I've been with my company for 8 months (I know the new law says from day one now) and I've submitted a flexible working request to go from 5 days to 3. My manager seems reluctant. What are my rights? Can they just say no?
Since the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 came into force in April 2024, your employer must consider any request and can only refuse based on specific business grounds — like the work can't be done part-time, or it would cost too much to reorganise. They can no longer refuse without giving a valid reason. They have 2 months to respond.
Make sure you put your request in writing and keep a copy. If they refuse, they must tell you which of the eight statutory grounds applies. If they don't follow the process, you can raise a grievance or take it to an employment tribunal.
ACAS has a brilliant free guide on flexible working requests — including a template letter. Worth reading before you submit anything formal. It also helps to frame the request around business benefit, not just your personal needs.
One thing that helped me was proposing a 3-month trial period. It's harder for an employer to refuse a trial than a permanent change. Once you've proved it works, making it permanent is usually straightforward.