Advice needed regarding revoking of flexible working arrangement.

[Pastarasta1]

Hi all, am need in some urgent advice regarding a situation that has arisen today.
I work in the NHS in an administrative role.
For the past two years I have had a flexible working arrangement which allowed me to WFH two days a week.
I am also a single parent to a young child in primary education.
As of this week, our employer has decided to revoke ALL WFH for our team except those covered under the Equality Act 2010 (i.e reasonable adjustments/passports)
I am not part of a Union.
My argument has been that as a 100% lone parent, I cannot physically do the 5 days in the office because of my childcare arrangements not being available to me on Monday and Friday.
In addition, I have mentioned I also basically won't see my child and she will be in clubs 5 days a week if the requirement is made to be in the office 5 days a week.
I will either be in a position where I need to drop down to part time hours or that I need to leave my employment.
I just want to know where I stand?
I understand that being a single parent isn't a protected characteristic but is there any element of indirect sex discrimination going on towards me as I am a woman/lone parent/main breadwinner as a result of not being allowed to work flexibly?
My contract states my place of employment is the main hospital building I work from, however I have had an informal flexible working arrangement for nearly two years.
Any advice would be great.

Who looks after your child after school on the days you work from home? Honestly I think it’s the fact that people are doing school runs during the working day that has led to so many employers revoking wfh, even if all those employees think it has no impact on their job.

There is no sex discrimination if they’re telling everyone wfh has to end.

I can’t see why it’s sex discrimination, single parents can be male or female, you just happen to be female. Is there really no wrap around care at all?

OP - you are not being at all clear.

Did you make a formal flexible working request, which was accepted, and then as a result had your employment contract changed to reflect your home working Monday and Friday? Saying it was "logged in ESR" means nothing to most of us.

If so, no they cannot simply revoke it. It would be a change of employment contract. They can consult with you and give notice of the change though.

If not, then it's an informal arrangement. But you could argue it is contractual by custom and practice. This doesn't mean they can't change it, just that they have to give you notice, which I guess they are doing.

If you didn't have it formally agreed, put in a formal request now. The employer cannot turn down your request based on the reason for the request, but don't give them any excuse to try to do so - so don't mention that you take time out for school run and have your child home with you from end of school while you are working (we don't know what age the child is).

I would actually say that a blanket policy to not allow home working could be indirect discrimination. But that is not automatically unlawful. The employer would claim it was a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. And it's not an argument you want to have, frankly. It can only be determined by a tribunal. And they can easily defend themselves by saying "yes, but we consider every flexible working request on its merits, so it's not a blanket policy".

My daughter goes to breakfast club at 7.45am on Mondays and Fridays (breakfast club at school) i drop her off then. I then log on at 8.15am so this isn't impacted.
I collect her at 3.15pm, however during the course of the day I do not take my formal 30 minute break, I do 30 minutes of work when she is at home and log off at 4.15pm.
I am unable to use breakfast club at school on the office days because I start work at 8.15am and my office is more than 30 minutes away.

Even if an arrangement is not literally written into the contract, it can become contractual over time. That’s why knowledgeable advice is needed.

Yes this.

So can they start your work day later to allow you to drop off at breakfast club and then get to the office on time?

They are more likely to be female. The resident parent is more likely to be female, statistically. Which is why it could be indirect discrimination, not direct. It's a policy, practice or criterion likely to affect one group with a particular protected characteristic than another (in this case sex, dye to the statistical likelihood that more resident single parents are women).

What do you mean yes this? Which one is it?

I submitted the proforma and it was recorded as a formal request to work flexibly.

Acas isn't a union. Not sure if Unison will help you with a pre-existing problem.

I'm not convinced all the posters confidently telling you you're unreasonable have employment law knowledge.

You have 2 years flexible working established albeit no formal agreement. There could be an argument for custom & practice.

Yes I have also heard there being grounds for indirect sex discrimination because lone parents more likely to be female.

I see you've now joined a union. Good.

Take advice on submitting a really good flexible working request. Remember these are not about your need but business needs and how they can be met the same with flex working

Also,. Find a clearer way of explaining the monday/Friday pick up and drop off.

Sorry, missed the more recent OP updates.

If your current childcare options don’t fit your work, you need to look for other childcare options, or change your work. That’s how it is for everyone, being a single parent doesn’t change anything.

It’s nice if they can be flexible, but it’s not a given. And parents going offline for 30 minutes in the afternoon is irritating to be honest, half the time they don’t even signal they’ve gone. Lunches are usually staggered but school pick ups are all around the same time.

They are probably also very uncomfortable about you working through without a proper break. We had a similar request from an employee - to work 9-4 straight through without a break rather than 9-5 with a lunch hour and were advised that no, people needed to be made to take a proper break.

I don't have answers only solidarity with being a full time working single mum. I hope your request is approved, and you get it sorted.

It is also illegal for you not to take at least a 20 minute break if working for more than 6 hours. The break has to be taken in the middle of the day, it cannot be taken at the end of the day.

Based on what you have said, that would be illegal. Your employer should be stopping you from doing that.

The law is very clear that you are entitled to a break of at least 20 minutes around the middle of a shift of 6 hours or more, but that the break must not be towards the beginning or the end of the working day.

So I would also advise that you don't tell them this either. If you told me that I would be obliged to stop you doing it.

I don’t think you have a valid argument.

I work patient facing in hospital admin. My clinical team, quite frankly, would not be able to see half their patients without the admin support.

I absolutely would not go in with the argument that you need to wfh due to childcare. Your child is only 5, so what are you doing, working, or looking after them?

Impossible to do both to a good enough standard- this is why many employers are revoking the wfh.

I would ignore most of the reply OPs suggesting that there is nothin you can do and are being unreasonable.

@Whataretheodds reply is the sensible one.

The arrangement has been in place for 2 years.

So even if it is not written in your contract it can be argued that this is your usual and agreed work pattern and that it cannot just been changed without your consent. The fact that you have been doing this for 2 years without the business being impacted is also another point you can make.

There is also a point of discrimination here because it can be argued that women are more likely to be single parent/have caring responsibilities and that a blanket removal of WFH rights will affect them more adversely. There are legal precedents of this point being successfully made by employees.

Speak to ACAS and Citizen Advice Bureau if the union is not helpful and put down a formal request for your flexible working to continue.

Frankly employers are just shooting themselves in the foot by being inflexible. This does not help in anyway with having a diverse workforce and retaining good employees.

If you're not already a union member, most unions won't deal with problems that exist before you join; mine needs you to have been a member for 3 months or more.

I had a colleague whose flexible working agreement allowed him to work round the morning and afternoon school runs - his working day went into the evening. The point about flexible working requests is that you need to show how it would work for the employer. As he worked with departments in the USA, it was easy to demonstrate it was useful to have someone available for later meetings in their working day.

The request shouldn't be about your childcare needs, even though that's probably why the majority of requests go in. You need to show how it will work for the business.

Your union may be looking into doing something about the changes for all their members - mine, not Unison, is for similar. Whether you are/not in the Union any agreement they reach would be for all staff - obviously they may not get any flexibility or change to management implementation though.
You seem to have an official WFH agreement under flexible working agreements, but these are reviewed regularly and can only continue if they align with business needs, which your management would say the WFH does not. On the other hand they do have to show why your request is not reasonable and does not fit the business.
I would get a review done by your manager first, using appeal system as well, with union support. If this fails you could request a different working pattern perhaps.
I know it’s hard and understandable wfh fits school collection, but I’m not sure how well folk can work alongside caring which certainly applies to a small part of your day and maybe more in the holidays.

Maybe I'd explain your situation honestly to your manager. Since you've been working hybrid already for two years and it worked ok, maybe you could keep your hybrid working. Hopefully your manager will be flexible. Personally two days WFH is totally understandable.