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This is utter BS.
I have tried to lessen the anger I normally feel against fellow riders by striking up conversation where possible. Let's call it frustration offsetting. Complemented someone on their Holdsworth and someone else on something with sick fadez. Also tried to point out to the guy riding with a single break and no foot retention that he was fucked if the cable snapped, but he kept insisting "it's a fixie, bro!"
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I am going to raies it again and push the angle of being a good employer but my question is if my employer has some legal obligation to provide these facilities or to make them available to me since they are avalable to others?
No, there is no legal obligation. You need to find out more--i.e., who are these people who allegedly have spaces allocated to them who don't seem to ride a bike in? Are they bigwigs who think it's OK to occupy a space while only commuting by bike occasionally? Etc. It might be employees who left a long time ago and never bothered to notify the building management.
It's usually a good idea to go through the most senior people first if you can.
Other than that, all the usual applies--people who commute by bike are fitter and work better, the company should actively promote cycling more, they could get a consultant in to advise them about installing better bike parking (shameless plug, a friend of mine does that sort of thing), e.g. more space-efficient, managed better (to avoid the problem of vacant stands) etc.
Importantly, try not to come across as a complainer but be positive in your interactions. Bike parking often appears to people as an annoying chore that they'd rather not have to deal with.
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Do they issue a specific pass to give you access to the bike area? Technically our bike spots are all allocated but the same thing is happening as with your office i.e. half are empty.
However the pass for the normal entrance is the same for the rear entrance / bike area and the security guy doesn't look twice as long as the security pass works.
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Sounds like a good excuse for getting a Brompton until you get a slot allocated.
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Cycle in and lock your bike up, if the space is available they most likely won't clock on for a while and when they do be vague about who said you could and ask what the problem with it is. Either that or they notice on the day and the argument is turned upto 11 and resolved once and for all.
Also having worked in facilities management before we had a messed up system where my bosses for the building wanted tenants to give something in writing to say they understood it was at own risk(never asked this for a car which could be stolen/damaged) and so some tenants just couldn't be bothered to do this for employees and would fob them off the same as they might be with you.
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@stevielarson
So I started commuting into work this spring having moved to South London, making the ride into the City more viable. Around the time I was going to start riding I asked my employer (medium sized financial institution) about getting access to our cycle parking but was told that all of the bike parking spots we hold in the building are currently allocated and that they will actually need to decrease the number allocated at some point as we are looking to sublet some of our existing floor space.
At the time I accepted this and have just been locking my bike at street level and right next to a busy tube station. Curently ride in nearly every day, lock it up, wander into the bike parking/showers and then on my way back up I put on an extra, heavier lock that I bought.
I have since enquired again as the crappier months of weather approach (hoping to keep my bike out of the elements) and was again told that we have no available spots. I have argued with our facilities people that the bike parking is never even close to being full and that there are also dozens of spaces allocated to motorcycle parking when there are never more than 2-4 motorcycles. I think our building allocated spots based on the number of stands available (this type) which they could reasonably park two bikes on. The facilities people claim that they have asked the building about providing more spots but that the building management say our company doesn't even use all of the spots allocated so they won't add any which is true because many people don't ride in regularly if at all.
I am going to raies it again and push the angle of being a good employer but my question is if my employer has some legal obligation to provide these facilities or to make them available to me since they are avalable to others?
TLDR; Employer has no more bike parking slots to allocate and claim building management wont give them more despite bike parking never being close to full and easy changes to add more. Looking for advice.
Any advice appreciated.