Oh dear.....work options request refused!

[Nikki76]

Had work options meeting and the reduced hours I had requested were refused....they said the job needed to be done full time and that was it! They didn't even attempt to look at job share register or anything and only considered it when union rep pointed it out! I told them that I could be flexible with the days as nursery had more spaces in Sept etc etc but still no luck....they were also mad as hell I had a union rep in with me!! wtf?!!! I didn't tell them beforehand but there is nothing in the HR stuff that says you have to!!!

Oh hum....looks like its going down the appeals route for me now! What fun!!!

Nikki...as far as I'm aware, they can't dismiss your request out of hand, they have to give a valid reason why not. If this doesn't agree with the reasons you gave them how it could work, then they are deemed to be discriminating, but I'm sure your union rep will know all of this.

There's lots of advice on the internet....at \link{http://www.acas.org.uk/ACAS} amongst other sites.

Good Luck

Oops....ACAS

Oooh thanks Daisybump...they said in their reasoning that "staff have been trained and put in the team to cover my absence. Projected workloads confirm that staffing levels are correct, therefore reducing my hours to XX days a week will not enable the team to meet customer needs"

What do you think??

Have you put a business plan in place to show how your job could be done part time/job share?

When I put in my request (was accepted but didn't go back in the end) I covered all the pitfalls etc.

Oh yes I did all that but the thing is, they wouldn't tell me of any changes to team structure or to my role so I had no option but to fill it in as if was doing my old role and they had the cheek to say well some of this is no longer relevant etc so I said well I asked repeatedly what job I could expect to go back to and what changes have taken place and you wouldn't tell me, so I had no option but to fill it in the way I have done!!

That sounds a tad unreasonable . What sort of organisation do you work for?

so once the union rep did point it out, did they check job share register? or consider alernative roles? The "we can't manage without you" line won't get them v. far if you quit, surely?

Its a big bank.....

They did say they would look at job share once rep had pointed it out so will have to see what that comes to...thing is, they hadn't even looked at that option and the whole idea of these meetings is that both parties come to the meeting prepared to compromise and with alternative options explored. I don't think they would have even considered job share if rep hadn't mentioned it - so glad I took one in!!!

Of all people, you would think large banks would be suitably scared of constructive dismissal cases and associated bad publicity to actually take these things seriously.

Hopefully the fact that (a) you brought a union rep and (b) didn't roll over and give up will make them now take it seriously (as they clearly hadn't) and they will come back with something more realistic.

Good Luck.

don't suppose you know anyone who could jobshare with you?
if you could offer the solution on a plate, your employers might be more willing to go with it.
does anyone else jobshare there - or would you be the first?

They do job share there but I don't have access to the jobshare register so I couldn't look and see if anyone was available to share my role and neither had management - that was the point the union rep made, they should have come to the meeting with all options explored etc....but they didnt......

I'm just waiting to see if anything comes back re job share and if not, its appeal time! Oh what joy! Work life balance my a*rse!!