Can my employer make me apply for key worker place?

[gonewiththegin]

First time poster looking for advice please.

Both DH and I are key workers and can both work from home.

My employer (new department from first lockdown) is insisting I cannot work effectively from home and should be taking up the key worker place in school. I don’t feel the have any right to make those decisions for my child and was just wondering if anyone has any knowledge/similar experience.

Thanks

@Seasaltyhair I am not entitled to a key worker place, the local authority states if you work form home then you aren’t eligible

But you admit yourself you can’t do your role effectively. It’s not working.
Don’t kid yourself your irreplaceable - no one is.

Two of my female friends have just been made redundant. Both worked part time and both were having child care issues.

Women with childcare issues are the first to go - add on to that your only part time and your in a precarious position

@Seasaltyhairbbut realistically no one with children at home can do their jobs to full capacity...so should we all be sending them in?!

@Seasaltyhair That is discrimination. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen but that shouldn’t be a reason OP doesn’t speak to HR. She works for a government organisation. We have something called The Equality Act that they should be clearly following.

And if your friends feel they are been discriminated against on those grounds then they should be seeking action against their former employers

You should take the place, that is what it is there for.
I can see their point, you wouldn't take your child to work, they'd be in school.

@GypsyLee she can’t take the place as she doesn’t meet her LA’s requirements?

Your initial post didn’t make it clear that you had been reasonable with your employer and expected to make up time to get your work done. I think your employer is being unreasonable. With only one 5 year old you’re likely to get a fair amount done in the morning anyway. Even people without children take breaks to make a drink, sort the dog, answer the door etc!

@BungleandGeorge I should have went in to more detail in my OP.

That’s my reasoning I am unlikely to be any less productive over the course of the day than any of my colleagues who are not having to home school. Everyone has dips in productivity, breaks etc.

@BungleandGeorge

Your initial post didn’t make it clear that you had been reasonable with your employer and expected to make up time to get your work done. I think your employer is being unreasonable. With only one 5 year old you’re likely to get a fair amount done in the morning anyway. Even people without children take breaks to make a drink, sort the dog, answer the door etc!

I disagree with this

A 5 year old needs a lot of support including with school work set or just to occupy her, OPs daughter is very young

Anyway, OP has made realistic proposal and hopefully will talk to her HR dept - if any of them are available and not working weird hours

I meant I disagreed with latter part of post, not the first but which was well said

[quote gonewiththegin]@BungleandGeorge I should have went in to more detail in my OP.

That’s my reasoning I am unlikely to be any less productive over the course of the day than any of my colleagues who are not having to home school. Everyone has dips in productivity, breaks etc.[/quote]
I'm sorry but I manage a huge team of staff dealing with exactly the same issues in a public sector setting. Someone trying to manage a five year old child at the same time as working is not as productive as others who are not doing so. It is also a serious health and safety risk because your attention is split. Maybe that is what you do in your personal life - but that is your choice and your risk. This is not your employers choice and it is their risk. We would never, and quite rightly, permit it. And honestly, not a single one of my parents has even suggested it because they understand that it is neither feasible nor reasonable.

If you are proposing to have the morning off and make up your hours at another time of the day, then that is fair and reasonable, and if the work allows that to happen I think it would be unreasonable of the employer not to permit it.

But what you are currently demanding is that you work some of your hours, and you might work the rest of them if your personal life doesn't get in the way. That is totally unreasonable and is unfair on your employer, and on your colleagues. You may think that it's easy to devote your time to work and also manage a five year old. You must have the most compliant, quiet and undemanding five year old in the world if that is possible. I don't believe it.

It’s exactly this kind of thing which is driving the uptake in keyworker places which many on MN are so horrified by. I work for a govt department, in first lockdown we closed to all new business activity and just kept things ticking over with our existing business. This time we are business as usual. Given the Covid expenditure will likely be paid for by further public sector cuts I think a lot of us have half an eye on our risk of being made redundant as we do on Covid

@Moondust001I initially offered to move my full shift back so instead of say 9-3 I could work 12-6, 2-8, 1-7 and was very flexible in letting the business decide. It should be noted my team are all on different shift patterns and work form 8-8. Business demand is at a similar level through this period but in my opinion slightly higher in the afternoon. It was then I suggested sticking to my contracted hours but having to take a break early or perhaps in two half’s of say 1x20 minute. None of my requests or those of any other colleagues have been considered. It’s not an ideal situation for anyone but some flexibility is needed all round. I am in the position where unpaid leave is an option I am able to consider. This however doesn’t affect the business and if this particular department weren’t so rigid and allowed flexibility like all other departments have done then we should have been able to come to a compromise

I’m much more cautious with my children than a lot of people but I find it ridiculous to suggest that 5 year olds need constant supervision and interaction. Personally I think managers get more from their staff by giving a little, and being a bit understanding, even more so in the middle of a pandemic.

@BungleandGeorge

I’m much more cautious with my children than a lot of people but I find it ridiculous to suggest that 5 year olds need constant supervision and interaction. Personally I think managers get more from their staff by giving a little, and being a bit understanding, even more so in the middle of a pandemic.

Sorry - I didn't see anyone suggesting that. But they do need supervision. It only takes them a few seconds to get into a life threatening situation. Let me explain. It is your day off, and your five year old drinks that stuff you put in a pop bottle under the sink. That would be awful, but you are responsible for not putting bleach on a pop bottle, having it within reach of a child, not watching what your child is doing. Hopefully it will be a bad accident and not a tragedy.

You are working from home at your employers request, and you are too busy to notice because you are on the phone with a client or have your attention fixed on a fiddley spreadsheet. Did your employer do a risk assessment on that potential situation, or any one of the other things that can go wrong in that scenario? No? Just watch how many parents then sue their employer for putting them in that situation. And the way that the law is written, they have a prospect of success - the law on liability, health and safety, risk etc., has not been re-written to say that employers aren't responsible for health and safety at work if you are working from home.

Now that doesn't mean that the OP's employer is being reasonable about flexible times. We honestly don't know that, and we can't judge it. That is a separate matter and one that, if the OP believes they have grounds, can be escalated. But no responsible employer should be allowing employees to try to both supervise a child and do their work. Unless, of course, you are perfectly sanguine with the class teachers saying that the reason your child in their care got hurt is because they were all doing paperwork in the office and nobody needed to supervise the children because "children don't need constant supervision".