Employer has requested me to change days of work

[hormonalmum]

Hi, I am due to return to work next month after 39 weeks mat leave. My employer has requested I change my days of work. Can they do this or can I go back to the days I have worked since Feb 2007?

On a personal level, my childminder does not have the vacancies to allow me to change my days of work.

How do I handle this?

tia

You are entitled to return to work on exactly the same terms and condtions that you had before you took maternity leave.

In other words they cannot make you change your days. It is a different situation however if you are requesting a change in terms and conditions ie. wanting to reduce your hours.

Have you asked to change/reduce your hours or anything else?

Thanks Penguin - am just wanting to return to the days and times I did prior to going on mat leave.

I would meet with your manager and politely explain that altering your current terms and conditions is impossible due to child care. What sort of company do you work for?

thanks Penguin. It's a small company - under 20 employees. Probably half office based and the other half field based.
They took on an "office junior" when I went on mat leave as another colleague hinted she wanted to work part time too. The office junior is out of the office at college on one of the days they have requested me to work and the other colleague is now pregnant and taking mat leave shortly after I return so there would be one day where none of us would be in. However other staff are present in the office.
Obviously, I can see it would be in their interest for me to be in the office on this day.

It's quite difficult with the current economic situation particularly if you work for a small company - you want to be reasonable and make compromises but this shouldn't be to your cost.

It seems that everyone else in the office is only working the days that suit them! When they employed the junior - they should have taken into consideration that you were only on Mat leave for a short time and would be coming back to your original work pattern. They have made sitution difficult for themselves.

In short it's not your problem but you want to be able to remain on good terms - could you tell them you would consider making a change to your work days if your child minder has capacity at a later date? This would show you would be willing to compromise if you had the resources (childcare) available.

If you don't feel this would suit you then stand firm - they can't make you and they would be daft to rock the boat with someone returning from Mat leave due to the legal aspects relating to maternity legislation. You can google maternity rights - direct.gov have a good page on your rights when returning from maternity leave. HTH.

They can request... But you have the right to the same terms and conditions as pre mat leave

Thank you penguin and Hairyfairylights. Have had a look at direct.gov over the weekend.
I have emailed my employer and said I cannot change days at the minute but said my childminder will give me first refusal for a different day. (she will do this)In addition, I have re-iterated my offer to do work at home and extra where possible when colleague goes on mat leave.
However, it is very unlikely a vacancy will come up with my childminder that I can tell them about