible working campaigners. TUC research in 2019 showed that flexi-time was unavailable to over half (58%) of the UK workforce, with job adverts offering flexible rising modestly from 9.5% in 2015 to 15.3% in 2019. And a CIPD survey the same year found that one in five employees (21%) had no flexible working arrangements available to them yet 68% wanted to work flexibly in at least one form that was not currently available to them. The new proposals – which are separate from those of the Flexible Working Taskforce published earlier this year – however, will only grant the right to ask for flexible working – they will n