Angry my manager has taken away WFH perk?

It's not clear from your posts - if you withdraw your flex working request, will you remain on your old schedule and keep your WFH perk? If so, I can't see anything wrong.

Appeal - on what grounds?

So, you requested fewer hours and they’ve given you fewer hours. They’re just suiting the business needs by taking away your Friday hours as they need you doing Tuesday to Thursday.

But you’re now adding more time Tuesday and Thursday because you don’t want to reduce your hours? 🫤

Withdraw your request and stick to your original schedule?

How is it maternity discrimination ? OP has requested a reduction in hours which has been accommodated. She’s needed in the workplace Tuesday to Thursday so the most efficient solution is to reduce her hours by cutting the Friday working from home. The managers’ first consideration is how to accommodate the request for reduced hours with the operational needs of the business. He’s done that.

If OP wants reassurance that she’s being treated fairly she could run this past ACAS but l suspect they will tell her the same thing.

The problem with that is, someone else has to deal with the interruptions

What hours were you doing before and what did you ask to change to? It may be the reduction of hours that has led to him taking away the WFH, rather than the maternity leave. I.e you’re doing less hours so he wants those hours to have maximum impact by having you in the office

Have a look an ACAS site and then appeal his decision

This is nowhere near constructive dismissal. In fact there is likely no legal basis to the OPs complaint at all other than goodwill and application of ‘perks’. I wish people would stop giving legal advice on the basis they’ve heard a phrase and assume it applies.

Strongly recommend contacting pregnant then screwed.

OP has asked to change her contract. That restarts the deal. If she wishes to remain on her current arrangments rather than change her hours she might have an argument that the arrangement has become contractual - but that isn't guaranteed.

If you're the only person with this perk then that could cause resentment among your colleagues. I think if you email your manager telling him how "disappointed" you are, you might find his goodwill disappears altogether.

This - you have been treated more favourably than anyone else in your area of work, and he always had the right (and, it could be argued, the obligation) to correct that. And you only dislike your manager now because he took away something that you got and nobody else did. So yes, YABU.

Given what you have said about copying in HR I suspect that there have been complaints from your colleagues.

If you then decide to look for a role that better suits you then that is fair enough and very reasonable.

I would say it’s unfair you are allowed to work from home and the rest of the team aren’t - he must be asked about this over and over.

I would

Look at the flexible working policy
Ask what has changed as you have worked flexibly for over 5 years
What benefit you working from home V no fridays would have
How the team would benefit from you working fridays -

I have a team member who does not work fridays and does longer hours in the week - as a team we struggle without her she has access we don’t have - so now she’s changed to 5 shorter days life is easier

What you need is facts - i’m sure there are templates somewhere - use them and fight your corner

If you have had those arrangements for 6+ years, taking it away from you would be like a change in contract, surely? Seek legal advice OP (and another job).

I think this is (understandably) an emotive post OP.

You need to be clear (and careful) what your complaint is.

You have made a flexible working request. Your manager has said your desire to reduce your hours can only be accommodated by removing your Friday wfh. So you would have gone from wfh on Friday to not working at all.

You haven't lost a perk; you've had your precise flexible working request refused and an alternative suggested. The thing to focus on is the reason why the request has been refused. If it was because you are needed for longer days Tues-Thurs (which it sounds like it is) to support the business, then that's valid. I'm sure if you want to work those hours and Friday wfh, that would be ok.

Your post isn't very clear, but it's quite normal to have a policy requiring a certain amount of presence at the workplace. So if you work five days a week and have to be present three days a week, that means you get two WFH days. If you drop a day and only work four days a week, that means you get one WFH day.

Yes, exactly. Why is it that OP is doing all the drop-offs and pick-ups? It sends a strong message to her employer that her job isn't all that important if she isn't sharing the childcare with the dad so why should they prioritise her and her role when she isn't doing the same.

I work for HR and I think the mangers proposal that your reduced hours be taken from your WFH day is reasonable to be honest OP.

I wonder if it’s more the case that other people at work have complained that they were being discriminated against by not being allowed to work from home when you could - you can’t be the only staff member with caring responsibilities.

Ultimately though, a lot of firms are moving away from hybrid working to office based now even for people who have been working from home for years, so I don’t think you are being singled out or that it is maternity discrimination. The needs of the business are that employees are onsite so you either adhere to that or look elsewhere for work.

I don’t really see an issue, the rest of your team don’t wfh you’ve enjoyed this perk for six years and now it’s ended. I don’t think it’s got anything to do with maternity more likely the whole team don’t wfh and you wanted to keep that and reduce hours to start later, he couldn’t accommodate both so now you have two full days off to do school drop offs and be with your children and three full days working and onsite.

He's only revoked it because she requested to reduce her hours further, so it was the obvious hours to get rid of.

I had a similar situation where a new manager came in and wanted to recind my hybrid status which I had been working for over three years without any issue.
i worked 2 days in the office and three from home which really suited me.
At the time I called a legal helpline which dh gets free w his work (it’s for the whole family). They said the company had to demonstrate what had changed in the business to warrant this, and even if it’s not in your contract it’s your established way of working so that also counts. But they did say ultimately you can be be constructively dismissed if you say unilateral ‘no’.
In the end we came to a compromise on the hours/hybrid situation but I am soon to leave and that’s def been part if the decision for me - but not the only factor

You partner can request flexible working. Maybe he could some of the school/nursery runs?

So you wanted to reduce your working hours by cutting your hours each day, but instead you now have Friday off instead of a 1/2 day WFH?
It seems he has accomodated your reduced hours, but not exactly the way you wanted.
So not a case of using your maternity leave to fleece you at all. You requested a change, otherwise you'd still be WFH on Fridays. It's not like he's now making you go into office on Fridays.
You can't have everything you want, all of the time.
Apologies if I've misunderstoid.
You could just not change your hours and look for a more flexible job?

If he's refused then he has to give one of eight business reasons and consider your request on an individual basis. As others have said, I'd speak to acas.
Flexible working isn't a perk that employers can just turn down because they don't like it. It is a right. There needs to be a genuine business reason. The fact you've done it previously for years and it's changed due to you coming off maternity leave puts them in a very precarious position. Definitely get legal advice.