Returning to work after maternity leave

[CJ98]

I’m due to return to work in 2 weeks time after having 10 months of work and I feel like work are just not accommodating me.
Since the moment I fell pregnant it caused issues with work and I was made to feel like I shouldn’t have children because work comes first. I was working sometimes 14 hours shifts, working until 10:30pm, working all weekend, worked until I was 37 weeks & never once complained. Within three weeks of me going onto maternity leave they’d given someone else my job permanently although they should have been temporarily covering me - they since have been given a better job so I have my job back. My maternity leave was due to end the first week in April but due to holidays needing to be taken before the next financial year (my financial year runs April to April) I was told to end my maternity leave early and take my holidays so I didn’t lose them. I received my payslip to find they had paid me incorrectly and they hadn’t informed payroll of me ending my maternity leave early and taking holidays which has meant I’ve had to take an extra month off work to resolve this. Work have recently got in contact with me to ask what shifts I’m available to do once I return & when I’ve sent them they are saying they aren’t available to work around me. My contact is 40 hours over 5 days and all I’ve asked is that I don’t work every late however ive said I permanently can work one late a week with Saturdays being alternated so that I work every other Saturday late - meaning every other week id work 2 lates. My partner works 9-6 but is out of the house 8-7 due to the fact he works an hour away from our house. I’ve asked for Monday mornings to be a permanent morning as my MIL has our daughter but can only have her until 5pm & with my partner being out of the house until 7pm I am having to be at home.
I have asked that every week I have the same shifts so that I have a permanent plan in place with regards to childcare cover (which was exactly what the person covering me used to do) & they’ve said that due to my role I need to be fully flexible (although I can still do my 40 hours over 5 days like they need me to do)
ive asked for the same two days off work each week so that I can be home with our daughter (alternated with my partner - he’s having Tuesday and Saturday & I’m having Friday & Sunday off again they’ve told me this isn’t something they can work with (although the person covering me used to have Sunday and Tuesday off every week)
Just before people talk about stepping down or finding a different role I’ve worked so hard for this role over the last 4 years from being temporary on 16 hours to recently being made a 40 hours a week permanent manager, my partner and I are trying to buy a house so stepping down isn’t something either want to do.
in summary my shifts that I’ve asked for are
Monday - Wednesday 7am starts
Thursday - a late finish
Saturday - 7am start but have agreed to do Saturday lates every other week
With Sunday and Friday being my days off

Am I just asking for too much considering I’ve been on maternity leave for so long ?
Am I better off just finding another job.

A lot going on here

but they are wrong on a lot of points you don’t need to end your maternity early and take your holidays - they should have just paid you for them! Or allowed you to carry them over.

Not sure about where you stand with being able to get fixed shifts or not.

id give acas or pregnant then screwed a call and hopefully you’ll get better advice :)

You were legally allowed to carry your accrued leave into the next annual leave year.

You are entitled to a role of equivalent scale and responsibility on the same terms as your current contract. It’s not clear if you have submitted a formal Flexible Working Request but there are 8 reasons they can use to refuse any of your requested changes if they cause issues for the business. The hours that your partner/MIL work won’t be of your employer’s concern, unfortunately. Are you able to sell any benefits for you doing the pattern you request?

When did you end your mat leave? I’m wondering if it’s worth demanding that they reinstate it and carry over your leave. It would buy you some time given this is very close to your return date. I’d be letting them know tomorrow that you are taking legal advice and will come back to them shortly. Then contact ACAS and Pregnant Then Screwed tomorrow.

When I got in contact with payroll regarding my holidays and my pay they told me to continue my maternity leave until the day it should have ended and take my holidays then and it would just carry over. When I spoke to my workplace about this they weren’t happy. My maternity leave was due to end April 5th but I was told due to having holidays I had to end it March 8th & end holidays on March 29th to return to work March 30th, with them not paying me I’ve had to continue my maternity leave until April 5th & then take my holidays and return to work April 27th. This left me in a really bad situation as I was missing half of my wage and I’ve had to take another month of work just to resolve it. Ive asked for the fixed shifts due to the fact I don’t have anyone to have my daughter. My MIL can only have her until 5pm on a Monday evening but I don’t have anyone to have her Monday evening as my partner won’t get home until 7pm & if I worked a different shift I wouldn’t be getting home until 11:30pm & I don’t drive so getting home is either walking or a bus but they stop running at 11 - I’m only 26 and walking 40 minutes home at 11:30 isn’t something I’m comfortable doing.
Work have suggested a flexible working meeting but have said they don’t think anything will come from it as I don’t have genuine reasons as to why I can only do certain shifts.

I weren’t aware of the holidays/maternity leave until I contacted payroll regarding my pay for them to then inform me I didn’t need to take holidays or end my maternity leave early as they would have just carried onto the new financial year.

Putting aside the past things, which it is too late to fix, your right to return at this stage is to a comparable role, but since you are returning to the same role, it is a return with all the same terms and conditions - including the very variable hours. Although it sounds perverse, what you are asking for is flexible working, but in your case you want to fix those hours. That means that you can ask, and the employer can only refuse if they can cite good business grounds to refuse, and they must tell you what those are. But you don't have a right to insist on what you want - if you disagree with their reasons given you would need to take legal action, otherwise it is a case of return on their terms or don't return.

There's a good explanation here:
https://workingfamilies.org.uk/articles/flexible-working-a-guide-for-employees/

But your MIL’s arrangements, your partner’s arrangements and your being unable to drive aren’t your employer’s responsibility. They may ask what your partner is doing to cover childcare - are they asking for flexible working?

You’ve left it incredibly late to start sorting this out and unfortunately I don’t think you’re going to get what you want here. Only you can decide how much you want this job and how easily you would be able to get something else.

Why can’t you put baby in a nursery or paid childminder rather than working around what your MIL can cover?

Unfortunately your work don’t have to accommodate you, they just have to have valid business reasons for rejecting a flexible working request. Coming off maternity leave you are entitled to an equivalent role of the same pay but you don’t need to be given your exact job back.

Have you actually submitted a formal flexible working request rather than just asking informally? I'd not, so ut now - get the template off .gov. You should have done this months ago!

You say the person covering you was given a better role. Did the company invite you to apply for this role? If not, that is a big 'no no'. Male or female who they gave the role to?

You were posting on here in January about what shifts you were gong to be working (due to childcare challenges even with those shifts) but your posts on this thread suggest you didn’t actually have any discussion with your employer until they asked you? Did you just assume you could have whatever hours you wanted?

They’ve told me they are setting a flexible working meeting for when I return.
and they’ve given her a better role and they’re giving her more training to progress further so she’d essentially be above me. Neither the job or the training has been given to me or been given as an option.

How can you have the flexible working meeting when you have returned? 🤯

You need it now. This week.

Since January my partners working hours have changed and the situation at my workplace has changed. I’ve been in and spoke to my manager multiple times since late February to try and get a plan in place regarding my shifts. I’ve told them multiple times that I would be looking at more fixed shifts

Have you put this in writing? If not, do it now. You need to know what hours you’re working before you go back, no?

My partner has been able to change his shifts so that he’s around more on a night, his days off are the opposite to mine - I’ll be having Sunday & Friday off, he’ll be having Thursday & Saturday off. His manager is working with him and his manager is understanding, it’s been down to me to find childcare and most of the childcare is being covered by my family as the only one available to do childcare is his mum but she can only do one day a week. I’ve been trying to sort it since the beginning of the year, everytime I’ve gone into work to suggest something with my manager I’ve been told it’s not going to work. All ive asked for is more flexibility in the fact that I can’t be doing all the lates, I’m still working a weekend day which is what they ask and they’ve asked for a mixture of shifts which is exactly what I’ve given them.

You have to make a formal flexible working request. Whilst you're having informal chats with you or r boss about this you don't have any of the flexible working protections.

Make the request for what you would like. And if relevant cover any potential options to mitigate challenges that you think might be raised. For example, asking for fixed hours you can mention that there is a sufficiently big pool of other flexible shift workers to cover as needed, or that moving others to fixed shifts may make it easier to cover this too.

With a formal request they can only refuse for one of the agreed legitimate reasons. Get the list from the internet. Most won't apply anyway.

You'll find you may need to hand hold line managers through this process but make sure you loop hr in as they should be very familiar with this process and should stop line managers making mistakes that could land them in a tribunal

Good luck

They have to let you know of any vacant jobs whilst you are off on maternity leave.

How will your fixed shifts affect other staff members? Im assuming if you want to work mom- wed early shift every week, that someone else will have to do the lates? How does that impact them? If you are having every Sunday off, does that reduce the ability of other staff members to get a Sunday off? Your employer is likely considering all their staff when looking at what you are asking for.

There’s three people that work in my department (I’m a manager and then two supervisors) the shifts work as in two people will work a day, one will open, one will close, the other has the day off. one of the supervisors can only work Sundays so they work that whereas myself and the other supervisor would be working Saturdays. The one who’s working the lates Monday - Wednesday will be working the mornings Thursday & Friday with the alternate Saturday morning. the other supervisor can only work two lates a week (with the sunday shift which is an all day 9:30-17:30 shift that one person does alone) so the lates and mornings are equally shared between myself and the other supervisor.

So if you're having Sunday off every week, the third m staff member won't get to have a Sunday off at all? I think they've likely
said they aren't prepared to do that.

Sorry just seen the Sunday is done alone. Your set days are effectively 'setting' the other staff members days for them. I suspect they aren't happy with that.

Ignoring all previous stuff because none of it is relevant to your working hours- you need to submit a formal request.

But, as others have said, some jobs simply by their nature do require flexibility, if that is in your contract then that’s what you have to do, and if the business can’t accommodate your request they have a clear legal reason for refusing it. What if everybody wanted set shifts?

Ultimately all your employer legally has to do is consider your formal request, they don’t have to accept it.

I’ve had to work my shifts around the third supervisor who can only work two lates a week & the other supervisor who has said rightly that he doesn’t want to be working a late and then a morning which by law you aren’t supposed to do due to having to have 11 hours between shifts.

I may have misunderstood the shift pattern but doesn't what you have proposed actually result in this issue . The supervisor opposite to you would be doing mon- wed late shift then thursday early shift.
What would happen if the other staff member needed a Tuesday evening off for a birthday meal or something? If your set days result in no flexibility for anyone and are dictating what someone else works for all of their shifts, it is a problem.

I’d be doing Monday - Wednesday morning with the second supervisor doing the lates. I’d then do Thursday late & alternating Saturdays with Sunday and Fridays as my days off
the second supervisor would be doing Monday & Tuesday late, wednesday off, Thursday and Friday morning & Saturday alternated with Sunday day off.
the third supervisor would be doing Sunday, Wednesday & Friday closes.
I’ve said I’m happy to cover holidays I’d just need enough notice to make sure I have childcare cover.

So what would happen if the other supervisor had a family members birthday meal on the Tuesday evening? Would they just not get to go? Or if they wanted the Friday off rather than Wednesday to go to a concert or something? There's just no flexibility with what you're proposing.