Response to amendment of flexible working application

Occasionally, an employee may submit their application for flexible working only to then change their mind about what exactly is it that they want. Use our letter to respond to their amendment request.

Amendment possibilities

The right to request flexible working includes the right for an employee to ask for changes to the hours they work, the times when they’re required to work or their place of work. So, if they want to amend their application, it’s likely to be because they want to tweak whichever of these changes they specifically asked for.

Dealing with requests in a reasonable manner

Provided the employee’s application for flexible working is valid, the law says that you must deal with it in a reasonable manner. The Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working provides that you should arrange a consultation meeting with the employee without unreasonable delay to discuss their application with them (but there’s no need for a meeting if you decide to agree to their request in full). All applications, including any appeals, must be decided on within two months from first receipt, unless you agree with the employee to extend this period. The employee can’t make more than two applications during any twelve-month period (and there can only be one live application at any one time). However, there’s nothing in the legislation that requires you to permit an employee to amend their flexible working application once it’s been formally submitted to you. So, you’re perfectly entitled to proceed on the basis of their original application and decide on that. That said, it’s good employment relations practice to allow employees to amend their requests, provided they do so in a timely manner. This is particularly the case if their personal circumstances unexpectedly change after their application has been made.

Response letter

Our Response to Amendment of Flexible Working Application contains two alternative responses to an amendment request. The first is that you’re happy to allow them to amend their application, and then either the arranged meeting can go ahead as planned or you might want to postpone it by a few days to allow you to further consider their amendment. The second is that you’re not willing to allow the amendment and so the flexible working process, and the meeting, will proceed on the basis that their application remains as previously submitted.