Will green light for flexible working mean discrimination against parents?

Businesses will now be forced to embrace flexible-working conditions for their employees. The recent law change is likely to increase home working and the facility for employees to choose their hours of work.

Six years ago, legislation enabled parents of children of six years of age and under to request flexible-working and employers were bound by this legislation to take seriously such requests. The law has been updated so that parents of children up to the age of 16 will be able to make flexible working requests of their employer, which accounts for ten million working parents, inclusive.

According to government statistics, the vast majority of such requests for flexible-working for parents and carers are now accepted by UK employers, with the Government championing flexible working as beneficial to businesses in creating increased productivity and as well as greater engagement, loyalty and improved work-life balance.

Organisations will have to offset the positives against an increase in IT support and HR is repositioning to accommodate the trend. But there is increasing evidence that not all organisations are viewing flexible-working as a positive. Set against a backdrop of crippling recession, some businesses want to have greater control over working patterns.

Consequently, there is a concern that in recruitment, candidates enquiring about flexible working in job interviews may be discriminated against. Within the law revision, the Government is taking measures to encourage the uptake of flexible working and to discourage what are seen as outmoded attitudes to employment, with laws on inclusion and equality forcing the change to make flexible-working a requisite part of running a modern business.

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