Minister unveils new laws on flexible working

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More than 350,000 parents are likely to be granted the right to change their working hours because of family-friendly legislation, the Government said on Tuesday.

Patricia Hewitt, the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, said new legal standards would force employers to consider parents' requests to change their working hours.

The law, which will come into force in April 2003, will allow men and women with children under six, and parents with disabled children up to 18, to request job-shares, part-time work and unusual hours. Adoptive parents will also qualify.

Employers will be forced to make a "formal business assessment" of how such flexible working can be achieved – or risk being taken to an industrial tribunal. Ministers believe only 1 per cent of requests will end up at tribunals. Employers believe the target may prove optimistic. The Employers' Federation said ministers should provide extra support for businesses to help them to achieve the targets.

Ministers believe most businesses will be keen to arrange hours to suit parents – particularly new mothers – so they return to work. Ms Hewitt said: "At the moment one in three mothers who have been at work before having a child do not come back to work after they have taken maternity leave – about 100,000 women every year. Most of these women do want to come back to work, if not immediately then at some point. The biggest hurdle they face is getting the hours that will suit them and the childcare arrangements they want."

The Equal Opportunities Commission welcomed the proposals, which came as a response to a report by the Work and Parents' task force. Julie Mellor, who chairs the commission, said: "For the first time, employers will have an explicit duty to properly consider fathers' as well as mothers' requests to work part time."

* A car mechanic who was refused the right to work shorter hours to allow him to care for his six-month old son has won a sex discrimination case against his former employer. Neil Walkingshaw, 35, from North Berwick in East Lothian, took the John Martin Group to a tribunal after it refused to let him reduce his hours.