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.

Have they provided evidence that these are not currently being met by the current wfh arrangements?

It depends on how far you want to push this but given you have had a formal request approved I would suggest pursuing other workable alternatives under flexible working.

Carer status for dependents is a protected characteristic

No it's not.

@VanGoghsDog our CAB employs employment lawyers so you’re not accurate here. I’m noticing quite a lot of big but inaccurate claims on this thread!

She has been agreed in her formal request for flexibility, and has this agreement in writing, which is now cancelled, are you considering that when you say there’s no case?

@Codlingmoths assuming you haven’t read the whole thread, when request was agreed, OP was told the arrangement could be subject to change, it was never a permanent arrangement.

@Codlingmoths OP wrote, given an outcome letter to say this had been approved but is an informal agreement and is subject to business needs. I then started working the 2 x WFH days a week.

Unless there is a business reason why WFH is no longer feasible, they cannot simply revoke a flexible working agreement. I guess you applied in writing and have a formal change of contract? They cannot simply unilaterally change your contract like that . I very much doubt Unison will help you as you joined after the event occured. Have a word with Acas.

Isn't contractual then unless it has gone on for at least 12 months and may be considered custom and practice. However, it is problematic from a legal sense and then can do it anyway with correct consultation

I think they might be playing fast and loose with the flexible work requirements and a good lawyer could have a field day with their ‘we replied as we have to and we said yes but no not really, because we said yes we didn’t need reasons to refuse it and because we said no not really we can cancel it at anytime’, which is what this reads like to me: This was recorded formally on our ESR system and I was subsequently given an outcome letter to say this had been approved but is an informal agreement and is subject to business needs. I then started working the 2 x WFH days a week
unless someone from employment law comes along and says yes but no is a perfectly ok response to a formal request for flexible work I’d put that timeline down clearly and ask an employment lawyer.

Um, so you refer to the employment lawyers you employ them. That's not that different to what I said. General CAB advisors don't know employment law.

I've been a trustee of three CAB and that's the first time I've heard of them employing actual employment lawyers, so that's great, I'm surprised you have the funding though.

Are they allowed to only sort of approve a flexible working request? This seems contrary to every reason behind creating the requirement ie that some employees need flex and employees have to contractyally provide that unless they can articulate a business reason not to. Employees on a contract deserve some consistency in work requirements.

I agree. As I said up thread, I think this is where the breach was, back with the original request.

Just explain you need to do drop off and collecting and ask to either reduce your hours or maintain WFH on 2 days. State that as a lone parent you would prefer to work full time to support your young dd. Make it clear that there is no drop in productivity as a result of this arrangement and that you adequately support and supervise junior colleagues (if relevant) on your office days.

Don't say you won't see your child. This isn't even true and is not a business reason for WFH.

See if your managers will provide recommendations based on good performance. I'd also ask questions about if there is anything that you can do to improve your WFH.

Find out what is driving the policy change and how it relates to you. At the end of the day you have your red lines. Come at this from a business perspective but making it clear what you can and can't do.

DP works in a hospital and people who wait to join the union until trouble strikes really get his goat.

Good job I'm not there to appease your husband then. What a really stupidly and less than constructive comment to make.

The advice I was given was to join a union, that's the advice I followed.

Your husbands goat is not my issue.

I've contacted an employment law firm this week just for a 30 minute consultation chat.

My plan is to submit the flexible working request again, if its rejected. I will seek alternative employment as I will be forced to leave because it will become untenable.

It is, however, a fair comment. You weren't willing to pay union dues before, so how long will you continue to pay them? You say you've contacted an employment law firm, but union members who have been members historically have legal advice and representation available to them, and that is what their dues pay for - not for people who joined yesterday because they had a problem the day before that. You don't get to insure your house after the place burns down. Why would anyone expect different about their job?

The comment made was valid and there was no need to respond in such a way - their opinion is just as valid as yours, and deserves as much respect as your opinions do. It certainly wasn't "stupid", and it may not help you but why should people who have paid their dues for years or even decades not object to someone thinking they should get help when they only bothered to join when they needed the union, and will probably resign next week anyway?

@Codlingmoths
"Are they allowed to only sort of approve a flexible working request? This seems contrary to every reason behind creating the requirement ie that some employees need flex and employees have to contractyally provide that unless they can articulate a business reason not to. Employees on a contract deserve some consistency in work requirements"

Yes they can as a working practice like any other, ie what your place of work is. However, after an "undefined" period of time it could be determined that it has become contractual by definition of being custom and practice. This doesn't stop the employer changing the contract if it was accepted but would need to follow procedures including formal consultation. This is particularly vital when there is the possibility of breaches if the Equality Act. There would also need to be consideration of the employers genuine business need.

A quote is

"How long does it take for something to become custom and practice?

There is no defined time period as to when a certain behaviour becomes a workplace custom – if any issues arise, the reasonable nature of the claim is usually determined by an employment tribunal.

@Codlingmoths in addition, there were lots of NHS departments with WFH that emanated from Covid due to the social distancing but these have all been rescinded with Covid being over. There was huge resistance (including from our HR dept who also had theirs rescinded) but the reality is this couldn't reach the threshold of a contractual change whether by custom and practice or other as it is clear it was due to Covid and social distancing

Does any written correspondence allowing the 2 WHF days also agree the not taking lunch and taking time later to collect your child? Because as has been pointed out before, that isn't legal - you must have a 20 minute break during six hours work. So your work can't legal agree to it.

Do you have a response in writing that this policy applies to you? You could raise a grievance that a blanket policy has overridden your arrangement which you believed was now contractual.

Still not quite accurate. And you said CAB not advisers. People self refer to our lawyers. They are part of the bureau, hence why I was saying your claim was inaccurate. Unusual but not unheard of. At least 20 bureaux employ qualified lawyers I think. I only point this out because there is a habit of people claiming things to be fact on mumsnet that can be unhelpful .

I’ll let it go now! 😁

Still not quite accurate. And you said CAB not advisers. People self refer to our lawyers. They are part of the bureau, hence why I was saying your claim was inaccurate. Unusual but not unheard of. At least 20 bureaux employ qualified lawyers I think. I only point this out because there is a habit of people claiming things to be fact on mumsnet that can be unhelpful .

I’ll let it go now! 😁

Still not quite accurate. And you said CAB not advisers. People self refer to our lawyers. They are part of the bureau, hence why I was saying your claim was inaccurate. Unusual but not unheard of. At least 20 bureaux employ qualified lawyers I think. I only point this out because there is a habit of people claiming things to be fact on mumsnet that can be unhelpful .

I’ll let it go now! 😁

As long as you’re not expecting the union to help you with this problem that’s fine - you’ve joined for future issues. Expecting them to help with this issue is like trying to get house insurance when your house is on fire.