If they reject for one of the grounds listed in the legislation (and its pretty easy for them to do) then short of a grievance which will likely fail you cant really. There is now no statutory right to appeal a decision.

If you are a HR Bod providing a service (in some shape or form) to factory based employees who need to be in then that alone probably can be fitted to one of the criteria (4,5 or 6).

Personally I probably wouldn't get into a formal FWR process but try and negotiate with my boss and trial it in some way

Reasons for rejection

1. it will cost too much
2. they cannot reorganise the work among other staff
3. they cannot recruit more staff
4. there will be a negative effect on quality
5. there will be a negative effect on the business’ ability to meet customer demand
6. there will be a negative effect on performance
7. there’s not enough work for you to do when you’ve requested to work
8. there are planned changes to the business, for example, your employer plans to reorganise or change the business and thinks the request will not fit with these plans

thank you Keith. very helpful

hi Keith, does the business need to give me examples to support their reasons? basically how / why they think there would be a negative impact on the quality or business?

Hi Meena... I've moved your thread to a more appropriate group. Hope that's OK.

that's fine. thank you

In reply to Meena:

Actually very little to be honest. It would be case specific but as long as their rejection isn't totally arbitrary then limited feedback saying it cant work because colleagues wont be supported is probably enough

In reply to Meena:

Hi Meena,

How much direct/personal daily contact do you have with on-site staff?

To echo Keith's comments, a request can be rejected for one of 8 reasons, which cover a broad range or scenarios.

If your responsibilities include being readily available to provide HR support to production or manufacturing staff, in case they have a query or an issue, then it may well be argued that by not being there in person this can become very difficult.

Hi Meena,

I am also in a stand alone HR role for a manufacturing company. As a business we have no issue with home working, as a UK and US based company I am used to being flexible when supporting the employees and interviewing. That said, my production staff have limited access to IT and prefer to ‘pop their head around my door’, so I personally feel it’s important that I am onsite. I do work the occasional day from home but on an as hoc basis.

In reply to Meena:

Hi Meena... a related thread:

 Hybrid working - creating resentment in those whose roles are office based 

In reply to Karen:

This seems like the right way forward.
I cannot envisage sensible home working for an operational HR role but can see the sense in some time away to concentrate on development/strategy

Thank you everyone. We have two site and I am the only HR for both sites. I travel to one site on a daily basis and the other once ever 6 weeks. Our IT manager, who is also stand alone and he works 2 days from office and 3 days from home. I don't have a face to face to dealing with employees very often and it's mostly email based.