Ms Patricia King:

That all comes down to the grounds on which an employer can object. Some of the grounds that are listed are reasonable and some are not. An employer must give what would be regarded as a reasonable refusal, and this will be done on objective grounds. All we have to do is look at the legislation for contract employment or part-time working applications and it deals with all of those things. The same challenges for small businesses occur in those circumstances, and they were dealt with by including the objective grounds provision.