Burden or boon?

Fear and trepidation from employers

While most employers are keen to do the right thing by their employees, this new legislation has been met with a certain amount of bewilderment and trepidation.

Peninsula, the UK's biggest employment law firm, recently conducted a survey revealing that more than half of employers aren't aware of the new family friendly laws, and over 50 per cent of them believe that the laws are unnecessary. Of the 2562 employers polled, 68 per cent felt that such flexibility would not increase the productivity of their employees and 82 per cent felt the government were simply adding to the already considerable barrage of red tape.

Soaring stress levels

Peter Done, Managing Director of Peninsula, points out, "Small firms will suffer because they will no doubt lose out on key players within their business. If a small firm loses one or two members of staff then this is critical and can be damaging to the business. In addition, monitoring who takes what leave is going to add to the monstrous amount of paperwork that businesses have to deal with. While employees stress levels are being reduced the stress on employers is set to soar."

The tribunal threat

The biggest threat for small businesses is the prospect of tribunals brought by employees who feel that their requests for flexible working have been unfairly turned down. Current estimates suggest that the flexible working regulations could result in 100,000 more employment tribunals per year.

The concern is that the DTI has laid down procedures which, if not followed to the letter, could end in an employer losing a tribunal case even if he/she had a good business reason for refusing flexible work. In addition to this, female members of staff who feel they have not been fairly treated have recourse to claims of indirect sexual discrimination legislation, which packs a far harder punch.