WWYD about maternity appts and working PT?

[rickandmorts]

Hi,

I work 3 or 4 days a week depending on my rota and I've had a midwife and an ultrasound appt fall on days I'm working. My midwife said I'm entitled to paid time off for them and shouldn't have to change my shifts. But I'm being swapped to days I'm not working, for example if an ultrasound falls on a Friday I'm working they're swapping me to work a day that I'm off that week so I can have Friday off for the appointment.

Maternity action says :

'How much time off am I allowed to take for my antenatal appointments?

You are entitled to ‘reasonable’ paid time off for your appointments, as well as travelling and waiting time.
You should not be asked to arrange your appointments outside working hours or to make up the time, although you should minimise disruption to your working hours as much as possible. If you work part-time you should try to arrange your appointments on non-working days but if that is not possible, your employer must allow you paid time off.'

Midwife has said I can't change appts and I have to attend the ones given to me. Part of me thinks as I'm not working full time it's okay to swap my days so I can attend them but after seeing what that website says, are work taking the piss? If you worked part time would you be happy to swap your days off to attend appointments? Work are not very clued up on this kind of thing, I work in a manual job and had to put pressure on them to even do my risk assessment. Advice would be appreciated.

You would do that because working is not a hostage situation, and fostering good relationships on both sides is reasonable.

Really?🙄……if the appointments fall in working time then you take them off and get paid for them…..end of….I’m NHS …..that’s what happens in my trust….and rightly so

Agree. Your choice to have a smallholding isn't something your work should have to factor in.

from an employment point of view you need to look at what is reasonable. This is what a tribunal would do. Was the solution reasonable and proportionate? They probably should discuss this with OP. There are more issues here with physical work too. It won’t hurt to talk to them. But going hard line could really cause tension. They do not seem to be breaking the law. They are not making OP work more hours or preventing her from going to her appointments. Like I said, a compromise would probably work well. Someone else suggested 50/50 split which is a good call

i know what the rules are, yeh. Sure you could legally purposely schedule all your appts in work time if you wanted to. But you can’t expect your employers to think much of you if you don’t show willing to be flexible re the needs of the business