Return to work on reduced hours appeal

[Pippinsqueak]

Hello was just wondering if anybody had any experience of troubles returning to work on reduced hours after coming back from maternity leave.

My employer has declined my request for reducing my hours down from five days a week to 4 days a week. Therefore I have gone through an appeal process.

My reasons for requesting reduced hours include

1. Not being able to afford full-time childcare, this would leave me in financial difficulties each month.

1. The childminder my daughter has currently been in for six months doesn't not work on Friday which is the day I have requested to reduce. My employer told me that I'd have to find another childminder or put my daughter in for a nursery for one day a week or another childminder on one day a week which will have a detrimental effect on my daughter.

1. Within the team six other women have had babies in the last three years and they are in more senior positions and they have all come back on three days a week so I feel slightly discriminated against.

1. Working full time would have a detrimental effect on my home work life balance and my mental health as I have been off with exhaustion and stress as my baby has not slept properly since birth.

They cite that they cannot recruit my position ( I'm a support worker) for any hours, and that me reducing my hours would have a negative affect on the service.

Is there any legal points I can fight this with at all or has anyone done anything similar and won?

Thank you

1. They have known since July 2018 when I told them I was pregnant that I never intended on returning full time.

@LIZS yes occy health asked for a month of phased return at 50% to increase gradually

@LIZS and I've worked there 6 years

Have you returned on 50% yet, or are you still off sick?

@LIZS no I had so much annual leave to use up before 1st April I've taken feb off so when I return in March il be on phased return

Thank you for all your replies

I am going to ask to do three days a week to cover my counterparts and that makes up one full time post. Then that's leaves them free to advertise for a full time position.

This also works in both of our favour as I am more likely to stay in work which also benefits them.

Yes I get that my personal circumstances are my own I will not be putting these forwards other than the fact that everyone else has gone down to three days a week. I am the last person in my team to be having a baby so there won't be anymore

Can you think of something to tempt them? At my workplace no one can work part time unless one of those work days is a weekend day. Would that fit with your role? Offer to work non-standard hours, weekends, evenings?

@daisypond thank you for your reply but I work for a council that only does mon to fri work

You need to focus on how this will work for the employer, so your point about the hours making up a full-time role with your colleague is a good one, and the point about leaving one full-time role to be recruited to is good as well - that's the kind of thing you need to suggest. Focus on how it will work for your employer.

Your childcare should not come in to it at all - don't mention it, it's not relevant to your employer. Focus on your role and how it will work in the setup you are proposing (you going part-time).

Good luck with the appeal, OP.

Perhaps your DH could reduce his week to a 4 day week instead.

DH can't reduce his hours he works nights for the nhs

A return-to-work request is never about the employee, but about the business. You need to show how you can do your current job over four days without it impacting work flow. It sounds like you haven't done that.

1. Not being able to afford full-time childcare, this would leave me in financial difficulties each month. not their problem

1. The childminder my daughter has currently been in for six months doesn't not work on Friday which is the day I have requested to reduce. My employer told me that I'd have to find another childminder or put my daughter in for a nursery for one day a week or another childminder on one day a week which will have a detrimental effect on my daughter. not their problem, it also won't be detrimental for your daughter to have a different childcare provider 1 day a week, lots of people use a mix of childcare

1. Within the team six other women have had babies in the last three years and they are in more senior positions and they have all come back on three days a week so I feel slightly discriminated against. not discrimination in any way, being a support worker is not a protected characteristic

1. Working full time would have a detrimental effect on my home work life balance and my mental health as I have been off with exhaustion and stress as my baby has not slept since birth I feel your pain, but lots of parents have to work whilst extremely tired due to none sleeping children

1. They have known since July 2018 when I told them I was pregnant that I never intended on returning full time they aren't supposed to ask you about your plans to return, and these things can change so it's best for employers not to make assumptions

You either have to say you can manage your current workload in 4 days (e.g they are getting the same amount of work done for less money) or you need to reduce your hours enough so they can recruit someone to the other bit of your post. Most councils are now cutting down on people doing anything other than 2.5 days a week if they want to do part time.

All the waffle (sorry) above is all about what you want and not good reasons why they should grant you flexible working. But you don't have a leg to stand on currently basically.

@RoomR0613
Yes please read my previous replies I have stated that I see that my personal circumstances are my own and I have already taken steps to show how reducing my hours will be positive for the business and myself

Also I am not business minded and I was asked to say why I can't do full time, if they said about how it would benefit or not affect the business then I would have put those in too but those who have been helpful in their replies tonight have helped me formulate a plan

@RositaEspinosa thank you for your reply I have already formulate a plan and just need to find out some finer details

Ok business minded people (if there are any on this thread) I have worked out that the two positions within the team equate to 1.8 (me being full time 1 and counter part was the .8, she has now reduce to .4)

So there's 9 days altogether for the two posts. Currently I do five and she did do four but now does two.

What is the best way that I can put forwards to the appeal so I can realistically reduce my hours. They will still need to employ another person to cover my counter parts two days she's dropped to make the service run as far as I'm aware so which ever way the appeal goes they need three people to full two positions

Hope this makes sense

But there must have been a day with only one of you in already if you work 5 days and she works 4? So they don't need two people in at the same time, but they need at least one - is that right?

If you suggested you do 2 days a week, with your coworker also doing 2, the company could then employ someone full time to do the other 5, which makes up the 9. Is 2 days too little? Or will it be easy for them to find someone wanting to do 4 days, in which case you can suggest 3? You need to bear in mind that there is a back room cost to the business in employing people-HR, payroll etc. In that sense, it’s not efficient to have part-time staff.

Slightly off-topic @RunningAwaywiththeCircus but I am curious about the issue with compressed hours? Where I work it is really common so interested to hear a different perspective.

@Pippinsqueak I am a manager who makes decisions on flexible working requests. When I’m giving informal advice on this I always recommend that applications contain as much detail as possible about how the arrangement will work and how the applicant will mitigate and potential impact on the business.

Have a look at ACAS and some other resources online to help you strengthen your case.

@Pippinsqueak

There previous staff allocation was 1.8, but they may well have decided that the service can now manage on 1.4.

So in effect unless you happen to know if those willing to fill whatever gaps are available based on that overall figure I am not convinced this will sway them further.
As a support worker, I imagine that consistency for client facing work is key amd having 3 small part timers isn't in the clients best interests. Also having 3 part timers will increase the costs to the company, payroll etc. And also makes it more likely that they will have to rerecruit as such small part-time roles are often used as stepping stone back in to the workplace. How will handovers happen without reducing information sharing and if working different days?

So what's the benefit to the company?

But in you position if they're now at a 1.0 and 0.4 I'd think that you'd have to offer the other role at 0.6 to stand a chance of filling and you take 0.4 which is a huge drop.

Do you have anyone in mind for the job share?