To think this is probably illegal, asking a pregnant woman to swap days off, so she attend midwife visits on her day off

[RedCherryPie]

This has happened to a good a friend of mine and I am livid

She is having a v difficult pregnancy

Her workplace have said to her lets swap you day off from thu to the as that's when you have all your midwife appointments

Surely they are not allowed to say that

She doesn't want to swap as she's struggling to keep going with work and needs her day off to actually have a break not spend the most of it going to and from and hanging around for appointments

I am fuming
Do you think this is actually illegal asking her to do this

Maybe ask her to ask them in writing to confirm, in writing to her, that they are making her change her previously set working days so that she doesn't need to take her statutory maternity health visits during the working day.

Ask them to clarify that this change of her permanent working pattern is directly due to her pregnancy and that they are doing it to ensure she doesn't take time out of work for the appointments. And then ask them to clarify for her how this meets their legal requirements to allow time off for ante-natal care.

She could put all this in an email to her manager (or whoever told her to change days) and copy in the HR manager.

And then watch them backtrack.....hopefully. She may find putting it in writing means they see how unfair it is.

Famzilla - this isn't a compromise that suits everyone though, this is a person who is already struggling being told they need to do something they don't want to, and which is against their legally protected rights.

I said fits, not suits. As in she could fit it in on her day off.

It's hard to know exactly how difficult these appointments are though with such little background info. I was

But why is she taking a full day out for her appointment?

Oops. I was on crutches and was having growth scans every 2 weeks yet still my MW appointments were only 10 minutes long.

What does her contract say about how much notice they need to give employees if they want to change their rotas?
Does she have a HR department? They should be more clued in with regards her rights.

She isn't take a full day out, but she should be paid for the time it takes to get there and back from work, plus the time spent at the appointment.

I second asking them to put it all in writing. Hopefully this will spur them into contacting HR who will slap their wrists very firmly and tell them to drop it.

Well, she could fit it on the day she doesn't work, except that the clinic doesn't run on that day. So she can't.

It doesn't matter how long they are, the OP said she only goes there and back. My appointments were only 10 mins long, but I took 30 mins to travel there, up to 30 mins waiting (!) and then travel back again.

Luckily I work for an employer who fully understands a pregnant worker's rights, so it was never an issue. As a result I always made the appointment as late in the day as possible, to reduce the time I was away. They were respectful to me, so I was respectful to them. That's how it should work.

Just because some people did more than they needed to, or put up with poor employers' practices doesn't mean the OP's friend should.

It's unreasonable. She is being penalized because she is a part time worker.

This is effectively her employer not making reasonable adjustment. I would tell my boss to fuck off, well not quite... put it into an email that I was refusing to adhere to the request, explain why (contracted to work set days), quote the law (reasonable adjustment) & then copy HR director, my boses boss.

Hadn't rather!!

Dirty How is she being penalised for being PT?

YABU to use the fact that she's struggling as a reason why she should not have to swap days off. If she is struggling to such an extent that she can't summon the energy to see the midwife on a day off, then she needs to address this and think long and hard about whether the pregnancy has left her unfit for normal work duties.

Yes, her employer is required to give her time off for antenatal appointments, but that legislation is in place to enable people to attend antenatal appointments without discrimination or disadvantage, when their hours of employment would otherwise make such appointments impossible. If she has the option to attend the appointments on a non-work day, and suffer no loss of income, why shouldn't she do that?

Dirty and others she works FULL TIME.

Everyone that says it's reasonable for the company to do this, think about this:

You work Mon-fri FT, so naturally you have to take time off work for your antenatal appointments. Your employer asks you to change your working days, so that you will work on Saturdays, but have Tue off, and go to your appointments on Tue.
Is that ok?

That's the same scenario.

OP, I agree with the suggestions that your friend should go to HR.

MrsKCastle: yes, that is a good point. I hadn't thought of it that way.

I still don't like the op's reasoning though, that her friend should not have to attend appointments on her day off because she's struggling.

And actually, I'd have had no problem with Saturday antenatal appointments if they'd been on offer...

ACAS is her friend! Free and legally sound advice so well worth the phone call.

RedCherry - is the swap of the day off a request, or has your friend been told that this is what her employers are doing. Because whilst the first is a reasonable request, the second does seem like an attempt to wriggle out of the statutory requirements.

My company pay the time off but its expected appointments are made at the start or end of the day

I work part time and try and arrange all my appointments when I'm not working. All my midwife and GP appointments for my pregnancies were in my time off. Why should I get paid if I'm not there and have the option of arranging stuff on my time off? it makes you look grabby and work to ruleish if you can arrange stuff on your days off and choose not to.

She doesn't work part time though, so your situation is not comparable.
Im still not clear - how many antenatal appointments has she had? How many does she have each week? How much time off does she take for each one? Can she arrange them for first/last thing in the day?

OP is the Thursday your friend is taking off an annual leave day? So she's booked that off to rest but her employers want to move her pre-booked and agreed annual leave from Thurs to Tues so that they don't have to give her time off for antenatal appts? If that's the case, they're on very shaky ground.

It's not a reasonable request. The woman can't arrange appts on her day off as the clinic is not on that day. As MrsKCastle said, if you worked mon to fri and had all your mw appts on Fridays, would you think "yeah fair enough" if your employer decided you had to work Saturdays instead of Fridays from now on? Because that's exactly the same thing and I think people are getting distracted by the fact her day off is a weekday, like that counts less than a weekend day.