Change of working hours

[Siennabear]

The company I work for are extending their opening hours from 8-5 to 8-6. We are having consultations and one to one with management and HR. We will work the same number of hours but shifts altered to fit the new times. It is estimated we will have to work an early or late shift every 12 days.

I have 2 young children in nursery. Nursery is open 8-6. If takes roughly an hour from drop off to get to work. I work part time 2.5 days.

I have offered to work the early shift once a week every week as my husband can do drop off. (8-4). Late shift is a problem as husband works longer hours and earns more money so mostly it will be me doing pick up and I need to leave at 5. Work are saying I need to be available to do a late shift. Those are the business needs and if I cant do that then j should think about resigning. Redundancy is not an option as the post is still there. They didn't really know about moving me somewhere else. I have been there 10 years and worked full time up until I had my children 4 years ago.

I am not looking to resign so where do I legally stand with this? I cant do the late shift. I have no childcare. I feel like I'm being pushed out. I'm currently on mat leave, returning to work in 1 month. Its causing me great stress.

To add my old hours are 2 x 9-5 shift and 1 x 12.30 -5. I believe they want me to do the afternoon shift 1.30-6pm. This seems madness as I am paying for nursery all day and I won't start till 1.30pm.

”They didn't really know about moving me somewhere else”

What do you mean they didn’t know about it? Is there another location/another role available that they could move you to that wouldn’t involve having to accommodate the new hours?

This is difficult. Ultimately your employer is allowed to make this business decision to extend opening hours, and as long as they consult fully, if the business decision means they have to change everyone’s hours, ultimately they can do that. They should take into account personal circumstances where at all possible, whilst also being fair.

Has your husband asked if he could leave in time to do pick up once a week? He’s as entitled to flexible working as you are.

Sympathies, I know what a PITA it is when you have childcare sorted and then your employer messes things up, but objectively it doesn't sound like a hugely unreasonable request on their part. Their legal obligations are to consult with you and not act unreasonably but they are allowed to make sensible changes in line with business need - operating 8-6 is the norm for many businesses.

If you only have to do a late OR early shift every 12 days, does that mean you realistically only have to do a late every 24 days, or slightly more than once a month? Could you ask around your colleagues to see if anyone would object to occasionally 'swapping' an early for a late? Late shifts are usually less popular than earlies in most workplaces due to childcare/school drop offs but if you can work earlys without too much bother you could swap one late for 2 earlys to sweeten the deal for someone? So long as the hours are covered it seems reasonable for your employers to allow occasional shift swapping to meet personal commitments.

If you could do that every so often you could get it to less than 10 times a year, can you manage that with a combination of your husband occasionally leaving work early (leaving at 5pm every other month for instance doesn't sound that crazy even in a very high power job), babysitting swaps with family or other parents, or paid for babysitter/childminder? Hopefully you've only got a few years to manage this until they are in school and then things will be easier?

Your partner needs ro adjust his hours for 1 day a week

You need a nanny share

Short term, are your hours written into your contract?

In the long run you need to work out if you can adapt to this or start looking for another job.

If you'll only need to do a late shift once every 24 days, that's really not an unreasonable ask from your employer, and it's also a very reasonable thing for your husband to ask his employer to work round - coming home slightly earlier once every 24 days really ought to be fine in most jobs.

@flowery I work for the NHS in an admin role so possibly could be put in another department but HR didn’t mention this so don’t think it is an option.

Thank you for the responses. The meeting came across quite harsh and I was quite upset afterwards. Maybe with the manner how it was put across.
Having time to think It seems it isn’t that unreasonable. I will have to look into my husband being available for pick ups.

@ snuggybuggy yes hours are written in my contract but they want to change them to the new hours.

”I work for the NHS in an admin role so possibly could be put in another department but HR didn’t mention this so don’t think it is an option.”

They wouldn’t need to specifically mention it. If you’d rather move to another department than manage this slight change in hours, you could either ask them whether there are any vacancies elsewhere, or have a look yourself- I’m assuming there’s some kind of internal job vacancy board of some kind? Have a look!