I'm part-time, want to be f/time - advice pls!

[mumtoh]

I am on a permanent part-time contract with my employer, and have been covering a colleague's 2 days maternity leave for 6 months, continuing for another 6 months till she returns. I work in a large dept where there are many of us with the same job, ie Admin Manager. Some f/time members of staff (same job as me) have recently handed their notice in, and our Head of Dept has announced she will recruit 2 X f/t people to the vacancies. I am keen for my contract to be f/time on a permanent basis (I know, mad aren't I?) and have asked if they can just change my contract to f/time and re-jig the recruitment they are doing to cover my 3 days a week (which they effectively lose if they 'give' me one of the f/t roles). I've been told that HR have to advertise the vacancies, and I should apply along with everyone else. This seems madness to me - I am already doing the exact job, what if I apply and don't get it??! How motivating! Surely the company can decide to resource the work they have however they choose - ie increase my contract to f/time and then recruit for the difference? I understand that equal ops legislation may come in, but what about my rights - why would I have to effectively apply for a job I'm already doing?? What's the legal position? Any advice gratefully accepted.

If your employer has a system where vacancies have to be advertised that's fine. You don't have any 'rights' to the jobs just because you are already doing the same job unfortunately.

Assuming they are happy for you to go full time (which your post doesn't make clear) then yes it seems silly not to change the adverts accordingly, but some types of organisations just aren't very flexible with recruitment procedures and you just have to go with it.

On the other hand, if they're not keen to increase your hours to full time, perhaps because they think it will be more difficult to recruit to 3 days a week, they may be hiding behind this 'rule' to avoid telling you that, I don't know.

But the bottom line is you don't have any rights. However through talking to your boss about it you should be able to get a feel for whether they are happy to increase your hours and just need to go through the motions, or whether they are not seeming keen.

Thanks for the reply - have spoken with HR who were very woolly but said it's 'not out of the question' to consider my request in the context of the resourcing of the dept, but they advised me to apply for the f/t roles when they appear. This seems mad to me when it;'s the same job. ANyway, have decided to put my request in writing to my boss so will see what happens from there.

What did your manager say when you discussed it with him/her? Did you get the impression that he/she would be keen but felt you had to go through the motions of applying?

My line manager was keen, but the Dept Head was distinctly cool (she's the one who said I would have to apply), so I'm not holding out much hope. If I have to apply I will but it seems mad to me. The annoying thing is, it's not a strictly enforced rule that all vacancies are advertised. If it was consistent, fair enough but they seem to make decisions based on personal whims.

Do you want to swap jobs with me :)
(my job needs to be full time but I'm not)

perhaps there have been similar confidential requests from other part-timers and it absolutely has to go to advert?