Workplace discrimination- leg to stand on or no?

[Kara198]

I work in an office of a very large extremely well known UK business. Somehow our HR dept is non existent.
We have been expected to work from home during the pandemic but have recently gone back to the office for 95% of the time.
During the pandemic they extended office hours to 24hrs to enable everyone to be able able work on top of other childcare etc etc commitments. This worked really well for me as I have 2 young boys so have been working nights and done my job extremely well (backed up with bonuses and yearly reviews).
However now they've removed this flexible working element across the business which is really frustrating but they want life to return back to the old normal, despite nobody having evidence that productivity was down.
My issue is - now they're offering overtime, upto 10 hrs per week which would help me enormously, however they've said that these extra hrs must be during the basic hours of 7am and 6pm.
To be clear, this is not because we NEED to do it during these hours, the work can be done remotely at any time of the day. This is just inflexibility on their part.
I cannot work any longer than I already do in the day due to wraparound care hours, however I could easily do the 10 hrs overtime per week if they allowed me to do it from home I the evenings once DC in bed (as I have worked throughout the pandemic).
AIBU to think that this is - as always - very unfair to working parents?
I am after honest feedback as i won't complain next week if IABU

You could consider making a formal flexible working request. The govt website has some useful detail on the law around this. Worth reading up on to know your rights

^^this

Unfortunately they won't allow it for our standard hours. I feel that it's a little unfair for the overtime element though?

Your allowed to make a request by law they need to consider it

There can be sex discrimination in this kind of scenario. See eg www.menzieslaw.co.uk/case-update-1-sex-discrimination-reorganisation-flexible-working-arrangements/

@Figmentofmyimagination very very interesting! Thank you.

Hmm tricky

A lot of companies have started clamping down on work out of certain hours as it often seeps into people's non working time and they see this as detrimental.

Not suggesting that's what your employer is doing but they might claim it is!

Have you spoken to your line manager?

If you have an informal chat and say you're really keen to put extra hours in it's a problem due to caring responsibilities at home. Ask if they considered staff with caring responsibilities in the decision. Say you've heard a few people taking saying it seems to exclude them. (Last bit only if big company / you chat to lots of people/ a good number have caring responsibilities).

I'm going to speak to my manager next week, unfortunately he is on my side but there's not a great deal he can do about it.

A colleague recently put in a flex working request to start at 6.30am but finish at 2.30pm so she could collect her dc from school. They rejected it as they want their hours back at 7am - 6pm. So she has had to reduce her hours instead despite the fact she was only asking to change to what she has done for the last year

Once again, where is the father of your children in all of this? It is not our employer’s job to work around your childcare needs. You for being unreasonable if your partner is not flexible enough for you to pick up this overtime but you expect your employer to be.

Most likely some people did take the piss and didn't do their hours, and indeed produce the level and quality work expected.

Sadly, they can't make one rule for one and not the others so everyone pays.

Saying that, it's understandable they'd be concerned that you were working at night and then looking after your kids during the day and the indication of this long term.

@sst1234

Once again, where is the father of your children in all of this? It is not our employer’s job to work around your childcare needs. You for being unreasonable if your partner is not flexible enough for you to pick up this overtime but you expect your employer to be.

He works 7.30am till 5.30pm, he has also requested a later start time but they won't allow it. Mystandard hours are fine, I've accepted that they won't allow this to be flexible. However it's this overtime they're offering which seems a little unfair.

It’s a risk for an employer - see e.g.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-58473802