So a story seems to have exploded over the the course of the day that the Government is going to give workers the right to work a compressed four-day week. They aren’t. But they might be about to strengthen a right that already exists.

What these press stories are about is the ‘right to request flexible working’. This was introduced by the Employment Act 2002 and was originally aimed at employees with child-care responsibilities wanting to work part-time. Over the years it has been expanded so that it is a right that now applies to all workers who want to change their hours of work – irrespective of their reason for doing so. 

The reference to flexible working is a bit of a misnomer really. The key section of the Employment Rights Act actually refers to a right to request a contract variation. Essentially a worker can ask the employer to make a change to their contract relating to the hours they are required to work, the times they are required to work or to allow them to work from home. When a request is made under this section the employer must ‘deal with the application in a reasonable manner’. If the application is refused it must be refused for one of a number of listed business reasons and the decision must not be based on incorrect facts. 

So if an employee asks to be allowed not to work on Fridays, the employer could refuse that request on the grounds that Friday is actually their busiest day – but if it does so then it must be true that Friday is their busiest day. The worker could also ask to work a four-day week (whether under compressed hours or otherwise) or for that matter a three-day week or a two-day week. A worker could ask to work nothing but Sunday mornings if that’s what they want. Each of these would be a valid request and the employer would have to deal with that request in a reasonable manner.

Crucially, however, the employer’s refusal does not have to be a reasonable one. If the employer refuses the request because of the additional costs involved, there can be no argument that the costs are small enough that a reasonable employer should absorb them. The employer is required to be sincere in its reasons for refusal – but does not have to be reasonable. The worker can ask to work compressed hours but the employer can pretty easily say ‘no’.

In 2019 the Conservative Party manifesto promised to change the law, saying: 

We will encourage flexible working and consult on making it the default unless employers have good reasons not to. 

What that turned into was the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 which tweaked the procedure for making a request. Separately, the Government also made it a a ‘day one’ right. But the reforms did not do anything to change the grounds on which the employer could refuse a request or to introduce a requirement for any refusal to be reasonable. 

Labour’s proposals for employment say they will act by: “making flexible working the default from day one for all workers, except where it is not reasonably feasible.”

Love the use of the word ‘default’ there – a deliberate call-back to the 2019 Tory manifesto. The trouble is we still don’t have a clear idea of what it means. My assumption is that the law will be changed to raise the threshold of reasonableness – so that it is harder for an employer to refuse a request.  But I’m happy to wait until a Bill is published to see what is actually intended. One thing I am sure about however. Whatever the new Bill says it will not create a specific right to ask for a four-day week – whether that is a move to part-time working or compressed hours.

Workers already have that right and have had it for years.