Answers · UK 2025/26
Do UK workers have a legal right to request a four-day week?
There is no specific standalone legal right to request a four-day week in the UK — instead, employees with at least 26 weeks of continuous service can make a statutory flexible working request (which became a day-one right under recent reforms for the right to make a request, though the qualifying period for making a request was subsequently addressed by government policy), which can include a request to compress or reduce working days, but the employer can still refuse for specified business reasons.
Full answer
There is no dedicated legal right in UK employment law specifically called a right to a four-day week — what exists instead is the general statutory right to request flexible working, which can be used to ask for a four-day week (whether that means compressing existing full-time hours into four longer days, or genuinely reducing total hours and pay to work four days), among many other possible flexible working arrangements such as changed start and finish times, remote or hybrid working, or job sharing. Under recent reforms to the flexible working framework, employees gained the right to make a flexible working request from the first day of employment (removing the previous 26-week qualifying period for making the request itself), and the right to make two such requests within any 12-month period (up from one previously) — however, having the right to request is not the same as having the right to be granted the request: an employer can still lawfully refuse a flexible working request, including a request to move to a four-day week, provided they can point to one of eight specified statutory business reasons, such as the burden of additional costs, an inability to reorganise work among other staff, a detrimental effect on quality or performance, or insufficient work available during the periods the employee proposes to work. Employers must now respond to a flexible working request within two months (reduced from three months previously) and are required to consult with the employee and consider reasonable alternatives before refusing, rather than simply rejecting the request outright without discussion. Because a four-day week that genuinely reduces total contracted hours (rather than compressing the same hours into fewer days) will typically also reduce pay proportionally unless the employer voluntarily agrees to maintain full pay (as some employers piloting four-day week trials have done, betting that productivity gains offset the reduced hours), employees should be clear in their request and any resulting agreement about whether pay is expected to change alongside the reduced or restructured working pattern. Use the Take-Home Pay calculator to model the pay impact of moving to reduced contracted hours.
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This answer is informational only and does not constitute financial, tax or legal advice. Figures are for the 2025/26 UK tax year. See our methodology and sources.