Outcome of flexible working appeal meeting letter

If you reject an employee’s request for a flexible working arrangement, the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working says that you should give them the option to appeal the decision. Whilst there are no set time periods for dealing with an appeal, all flexible working requests, which includes any appeals, must be considered and decided on within a period of two months from first receipt, unless you agree with the employee to extend this period.

Appeal meeting

If you refuse an employee’s flexible working request, they should be permitted to lodge a written appeal against your decision. If this happens, you should arrange to hold an appeal meeting with them. The person holding the appeal meeting should have sufficient authority to make a decision and, wherever possible, it should be handled by a manager who has not previously been involved in considering the employee’s request. They should then carefully consider the employee’s appeal and notify their decision to them in writing. Our Outcome of Flexible Working Appeal Meeting Letter will help you deal with notifying the decision on the employee’s appeal.

Possible outcomes

There are two possible outcomes to the appeal:

• it’s accepted (whether this is an acceptance of the employee’s original flexible working request or as a result of a compromise reached at the appeal meeting) - in this case, like the Flexible Working Acceptance Letter, your letter should set out details of the new work pattern, which, unless specifically agreed otherwise, represents a permanent change to the employee’s terms and conditions of employment, and establish a start date (we have, however, included an option for you to have agreed with the employee that the change will be for a temporary defined period only)
• it’s rejected - in this case, like the Flexible Working Rejection Letter, your letter should provide the relevant business reason or reasons for refusal of the appeal and set out any additional information which is reasonable to help explain the decision.

Our letter covers both these outcomes as optional paragraphs. Note. Your decision on any appeal should be the final stage of a reasonable procedure.