Treating part time workers less favourably

[WorkWorrier123]

Quick version: Is it legal to only have a training opportunity available to full time workers?

Long version: I work as a nurse in the NHS, I was asked by my employer to apply for a fully funded masters course. I applied to the national body for funding and to the university and was successful. I realised that I would not be able to work full time, have a young family and successfully study for a Master's degree so I submitted a flexible working request to decrease my work hours by 50%. As a result of this I have been told I am no longer eligible to do the course as I will not be in the work place enough once the day in university is taken into account.

I was under the impression that it is not allowed to treat part time workers less favourably than full time and that this may be indirect sex discrimination as it is more likely to be female and male workers who request part time hours.
Thank you

You should be allocated a study day a week during university term time so you’ll already be down to 0.8WTE.

its a tricky one and I don’t know the legalities but its a perk not a right. I’m 0.8WTE nhs too, and I know I’m eligible for masters and funding etc. But reducing to 0.5WTE they’re losing half the WTE and won’t be able to back fill that, the on costs of shared roles don’t make it easy, plus there’s a ban on increasing headcount’s across many ICBs/Regions just now.

whos told you you’re no longer eligible, have you spoken to education/HR? Or is this just your manager? It may be managers discretion in which case I’d put an eloquent argument together for why you should still be offered the opportunity at LTFT, and present to them and their senior as an appeal? Alternatively ask the union.

If it's an apprenticeship you have to work 30 hours I believe. That's a requirement for the funding.

Within that part time request would you be attending the masters course in your work hours or your personal hours? If within your work hours they would have legal recourse to refuse.

A possible appeal would be to offer to do half in your personal hours and half in work hours?

In my experience, people have been offered as @Whattodo2024 has suggested - if PT, they are offered the same proportion of their hours as training that a FT would get then the rest would come from their own time.

Iam doing an apprenticeship through work, in order to be eligible I had to be working minimum number of hours a week (can’t remember number of my head but it was very close to full time hours) and the course had to relevant to my role. I am given 6 hours a week study time within my working week. This was the rules for the funding and from the training provider.

Yes, I remember some 20 years ago, I was working part time in a certain industry and I was doing admin - typing letters/sending emails/ordering stationary and supplies/answering the phones etc. Lovely little 20 hours a week job that suited me and my family. (Monday and Tuesday one week, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday the next!)

My manager said I need to get more 'qualified' in the 'field of work' that the company was about. I don't know why because I was just the admin assistant, and was happy as I was! I had been doing fine for 7 years in this lovely little job and did it very well,, then suddenly I wasn't good enough, and needed to 'better myself.'

They wanted to send me on a 'higher national certificate' course that was one day a week for a full 9 or 10 months I think - at the local college. As I said, I worked Monday and Tuesday one week - and Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, the next, and this one college day was actually every Thursday.

This was a day that I didn't work and wasn't PAID to work, and they wanted me to use that day to go to college. I completely point blank refused. I said 'you want me to go on this course - but you want me to go on one of my days off. Why don't you ask the other workers who work Monday to Friday to go on a Saturday?' 'Oh, don't be stupid' my manager said. 'They don't even do it on a Saturday!'

They couldn't understand why it was not on to ask me to go on a Thursday. I worked part time for a reason. So I could spend time with my family, my friends, my mum and dad, and my DC when they weren't at school. And as I said, I was not paid for that day! They acted like they were doing me a favour, sending me for training! (Training I had not even asked for - and didn't want!)

We locked horns for several months, but in the end, I just ended up not going. Whilst this particular workplace was pretty cool and chilled when I started there, a new manager started after I had been there 6 or 7 years, and changed the dynamic and the general mood, and it became frowned up on to not want to 'better yourself and 'climb the career ladder' in that workplace. So after about a year, I ended up going to another job that was just a very simple part time admin job in a small company...

tl;dr yes @WorkWorrier123 Part time workers (in an industry or place where most people are full time) are treated like shit. I also had to put up with lots of snarky jibes and comments about 'part-timer, never here' and 'oh decided to grace us with your presence have ya part-timer?' Fucked me right off it did. Glad to be out of the workplace now tbh, and to have a self employed WFH job.

Some places offer term time working and flexible working. Not sure if you could do that?

Could they come and go during the college holidays to allow you to work more when college is shut or whatever over the months of holidays per year when you have more 'free' time (I know you're not free just saying), in order to do decreased term time in your day job?

Not sure if the sums add up but it could be welcome if you were in more at holiday season to provide cover. So it could be helpful to the employer and get you through what you need to do in college?

However if you get mega college homework to do over the summer then that plans no use

Part-time employees are legally entitled to the same training opportunities as full-time, except where an employer can objectively justify different treatment.

So, as Catsonskis points out, a training course that takes you out of the workplace for a day a week might have a disproportionate impact on how much you’d be able to work and would cost your employer, relative to the work you do during the training, significantly more than it would for a full time employee. That would likely be considered an objective justification.

You can ask them for a written justification for not allowing you the opportunity and challenge that at an employment tribunal if you disagree with it (though going through your Union first would probably be a better option). They may also be open to negotiating if you can ameliorate the extra burden somehow.

https://www.gov.uk/part-time-worker-rights

There may be a minimum number of hours you have to work for the course to be viable in the eyes of your employer.

Similar to a poster above (I wonder if it's the same/similar course?), I am doing an apprenticeship and had to increase my hours in order to undertake the course.

If you’re doing 0.5 though and still have a day a week out for training that means you’ll only be working 1.5 days? I can see why they wouldn’t want that, you also may not be doing enough hours work for course funding.

If you reduce your hours I think the employer can reduce the funding pro rata. I did a Masters working full time with a young family, and it was very hard but doable. It was over 20 years ago so things may have changed legally, but a fellow student (different employer and different sector) was part-time and had to pay 50% of the fees. I think the rationale was that she paid for the bit of the course she was doing in her own time - something like that anyway.

I suppose it makes sense - why would an employer pay the same to get a qualified employee for 2.5 days a week as they would to get someone qualified for 5? It’s a very different ROI.