DH's employer taken over, trying to stop flexible working agreement

[lou031205]

DH put a FWA application in May '09. It went through in August, giving him a 4 day week. It specifically says 'in order to allow you to care for your DD, "x", who is in receipt of DLA".

His company has been taken over, and their workers all work Mon-Fri, 6-6. Impossible for us. We are on our knees as it is, and DH works 4 days, 8-5. There is a meeting tomorrow, and he has been told that they will want him to go to a 5 day week, at least.

I spoke to ACAS, and they have said TUPE, DDA, unfair dismissal, etc. Scary stuff though.

Have any of you got any experience here?

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

No experience, but once the FWA has been approved and in place, it becomes contract and cannot be changed again without the consent of your DH. It is not a temporary thing that his employer can just change as they please.

I would get him to put in writing that he is unable to change his hours as requested, that he has been given the hours he is working now as part of a flexible working arrangement which now has been implimented is legal and being forced to change this will be breaking the law. He needs to state that if this happens, he will be forced to take this further and seek legal action. Hopefully, that will be enough.

Is he a member of a union at all?

[lou031205]

We joined 'unite' tonight, and so far it is all (strong) rumour, with the actual meeting taking place tomorrow. So we are hoping that he will meet the 'joined before the problem happened' criteria by the skin of his teeth.

[PavlovtheForgetfulCat]

If he does not meet the criteria, he will still be able to recieve advice and guidance on how to deal with it, even if he cannot be represented.

Good luck

[southernsoftie]

Requirement to work those hours may be indirectly discriminatory anyway so he may have a claim there too if he can show that this amounts to a requirement that fewer women than men are likely to be able to comply with (because of childcare commitments)- he could then piggyback on to a claim brought by a woman (it would need someone to claim first though).