THE workplace of the future could look very different with some predicting that by the year 2020 some 80% of the UK workforce will not be tied in to a nine to five, fixed place daily office routine, and that far greater numbers will work from home.

This is turn will have a profound geographical effect with a dramatic shift away from the UK’s major cities (except London) and urban areas balanced by significant increases in population in the rural South West and Scotland.

The Government has launched a consultation on a variety of flexible working practices aimed towards achieving a cultural change in which flexible working practices are the norm.

It is likely that before long, perhaps as early as April 2012, all employees will have the right to request flexible working. This does not amount to an entitlement but will give all employees, not just parents and carers, the right to have any request seriously considered and only refused if one or more of a limited range of business related grounds can be shown to apply.

It follows that those who are prepared for this will be better able to accommodate flexible working.

In theory those who proactively support greater flexibility will be well placed to take advantages of the anticipated benefits, including a greater share of the anticipated increased productivity.

One concern from an employment law perspective relates to the prioritisation of flexible working requests. The Government has expressed a reluctance to require employers to prioritise requests according to a hierarchy of concerns and to move away from the ‘misconception that non traditional working practices are only useful or justified for parent and carers, and women in particular’.

The view is that employers should be allowed to take into account whatever factors they consider relevant. The problem lies in the increased potential for discrimination claims to arise as employers are left to choose between competing flexible working requests from men and women, young and old, able and less well able members of staff.

Lorraine Heard, an expert in employment law at leading law firm, Dickinson Dees