The right to request flexible working in Britain: the Law and organisational realities

In April 2003 the UK Government introduced the right for working parents to request flexible working arrangements under the provisions of the Employment Act 2002. This legislation has been widely criticised as providing only weak rights for employees, as neo-institutionalist business systems theory would lead one to expect in Britain's 'Liberal Market Economy'. However, criticism of the law has to be tempered by understanding how it relates to practice in large companies and this paper investigates these practices. It finds that large companies have gone beyond the terms of the legislation, in order to establish themselves as 'employers of choice'. It is therefore argued that British practice, in reality, only partly conforms to the expectations generated by neo-institutionalist business systems theory.

Accepted manuscript of an article published in International Journal of Comparative Labour Law and Industrial Relations, Volume 21, Issue 3 (2005) pp. 503 – 520. Reproduced with permission of Kluwer Law International.