I?ll try to keep this as short as possible while keeping the relevant details. When I was returning to work after maternity leave I submitted a flexible working request to change my hours from 35 hours a week to 25 hours a week, 5 hours a day between 0830 and 1330. There was a precedent for someone in my role working part-time. The request was accepted and an addendum to my contract issued accordingly. That was in August/September 2010 and I?ve been working those hours since that time.
Since then, the my line manager has changed 3 times and I?ve been working under the latest manager since last November. Aside from my manager and me, there are 2 other people on the team, one sitting at another site. A couple of weeks ago a project came up that required someone on our team to attend meetings on one afternoon during the week. I?ve been assigned the project and been asked to change my working hours on that day to be able to attend the meetings. I wasn?t thrilled about it but agreed to it on the basis that it would be for 6 months only and then I would revert to my contracted hours. Since then I have been hassled to work one other afternoon as well (can?t do the suggested one as DC?s nursery doesn?t have space) and been told that my working hours will be ?reviewed? after 6 months.
When I told my manager that the nursery didn?t have space on the afternoon she wanted me to work, I got told to ask them which other afternoons they could do. When I questioned the ?review? bit and made it very clear that I would not agree to a permanent change, I got told that this was a business need and she got quite shirty with me. I feel like I am being railroaded into changing my contract on a permanent basis, when the original agreement was for 6 months only with an automatic reversion to my contract. I?m also worried that if I fight this too much I will lose my job
The other bit about it is that I am expecting DC2 in October. I was planning on informing work after the 12 week scan but I?m wondering whether it would be worth formally notifying them now so that I have some extra protection or whether it would just make things worse.
To make things really lovely, I do not get on particularly well with my manager and there has been some recent HR involvement (initiated by me). I am starting to feel like my involvement in this project has been engineered to force me out.
Where do I stand? Can they make me change my hours or make me redundant if I won?t? How much can I argue that they have gone beyond the initial agreement and that a permanent change to my contract was not discussed?
Thanks for reading, I?d appreciate any advice.