Skip navigation

Flexible Working

Work-life Balance - Flexible Working

Working flexibly can allow individuals to improve their work-life balance. For employers it can be useful in staff retention, can reduce absenteeism and increase staff morale.

The Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 gives employees the right to request flexible working. The application can cover working hours, times of work and place of work (as between home and place of business only). Employers must consider any requests made.

Eligibility criteria

The following are the eligibility criteria which must apply in order to make a request for flexible working. The applicant must:

To be eligible to make a request under this right, a person must:

  • be an employee;
  • have worked for their employer continuously for 26 weeks at the date the application is made
  • not be an agency worker or a member of the armed forces; and
  • not have made another application to work flexibly under the right during the past 12 months.

Additional criteria apply depending on whether the request is being made by a parent or the carer of an adult dependant. These criteria are set out below:

A parent, to be eligible, must:

  • have a child aged under six, or a disabled child under 18;
  • have responsibility for the upbringing of the child and be making the application to enable them to care for the child;
  • be either:
    • the mother, father, adopter, guardian, special guardian or foster parent, of the child; or
    • married to, the partner or civil partner of the child’s mother, father, adopter, guardian, special guardian or foster parent;

A carer, to be eligible, must

  • have (or expect to have) responsibility for the care of an adult aged 18 or over;
  • be making the application to enable them to care for that person;
  • be either:
    • the cared-for person’s spouse, partner, civil partner or relative or
    • be living at the same address as the person receiving care.

How does the process work? (Making a flexible working application)

Details are set out in the following DELNI booklet

DEL ER Booklet 36 - Flexible Working(opens new window)

The Flexible working process in flowchart form can be viewed at the following link flexible_working_process_-_flowchart.doc