What happens if my employer starts treating me badly or sacks me for asking for flexible working?

You cannot be sacked or treated less fairly by your employer simply because:

• your application to work flexibly has been granted;
• or you have made an application to work flexibly under the new right;
• or you have made or have said you intend to make a complaint to an employment tribunal about your application to work flexibly.

Unfair treatment can include harassment or denial of training or promotion opportunities. Sacking can include 'constructive dismissal', which means circumstances where you are entitled to resign as a result of the treatment you have suffered by your employer, and being unfairly selected for redundancy.

If a tribunal finds an employee was sacked for requesting flexible working, it will rule that the dismissal was automatically unfair. In the case of flexible working requests, employees do not need to have the usual 12 months' service before gaining unfair dismissal protection. Instead they gain this after only 6 months' service, and the upper age limit is removed.