Reasonable Adjustment Unfairly Disadvantaging Co-workers?

[Ahoybell]

Similar situation and struggling to find anyone with same circumstances. I'm part of a small team with core hours of 9.30 - 15.30. Need to be in office for 8 hours to break even (otherwise flexi-time credit or deficit). Someone has recently got a 'reasonable adjustment' to handle same workload (from home) but they are only required to log on at 9.45 and very rarely work after 16.00. They do not incur a flexi-time deficit and instead 'break even' every day.
Can I and other colleagues contest this as an unreasonable adjustment given that said person has to work significantly less hours for the same pay?

Back off and mind your own business. You don't know what's happening in their life.

Before saying anything I would ensure you have all of the details correct - for example, who has told you with certainty that your colleague is remaining on the same pay? Is it a temporary adjustment?

When I had a period of bad anxiety I was told to take as many breaks as needed. This sounds like a similar situation. It could be your manager is looking more at attainment and adhering to deadlines.

I would be very careful to frame any issue from a perspective of wanting to have parity for yourself, and not to remove these benefits from the employee who needs them.

I imagine there must be something quite serious going on for this to be approved.

And so to be clear, yes I think you would be unreasonable to claim it's an "unreasonable adjustment" and I would be very cautious about being discriminatory.

Unless you are being given more work as a result of this arrangement, you are not being disadvantaged.

Very helpful.. Not. I do in fact know what is going on in their life in terms of how they have gone about getting the adjustment. You're being disingenuous claiming that it's none of my business since they are now being rewarded more kindly for handling the same workload.

unfortunately there’s nothing you can do about this. It’s been approved and this is usually done with the other team members workloads being taken into consideration. This person could be a carer, they could have a serious illness or mental health condition which is flaring up.

You won’t be privy to the full facts, including their pay. Unless it’s massively impacting everyone else’s workload (in which case you would raise your struggles with managing your own workload ONLY) it just doesn’t have anything to do with the rest of the team.

Are you saying they have outright lied about something in order to get it? That is a different matter than if they have.

It doesn’t really “disadvantage” you does it? It’s just put your nose out of joint.

Maybe try being grateful you don’t have whatever disability has meant your colleague needs the REASONABLE adjustment.

Are they getting the work done though? Or does it get left unfinished and you have to pick up the slack?

You need to.learn to count ... 9.30 to 15.30 is 6 hours, not 8 as you state.
Your colleague with reasonable adjustments applied 9.45 to 16.00 is 6 hours 15 minutes.
Additionally, somebody else's adjustments are none of your business and neither, as a decent human being , should you want them to be. Butt out!

Just very economical with the truth. The nature of their condition means they csn have flare ups but we've been told this will be a long term if not permanent adjustment.
I do take on board other posters' comments here though that perhaps there's nothing can be done as it's been approved. And I guess my nose has just been put out of joint rather than being entirely disadvantaged in terms of my own workload.
I'll leave it at that, thanks for the feedback folks.

Core hours kid.

I would be very cautious how you approach this. As previous posters have said you won't know the full story behind the reasonable adjustment. In my workplace, reasonable adjustments are not given lightly and are often off the back of OH referrals/massive personal upheavals.
The only thing I could suggest is you individually go to your manager and explain how you feel you are being impacted.

I’d tread carefully with this one then. Keep an eye on everyone’s workloads and if it starts impacting you, raise it, just don’t bring their adjustment into it when you do.

Flare ups require ongoing reasonable adjustments to minimize them. You may find the adjustment helps your colleague remain in work or minimize sickness due to disability & helps you in the long term. As a disabled person I can understand how frustrating it is for a team when my absence effects them often/directly. They didn't luck out & have the adaptions in place for a reason.

It's not likely to be a long term arrangement, probably an interim measure to get your colleague over whatever difficulty they may be currently facing. It's better than them being off long term sick.

Do you work for an employer where there are set pays scales for certain jobs? I can see a 20-odd percent reduction in hours with no corresponding pay drop being an issue if it's a long term/permanent arrangement but unless you actually know all the facts it may be difficult to raise a grievance.

Does this change affect you directly? Are others in your team affected? If it is permanent it would probably be better to go via the union (if you have one) as a group if the rest are also doing more hours for the same pay.

You cannot question someone's reasonable adjustment or the reason for it. You are not in possession of the full facts.
It will have been recommended by their doctor or occ health in order to help them manage their condition.

What you can keep raising is your own workload if you are affected by their reduced hours. Make a list of the job tasks you cannot complete everyday due to your increased workload and ask your manager to prioritise which you should focus on since you cannot manage it all

This. If you are struggling with workload, you raise that as the issue

They are the core hours though arent they?

So you have to work 8 hours and those hours must be included

The OPs colleague is only doing the 6.15 hours, without more hours on top, meaning they work 1.45 hours less than other people

Of course their pay might be less, OP may not know this

It isn't disadvantaging you though, your work circumstances are exactly the same as they always were. If this adjustment was causing you to be expected to do extra tasks in the same time frame that would be something to bring up but that isn't this case so this is no disadvantage for you.

Unless you've seen her payslip you don't know she's being paid the same as you. She might have reduced her hours to be "core hours only" to only work 6 hours a day not 8, and be being paid 25% less.

If you have evidence that she is being paid the same for 6 hours work as you get for 8 hours then she's being paid 33% more than you and if your work is of equal value it's reasonable to lodge an objection but there's ways to word it so that you aren't attacking a disabled team member. e.g. "Due to different flexible time arrangements some team members are being paid an effective hourlt rate of £16.49 per hour and some are getting effectively £21.99 per hour for work of the same level and value. This isn't fair so while obviously the flexibility of hours is reasonable, the pay rate per hour needs to be brought into unity."

You need to learn what core hours are. Op and her colleagues have to work 8 hours, but those 8 hours have to include the core of 9.30 to 15.30. The remainder can be before or after those times. Op unless you are being expected to do more work in your day than you were, then youve no grounds to complain. Your colleague has been given reasonable adjustments for a specific reason, and whilst I understand it feels unfair, the whole point of a reasonable adjustment is that it levels the playing field for those that need them.

It can be included as a reasonable adjustment for less hours but same pay. There was a case that went to court & was found in favour of the disabled employee. I want to say it was against G4S but not 100%. I agree focusing on your work & addressing any issues such as workload are fair. You prob only know a fraction of issues your disabled colleague faces. For myself, only my partner truly knows how hard everything is at times. Sometimes disabled people can't win - benefit scroungers or taking the piss asking for adaptions!

I have a condition that flares up, to most outsiders I look perfectly well however mornings can be horrendous by taking the presurre off those hours may mean I am well enough to work the rest of the day, without that I am likely to say at 8am I am not fit for work. Until you have lived in the shoes of a disabled person, don't judge.

IF you are having an issue with work load with in 8 hours then that is something different that should be addresses separately.