If you worked full time and had Tuesdays off, but was pregnant and your midwife appointments are always on a wed, and your boss wanted to swap your day off to wed because of this, would you ?

[Getmystuffsorted]

Or is that illegal to even ask

thats the only day the midwife is at that drs surgery so all routine check ups would be on wed

Exactly. Those pesky pregnant women daring to take paid time off to deal with the trivial matter of ensuring their and their baby’s life and wellbeing are protected. How dare they

Why would you do that? I really don’t get it. I am having cancer treatment, and it’s on work time. I work full time, so perhaps that’s different.

This thread is a great example of how we're socialised to expect women to be cooperative, flexible, don't inconvenience anyone, don't rock the boat, don't take what you're legally entitled to because it's "piss-taking" etc etc.

I do actually but, as the OP doesn't, I was thinking about what I'd do if I didn't. If you work Mon - Fri all day then there would be no request to be made so the situation wouldn't arise, surely. There'd be no choice but to do them during working hours.

But it is not then fair is it. One person gets paid time off and the other doesn’t. Shift pattern shouldn’t matter.

But if you run a small business and 60 percent of your staff disappear. You won’t have a business. As for embarrassed no I’m very proud of him . Running a business , has never complained about my declining disability and the fact that I gave up work in my thirties due to my disability . Gave me the home and lifestyle he knew I wanted, and asked for nothing in return . In over 30 years, he has never shouted or raised a hand to me. Yes I am proud.

The refusal of time off for any ante natal appointment, even advised at short notice, would still be illegal. Sometimes appointments are arranged or rearranged on phone calls at short notice and they need to be accommodated.

If you’re running a business you should factor for staff absence or your business isn’t viable. There are numerous reasons people can be off long term at short notice which are nothing to do with pregnancy. SMP is a pitiful amount and most of it is reclaimable.

If you need to announce you’re proud your husband has never been violent to you I’m afraid your bar is very low.

I hate to be that person, but no that’s not quite right, the law states “a pregnant employee has a statutory right to reasonable paid time off for antenatal appointments recommended by a doctor, nurse, or midwife. An employer cannot unreasonably refuse that time off…”

However the law also allows for an employer to be within their own right to ask if there is any reasonable flexibility regarding appointments, that is not, by itself, unlawful. Employers are generally allowed to ask whether an appointment can be arranged outside working hours if that’s possible.

I fully support the OP attending her midwifery appointments whenever she believes is best, and her employer is clearly over stepping the “reasonable” part of the law.

Very nice for you but totally irrelevant to your previous post. It’s not the responsibility of a pregnant employee as to how her employer chooses to cover her absence for ante natal appointments. Expecting one single employee to cover for all three suggests bad management. And bad managers invariably blame their staff. I’m not surprised the poor bloke resigned, but that’s not the fault of any of the pregnant employees. It’s squarely on your DH for inadequate cover.

When your disabled and unable to have children , not many dates go beyond 1 or 2 and you do have to lower your so called bar.

I never said he expected one person to cover all three.please explain how he could have done anything else other than get temp staff in for maternity cover when they go off. No company can afford to employ two people to cover one persons post permanently , when there is not enough work to justify the extra expense. He wasn’t going to employ them as soon as pregnancies are announced.

Yes i would interpet a request to then change her working hours for this reason as an unreasonable request.

So some people get paid time off and others don’t?

He wasn’t going to employ them as soon as pregnancies are announced.

So he was going to sack them for being pregnant ? How are you still in business ?

No l said that it’s unreasonable to expect employers to hire maternity cover right from the start of the pregnancy, just in case someone has time off. He was bought out years ago and retired.

It doesn’t sound like a good place to work.
I’m going to take a slightly more pragmatic stance than some on here.
I think what I would do might depend on whether I’m likely to return afterwards and if I’d be likely to want to request a change to my hours when I returned. If yes to those things then I’d probably try to cooperate and keep them on side, where possible of course. At the very least I’d try to schedule appointments beginning/end of the day. Having said that, you are entitled to take all your pregnancy related appointments in work time.

I mean that it is unreasonable for op’s employer to ask her to change her non-working day so that her appointments fall on her day off.

I mean that while it is deemed reasonable to ask if appointments can be scheduled end of day or on days off etc, it is not always possible, especially with the state of the NHS. It is not reasonable to ask op to change her working days for this.

So i’m saying everyone should be entitled to paid time off work for the antenatal appointments.

No, it's not fair. Which is why I said I would only agree to it in a situation where I felt invested in helping the workplace and my colleagues out of either enjoyment, friendship/respect or financial need. But not if it was an average/poor workplace that I had no particular connection to.

you may have a child in nursery and then how would that work, you can't take your chid to work with you on Tuesdays

or you may have another job on a Tuesday that you can't then swap that day

or you have a regular other appointment on a Tuesday that you can't just move

many reasons

I had a boss who was very inflexible - I had a funeral and asked if I could swap my day off to attend the funeral instead of taking the day as leave. The other staff member who had the other day was happy to swap.

The boss said no that there was blanket ban on that type of arraignment and so I took leave and went to the funeral.

About 3 weeks later same boss asked me to swap my day off to fit in with some issues they were having with staffing

I said I'd absolutely love to do this but am unable to as its against the rules

I know they'd ask eventually but not so quickly so already had my answer

being flexible works both ways - op how flexible is your boss with you?

Well actually it would be the equivalent of asking the Monday-Friday worker to come make the hours up on a Saturday.

OP has Tuesdays and Sundays off. She's being asked to make her days off Wednesday and Sunday instead.

It's not on. The two rest days are viral during pregnancy to recoup. For me, the hospital is over an hour's drive away. Swapping a day off to spend the day off driving for over two hours and waiting around at a hospital is not a restful way to spend a day off. Which is one reason women fought for the right not to have to do this.

I also work full time but I don’t get paid when I don’t work so have no choice.

@MocktailMe

Well actually it would be the equivalent of asking the Monday-Friday worker to come make the hours up on a Saturday.

Exactly what I said earlier in the thread, about when my employer expected me to do a 1 day a week course for 2 YEARS, and use one of my days off. I worked Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and they wanted me to go on a Monday. I refused. I said 'it's like expecting the full time 9-5 Monday to Friday workers to go on a Saturday!

They said I was rude and ungrateful to not take the FREE training they were offering and paying for (that I didn't even fucking ask for, and the job was boring anyway so I didn't want to be doing a 2-year course on the bastard subject!) and they were butthurt and annoyed when I dug my heels in and said I am NOT doing it.'

I didn't want to do it anyway, but like fuck was I doing it on one of my days off, where I was not being paid (when 2 women who I worked with, who worked Monday to Friday, 9 to 5) were going on one of their PAID work days.)

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