From 30 June 2014, employees with 26 weeks' continuous
service will have the right to request flexible working,
irrespective of their parental or caring responsibilities.
Many employers already offer flexible working to all employees
but for most, the new rules will present new challenges,
particularly in relation to how to handle multiple requests. This
will inevitably lead to greater exposure to discrimination
claims.
In our view, the new rules give rise to concerns that an
employer's decision to reject a request will no longer be
entirely in their subjective discretion, and so will be at risk of
challenge in an employment tribunal. We also see difficulties with
balancing competing applications. For example, should employers
apply value judgements to decide competing requests? Also, what
about if a request is granted, but a few months later another
"more deserving" request is made by another employee? Is
a "first come, first served" approach the right one
