AIBU to feel discriminated against as a part-time worker (9 day fortnight)

[NoJamSlags]

My employer is offering a 9 day fortnight (compressed hours 9 days a fortnight with the 10th day off). But only to full time staff. Has anyone else experienced this – is it not discriminatory to part time staff not to offer the equivalent? Not sure if I am being unreasonable querying this?

I’m still lost.

You said it's 'experimental' which to me implies that they are trialling this using the full time staff (some or all?) If the results work then at that point I would expect it to be rolled out to all staff who wished to change their working pattern. If they don't like the results it's less hassle to roll it back if it isn't company wide.

This will really depend on what PTers are asking for and will vary as by the veey nature that there will already be various amounts of part time work being done.
If they are changing/offering for all FT it should be relatively straight forward. I imagine that for those working PT it needs to be a flexible working request.
I currently do a 9 day fortnight (actually a little over) I work 9, 8.5 days the usual pattern is 10 7.5 hour days.
Where I work half days wouldn't be possible so your suggestion for part time equivalent wouldn't work. I think it is very much dependent on the setting. Management would certainly look at an alternative though

Have you actually aske, and been turned down? Did you ask informally or formally? What was the exact response to your formal request?

Or, do you just think it should be offered without you asking? It's not clear whether you've actually had a conversation with anyone since this test was announced.

So you currently work Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesday mornings? And get paid 50% of FTE.

Do you want to work Mondays, Tuesdays and every other Wednesday morning or do you want to work longer days so that you earn 55% of FTE?

Either way I would keep very quiet right now if I was you. Wait until the 9 day fortnight is established. And then put your request in. The law is behind you but that only helps you if the 9 day fortnight becomes a permanent thing.

They aren't allowed to implement a new way of working that only benefits full timers.

Also, the majority of part time workers are women, so to do so would be sex based discrimination.

So have you put in a flexible working request to do what you want, since this new pattern came into being? Why was it rejected?

It's not discriminatory not to offer you a pro-rata version of what full time workers get. Flexible working has to meet the needs of the business - it may be that the 9 week working pattern does, in a way that a similar pro-rata pattern won't for part time workers. It's especially not discriminatory not to do it if the pattern is only being trialled!

Thanks, I get where you’re coming from, but they specifically said the opportunity would not be available to part time workers.

Thank you, that’s what o thought.

Well, I don't think it's discrimination.

I suspect that full-time workers can work compressed hours and still be available for essential team meetings etc, but they are worried that part-time workers would be too limited in their availability if they further compressed their hours.

But you could have a discussion with your line manager to find out the details?

If you have hours that work for you, I would try not to worry about the hours other people work.

I would imagine this is aimed at people who don't have a great work life balance, so full timers. I dont think it's unreasonable to only be on offer to full timers.

You are correct that there are laws in place to prevent unfavourable treatment of part-time workers.

You're within your rights to ask them why they are not offering the same to PT.

But aren’t they doing an extra hour a day to accommodate one day off?

When my brother went onto a 9 day fortnight it was eight 9-hour days and one 8-hour day to make the same 40 hour week but compressed to give alternate Fridays off.

I don’t want to out myself, but the type of work that I do means there is only one meeting a week that I need to be present at, so that wouldn’t be a problem or a reason to decline compressed hours.

Exactly, and I would also do an extra hour a day, but instead of getting one day off, I would only ask for half the day off as I work half the hours.

I think that the confusion here is that you keep using "day off", when its not an extra day off, but someone working the same hours over a shorter length of time.
I would have thought that working part time, (if working fewer hours per day) it wouldn't be an issue to offer compressed hours, but you may have to change the days that you work on.

Which brings me back to my original point - by working part time, you already have that “working hours compressed into fewer shifts” that a full time worker is now getting.

Both are only getting paid for hours worked, both have time off during the working week to make a work-life balance more amenable.

By compressing their days into a 9 day fortnight, full time workers are getting access to time-off-in-the-week that part time workers already have.

🤷🏻‍♀️

Do you currently work 2 1/2 days a week or 3 days one week 2 days another?

YABU.

You can ask of course, but the fact is that you already work less than full time and now want to compress your hours. They will probably say that as not everyone will be doing that, they can't do mandatory work things during those hours and as you're already not in on X days, that offers far less flexibility.

But you can ask.

So you’re not BU…
So ask them??

I think you're getting a bit confused with definitions. If you don't like your working hours then you need to put in a flexible working request for whatever you do want. Full timers also being offered some different flexibility isn't anything to do with you and is not actually any of your business.

@NoJamSlags As others have said, please tell us what PT hours you currently work and what you want to do? Can't advise properly without that information.

It's not clear at the moment whether you work the same 'x' hours every day, of every working week Mon-Friday or whether you do 2 full days and a half day each week. Number of hours total you work would help.