Flexible working denied - Grievance Help!

[myloroc]

Hi all!

im new and i need help!

Ive just returned to work from mat leave - my employer does not recognise a previous arrangement i had from 2010 to work half day 1 day a week as my child has a special need i must attend an appointment with him - i had been working a 4 and half days for 6 years. and suggest i apply for flex working as most staff are working from home - so in november i applied to work from home 1 day a week.

i got back to work and others were working from home so didn't worry about my application.. however time went on and i hadn't had my meeting about my request.

In december a manager called in to a side room and said he couldn't accommodate me working half day and i could move to another part of the company .... this upset me as its a different job, no job spec and i hadn't heard back from HR yet about the request to work from home 1 day a week!

i tried to raise with him issues i had with my previous arrangement prior to my mat leave - he didn't wish to discuss it.

I heard nothing until i was handed a letter the first week of january refusing my request due to customer demand!

i then appealed with in the first 5 days, and i got no reply to my appeal!
at the end of january i then sent a grievance and i got no reply!
i then applied to ACAS mediation and now my employer wants to meet.

My grievance i have accused them of unfavourable treatment, indirect sex discrimination. They have also lost my personal HR file that had my previous return to work and medical info of my son. Failing to comply with policy and procedures and Breach of contract for not allowing my half day to continue.

Now what do i do or say in the meeting? To be honest i just do not feel that i can return because of breach of trust.

Bastards. I have no advice really, but just offering support. I would say attend the mediation - don't let them off the hook. Can you have someone attend with you? Awful. I left my old job when my request was turned down. Turned out for the best in the long run but it was very hard at the time.

I suggest that as your working arrangement has been in place for 6 years you claim that this represents an implied change to your terms and conditions of employment.

Thus if your employer wants to change your established working arrangement they would have to enter into meaningful consultation with you to do so. However if agreement can't be reached they could dismiss you and re-engage you on the new working hours.

If they do dismiss you, you may have a case for unfair dismissal (eg if the dismissal is linked to a protected characteristic such as your child's disability or your maternity ).

Surely for unfair dismissal to apply, the protected characteristic has to belong to the employee not the child.

OP this sounds difficult. But maybe they have turned down the request for a working at home day as they know that you aren’t planning to work the full day due to your child’s appointment. So they’d be worried about paying you for a full day at home each week and knowing you’d only work half of it.

Were you being paid for the half day or have they increased your wage to reflect the extra half day or were you working compressed hours to get 5 days work done in 4 days?

Not a lawyer but sounds reasonable to want the same hours as before maternity. Do you think they have realised they have given too many people flexible working or is someone using this to get at you or has customer demand changed?

Do you have legal insurance on your household insurance? That's often really handy in cases like this - and with the advantage you don't need to form out money for an appointment...

I wouldn't go to this meeting alone you need representation .They have the right to refuse any flexible working agreement but have to back the refusal up with the reasons the business can't support the request they can't just say no they have to justify it.These agreement are a compromise between your needs and the needs of the business .Almost sure you are entitled to the same job and same terms and conditions after mat leave. So you should be just picking up where you left off and no need to apply for anything different . Think you should go for adopted working pattern basically you have worked a set pattern for so long it becomes you standard working hours . look at your company hr policies as they will have a time scale they have to respond . Good luck

The appointment i need to attend is at 3.30, and as i finish wok at 4.30 i said id take my lunch at that time. Plus id be at home so could start earlier ect.

Im going to go in monday, insist that the situation is untenable and they have created a hostile environment for me. When my colleagues are working 2 days a week it just does not make sense. I have screen shots as evidence.

They have also locked me out of the team diary so i can't see now who is working from home and when!

Surely for unfair dismissal to apply, the protected characteristic has to belong to the employee not the child

No, it can relate to a dependent.

Wonder if anyone can help. I do care work, 24 hour shifts. For past 3 years I have had informal arrangement to do certain days as my son has SEN and has had lots of issues resulting in him being out of school with anxiety. Now, my company have suddenly decided to move myself and 3 other colleagues for very spurious and dodgy reasons, such as complaints about us, which none of us were ever informed about. My union says there is nothing we can do about the move as we have a mobility clause in contract. However, employers have informed me that new role involves one 'sleep in' per week. I don't and have never done sleep ins. I can't anyway as I don't want to be away from my son and family for one night a week, and also this is surely extra to my current contracted hours? Should add that I'm TUPE'd.