Check whether an employee may make a written flexible work request
Key facts
- Human involvement
- YellowClose supervision
- How AI is used
- From the employment facts the lawyer supplies, mark which circumstance in section 65(1A) is relied on: the employee is pregnant; is the parent, or has responsibility for the care, of a child of school age or younger; is a carer within the Carer Recognition Act 2010; has a disability; is 55 or older; is experiencing family and domestic violence; or provides care or support to a member of the employee's immediate family or household who needs it because that member is experiencing family and domestic violence. The request must be because of that circumstance. The note to section 65(1) gives examples of hours of work, patterns of work, and location of work. Section 65(1B) says a parent, or a person with responsibility for the care of a child, who is returning to work after leave for the birth or adoption of the child, may request to work part-time to care for the child. Apply section 65(2): an employee other than a casual employee needs at least 12 months of continuous service with the employer immediately before the request; a casual employee must, immediately before the request, be a regular casual employee employed on that basis for a sequence of periods during at least 12 months, and have a reasonable expectation of continuing employment on a regular and systematic basis. Section 65(2A) says a period as a regular casual employee counts as continuous service where employment changed under Division 4A of Part 2-2. Check section 65(3): the request must be in writing and set out the change sought and the reasons for the change. The opened text ends at the heading 'Agreeing to the request'. No response time and no ground for refusal is stated. The tool does not write the request that is sent and does not state how the employer must answer.
- What the lawyer must review
- The lawyer decides whether the employee is entitled to make the request, and writes the request that is sent. The lawyer takes the employer's response rules from the rest of the section, which was not in the opened text.
- Written for / version
- US
Open a jurisdiction version of this task to see which instruments apply: US
Who does what
| Role | What they do |
|---|---|
| Assistance | Do not begin AI assistance until the responsible lawyer has defined and confirmed its permitted scope. |
| Lawyer | Set the scope, supervise the work closely, verify every part relied on, resolve omissions and exceptions, and approve the exact output. |
Checklist
- Mark only a circumstance listed in section 65(1A), or the return-to-work part-time request in section 65(1B).
- Apply the 12-month test in section 65(2), including the regular-casual rule and section 65(2A).
- Check the request is in writing and sets out the change and the reasons. Do not state a response time or a ground for refusal.
Sources
- Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth) s 65 · 2026-10-22
These are suggested working checks. Confirm the required checking with the responsible lawyer before work starts; the checking approach does not establish permission to use AI.