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.

I wasn't trying to claim I'd said something different (I'm sure people can read), I was clarifying based on the information you gave.

But if CAB want people to know this, you might suggest to them that they make it clearer, I've just had a look at the main website and three regional ones, none of them say anything about self referring to an employment lawyer. Two of the regional ones just link back to the main website when you say you need advice about work and all the online advice there. All three just ask you to fill in a very generic form for an appointment, no option to ask for a particular person. So, it's kind of not that surprising that people don't know when they don't tell anyone.

Hmm. Given the vast majority of advice services are commissioned and determined locally, albeit with some national guidance from, it’s not that straightforward. It probably should be. But it isn’t.

FGS your childcare problems are not your employers problem.

I'm not sure that the union will take on an existing issue.

And no, your childcare issues are not your employer's problem.

You seem to have contracted that disease called 'WFH Entitlement.'

Maybe not but an employment tribunal for not following the appropriate processes to vary contract terms certainly would be.

Whatever went on here, and it's still far from clear, the NHS is not stupid. The OP filled in some kind of form at some point - but the response was absolutely clear, and the request to work from home was given on an informal basis. The OP knew that and accepted it for years. Bit late to complain now. There's no evidence that the router did not follow due process. I suspect that whatever the OP filled in was not and never was a flexible working request, but simply a request to work from home.

@Pastarasta1 there's a Facebook group called Flexible Working People where you might get some help. There's some very knowledgeable people on there including some employment lawyers. I got some great help there after I came back from maternity leave and my employer refused to let me work flexibly.

The point is that the variation to terms has been going on for long enough for custom and practice to be established. They may not gave accepted it formally but have accepted it in practice. As PP has said, it's questionable legally to say "yes but no" to a flexible working request.

For goodness sake, so many posters on this thread trying to trip up the OP! This is a single parent who’s trying to carry on working full time, having her successful working pattern for the last 2 years altered with no consideration on the impact it will have on her or her child. It’s irrelevant if other posters are happy to work all the hours god sends, the OP wants to still be able to collect her DC from school twice a week.
OP, if you do submit another request, make sure you include a robust explanation as to how your proposed working pattern will not impact the employer - such as you would be available to work a further hour each evening between the hours of 7 and 9pm (for example), that the proposed arrangement would have a positive impact on your recent diagnosis whereas having to change what has become your normal working pattern would be highly detrimental and could possibly lead to you having to forcibly resign.
We all know that a happy employee is far more valuable than an unhappy one, resulting in less productivity, more sickness absence and reduced quality of work.

This is wrong.
I have today had it verified that it was a formal request for flexible working.

It was merely stated in the letters to me that it was an informal arrangement.

I did everything I was supposed to do in requesting flexible working. I had an informal meeting with my line manager about the request first. She advised me to submit the formal request, which I did. It was accepted and recorded formally.

I then had two review meetings where the flexible working continued and it was therefore updated on the relevant system.

I get you're trying to be goady with each of your posts, but I would appreciate if you could ascertain the actual facts before making assumptions. I've said many times on this thread I submitted a formal flexible working application which was accepted.

Thank you. I appreciate this.
I'm really not someone who expects my childcare to be my employers problem and I do not have work from home entitlement either. I am trying to manage being a parent and carer with working and I know as a lone parent I do have the right to request flexible working hours or patterns. I say request and not the right to. I'm fully aware my employer can reject it on good business reasons.

My issue is its a blanket ban and I'm the only lone parent in my team so it does feel somewhat discriminatory to me to presume I'm the same as everyone else.

Your post has some really helpful advice in which I'm taking on board thank you.

Honestly. I'm just trying to work full time in the best way I can, if I quit work and went onto benefits I'd get a flaming too!

Thank you. Will check this out xx

I know as a lone parent I do have the right to request flexible working hours or patterns

You don't actually have any more right than anyone else, everyone after 26 weeks service has this right for any reason they want.

It was not wrong - because it was EXACTLY what you have told us, and you admit here that you only got told TODAY that it was a formal flexible working request that was approved, in which case it forms parft of your contract.

Far fromn being "goady", it is YOU who has repeatedly given false "facts", and if you check back I asked you at least twice if you had actually spoken to your manager about this - something which you did not answer and which you have actually only just done. You have repeatedly said that the approval that you got clearly stated that the approval of working from home was INFORMAL, and you have again repeated it here.

Perhaps if you were clearer with the facts then people could provide clearer advice. And perhaps if you weren't so bristly and nasty with so many of your responses to people trying to help you despite your unclear facts, you might get more sympathy from some of the posters.

If I’ve understood correctly, the OP formally submitted a flexible working request (which in her case took the form of wfh) which was approved and recorded on their system but noted as informal and subject to review. It has since been reviewed and approved again as it was working well.

Now the manager has decided to put a blanket ban in place on all wfh, citing reasons which they don’t appear to have backed up with evidence (or if they have the OP hasn’t mentioned). I’m not sure if all flexible working requests have been cancelled, or if it’s just wfh.

The manager needs to show clear reasons as to why the arrangement is no longer working. They may very well be able to do that but it’s worth pursuing if they haven’t already done so. It would also be worth checking if an approved formal request can be entered as informal.

Come on @Neriah , give it a rest. OP has come here for help and you keep ripping into her. It's not helpful. It won't be helpful for anyone else reading the post who has a similar issue. You've made your point. Just leave it now.

Whilst you could argue to some degree indirect discrimination on the basis that the new policy clamping down on remote working disproportionately affects the female members of their workforce, the other perspective is that it is a subset of the female population who have young children.

There will be women and men who don't have children, who have older children, or are of the older age group who also have to abide by this new policy of no remote working, so you are not the only subgroup affected. Each of those groups may have their own life challenges.

if your employer's policy were to favour men over women by enabling men to make a choice more easily over which location they work, it would be far easier to argue.

You also need to take account of why they've changed the policy. is it on the basis of the trend of lower productivity since the Pandemic? If so you don't have a leg to stand on, they have a business problem to solve.

I agree with the suggestion to put in a flexible working request specific to your personal requirement, but keep it light on detail relating to childcare (other than to mention you have challenges covering it on Monday and Friday) and focus on the justification that you are equally if not more productive at home and highlight your track record of delivery (evidence from previous years' ratings), the subtext being you aren't part of the productivity problem.

To your good point @SirChenjins the employer implementing a "blanket ban" on remote working, should not trump the individual's right to apply for consideration for selective days wfh.

in the OPs case they should resubmit their flexible working request, attaching the previous approved request, to show that they had already been granted flexible working for a specific reason, and asking for the employer to reconfirm their extant approval in the light of the policy change.

But you have not helped? Not one bit. All you've done is goad and have a go, it clearly makes you feel good about yourself to.

Honestly, don't understand why this poster chooses to be deliberately goady.

I have not ripped into her or anyone else. I have responded to what she has posted with the correct advice based on what she has said. And said the same thing that pretty much every sensible response on the entire thread has said. It is the OP who has been rude and offensive at every turn when told things that she doesn't want to hear. Unless you have been appointed the thread police, I will continue to post within the guidelines exactly what and where I wish to post.

Agree. If you look back I also pointed out that this thread was becoming a drip feed which doesn't help when seeking advice about situations the OP is experiencing

Hi OP, crazy to see so many WFH haters on this thread. My industry has been doing WFH long before the pandemic and it saves a ton of money and leads to improved productivity.

If a job can be done from home, there is absolutely no detriment to doing it there with breaks in the working day to attend to parental responsibilities. If you're interested in changing jobs and joining a CRO (since you have experience working in a hospital, you're likely qualified) please message me. Majority of roles are either hybrid or fully remote, and employers tend to offer flexibility to working parents.

Sorry your workplace is being so unreasonable. Have they given you a reason why you can't continue working from home twice a week?