creasing and reducing hours

[Tw1nkle]

Hi,
I currently work 3 full days week (22.5hours), but am thinking of changing to 5 days aweek, but finishing at 3 (30 hours). I'm lucky, my manager has approved this.

However, I've just been told by someone else that I could then never reduce my hours back again - is this the case?
What if i go on maternity leave - can I reduce them when I return to work then?

Thanks!

There are no set rules on this, it depends on your managers approval at that particular time and if they choose to authorise your next request. Be careful though, I reduced my hours from full time to 22.5 hrs on a temporary basis but was not allowed my hours back a year later due to budgets and cuts. I still work 22.5 hrs and I'm glad now that I couldn't have them back as I don't want to work full time now but it could have been a big problem for some people. You may or may not be able to reduce again, it's all a gamble!

You can ask to reduce them, certainly, and your employer would have to consider your request properly and set out proper business reasons if they decide to refuse.

But ultimately you are not entitled to change your hours when you want, no, and if you ask to, there is a risk your employer will say no.

I don't think that's correct - its about agreeing changes with your employer. Generally speaking most employers will expect you to sign a new contract, so you'll go from a 22.5 hr contract to a 30hr contract and thats what you'll be obliged to do - unless your employer agrees to future changes. So if circumstances changed, and you wanted to go back to 22.5hrs say, if your contract says 30 hours, they have to consider a request to go back to 22.5 hrs (or whatever you request) but they don't have to agree to it.