Advice needed - boss refusing to let me come back full time after mat leave

[pag2020]

Hello all!

Looking for some advice from any of you that has some HR/employment rights experience please?

So I went off on Mat leave in July 2021 and went back to work part time in May 2022. Started off on 2 days then went up to 3 days in June 2022.

I used to work full time 5 days 8:30am - 430pm and I had initally said to my boss that I would come back part time with the view to come back full time once DS was a bit older.

So I approached him the other week and asked him, I'd like my full time hours back please as nursery have agreed to take DS full time. His response was, "now is not the time to come back full time, I can't justify you being here for 2 extra days. 3 days is enough". I explained that I am struggling with 3 days, both financially and also the fact that I am still doing my previous work which was a full time job, in 3 days.

Now I have just left this and accepted it for now as tbh, I have no idea who is in the right here. Am I entitled to go back to being full time or have I lost that right after going part time?

Some advice would be great before I actually go back to him with a response.

Thanks all x

I think you've got a right to formally request a change of hours once per year. Once you've been part time for 12 months you can request full time again. They're obliged to consider your case and business justification but they aren't obliged to say yes.

So this is the bit you have to email clearly and get in writing.

When you returned for 3 days your duties were x y and z and you didn't do a b and c because you only did 3 days.

Now you are expected to do a b c x y and z but cannot complete those tasks that were a FT role in PT hours.

Then ask what duties out of those he'd like you to continue as he only wants you to work 3 days and which will be passed on to someone else.

Don't ask if they will. Assume they will and ask for clarification.

Excellent advice advice from @pag2020 and @AmericasfavoritefightingFrenchman.

You can't insist on full time,but you can certainly stop doing all the extra work than what is reasonably expected in 3 days.

You have had some great advice so nothing to add but the same thing happened to me. I ended up leaving for a full time job - was my only option.

Am I entitled to go back to being full time or have I lost that right after going part time?

Unless it was specifically written into your contract that the change to part-time hours was temporary then you have no entitlement to full time hours.

Your thread title is actually pretty misleading. You came back from mat leave ages ago, and you are currently on a part time contract.

You are now asking your boss to increase your hours (i.e. you want to change your contract), and he's got the right to say yes or no to that. If there isn't enough money in the budget to increase your hours, or if they've backfilled the work you used to do, or if the work simply isn't there, then it would make sense for them to say no.

@LookingOldTheseDays apologies, I didn't mean for the title to be misleading. I just typed something out quickly! 🙈

THIS

Your thread title really bears no resemblance to the truth at all!

There are only so many hours in the day, are you actually working really long days for three days or are you working the same hours in a day and simply being more productive?

I think your manager is reasonable to expect productive employees and if you can perform all the tasks you used to in five days in three normal length days, it suggests to me that you were not as productive as you could have been previously. If you are working long days now, then absolutely I would stop putting the extra hours in, but I wouldn’t deliberately go slow now.

OK everyone needs to calm their tits about the title. I've already apologised and acknowledged it is indeed misleading and I wrote it in a bit of a hurry and I have worded it very badly 😂