The "family-friendly" requirements of some recent employment legislation is, according to the CBI, starting to cause headaches for employers. Of particular concern is the right of working parents to ask their employers to work "flexibly" - a right that often gives rise to requests to be allowed to work part-time or other non-standard hours.

The right, which applies currently only to parents of children under the age of six, was introduced back in 2002. If an employee of an eligible child wants to work flexibly in order to care for his or her child, then he or she must make a written application to employer.

That application must specify what sort of flexibility the employee wants and the date on which it is to start. It must also explain what effect the proposed changes would have on the employer and how the employee feels that the requested flexibility would benefit the child in question. There is then a strict timetable setting out when the employer must arrange and hold a meeting to discuss the application, a specified set of circumstances, one of which must apply if the application is to be refused, together with a specified appeal process.

According to the CBI, businesses are having to devote a great deal of management time to dealing with requests for flexible working.

The implication is that productivity is suffering as a result of having to deal with these complicated and convoluted procedures.

The rights, which form only one weapon in a the formidable family-friendly arsenal that also includes maternity and paternity leave and pay, parental leave, adoption leave and the right to take time to deal with family emergencies, are being used increasingly by employees.

The current proposal to extend them to parents of older children and carers for other dependents - such as elderly relatives - are therefore likely to be a cause for alarm to businesses and to be met with opposition from the CBI.

* Stephen Elliott is a solicitor in the employment team of North-East law firm Ward Hadaway. He can be contacted on 0191-204 4000 or by email at stephen.elliott@wardhadaway.com

Published: 20/09/2005