Work won't let me work the days I have free childcare for

[allikat]

My work have agreed that I can go back to work part-time, 2 days one week and 3 days the next. Courtesy of grandparents, I have free childcare 3 days per week, however work want me to work on a Friday, which neither grandparent can accommodate. My partner has been unemployed for the last few weeks and one car is off the road, things are really tight. Can work make me work days that I don't have free childcare for and I can't afford. (If I had to put my baby in a nursery I would be paying for one day a week and only using the nursery one day a fortnight). I don't want my baby to be cared for by anyone other than my family at present. Work state they want me to work Fridays as other people like taking Fridays off. Everyone else is full time. Please help!

I think you have to go to work on Fridays.

Sorry, I don't think it's their job to worry about how much your childcare is costing you, or your preferences for family only childcare. there are plenty of women at work who don't have any choice.

Sounds like they've got a good reason for needing someone in on Fridays. Best you can do is ask them, which you have, and now they've put forward a good reason why you can't.

The only thing you can hope is that there may be room to change in the future. Get back there and see if you can renegotiate in a few months time.

As your DP is unemployed can't he look after your DC on that day and then when he gets another job I'm afraid that you will have to look at other child care options. If you are concerned about your DC being in a homely environment then a childminder might be a good option for youand may also be prepared to take on a one day a fortnight basis.

Oh and yes your employers are perfectly within their rights to state which days they need you to work for business needs.

If your partner is unemployed can't he do free childcare????

Companies only need to consider flexible working requests and, as long as they have a valid business reason - which it sounds like they do - they can turn them down. As it is, they have probably met you more than halfway but with this one stipulation which seems reasonable.

Unfortunately the fact that you have no childcare/need to pay for it on that day is of no relevance to them - they only need to consider the impact on the business of whatever flexible working request you have submitted.

Anna888 has summed it up - it looks like you will need to work Fridays.

My employer is the same, I told them I couldn't work Fridays as my childminder is full on Fridays and I can't get childcare (my parents can't do it, still work - sister works full time, inlaws live abroad) but they said that too many people have Fridays off and I'd have to work. I do every other bloody friday and it's a pain in the arse... I've managed to make a temporary arrangement until September when my cm will have an availability for one more. They don't have to do anything you ask for. So much for all those rants in the Daily Mail about how we've got it so good, there really isn't properly flexible working for parents.

Agree with Leslaki.

Flexible working doesn't mean your employer has to arrange their needs round you! It means that they will accomodate those of your needs which can reasonably be met within their business model. You work for them not the other way round. Paying for childcare, using childcare outside the family are usual parts of the life of working parents. You are extremely fortunate in avoiding large parts of this and actually I think you should consider if this arrangement is sustainable long term. Do you seriously expect the grandparents to provide unpaid childcare day in day out until your youngest child is at school? That is a very big ask in my book!

One thing you might consider asking for allikat.. my work have agreed to a review of these working arrangements every 6 months, so I'm hoping I'll be able to get at least a few more Fridays off eventually.

Agree totally with NL. And Leslaki.

Yes, but you'll have to have a better argument than 'I don't want to have to pay for childcare', I rather think.

Look at it this way: if work gave you the exact days you wanted and part-time, how would all the other full-time employees in the company feel? Pretty pissed off, probably.

You get part-time work. They get to take Fridays off. I think your manager is being very reasonable as it is.

I have, actually, recently negotiated my hours on short-term contract, and managed to get them fairly - although not completely - in line with what I'd like; but I have to keep hammering the point that this suits the business and that I can get the work done appropriately. And I do see why I have to do this. The fact that it also suits my domestic circumstances is not, even I will admit, my employers' priority.

Firstly, your childcare arrangements and how much they are or are not costing you are not your employer's concern.

You have the right to request flexible working, they must consider it, and give a valid business reason for refusal. If and when an arrangement is agreed, what you do about your childcare is nothing to do with them, that's up to you. Flexible working requests are agreed (or not) based on whether it works for the business, not whether you can get free childcare.

I appreciate that you are in a tough situation financially, as are a lot of people at the moment. Most people don't get any free childcare, or might get some occasionally if they are lucky, but not all. Most people who need to work are not in the position to announce that they 'don't want anyone other than family' to care for their child. That statement is something most people just don't have the luxury to make.

2 days one week and 3 days the next week seems fairly flexible to me. From your comment that if you had to use a nursery you would have to pay for weekly care but you would only use it fortnightly, I am deducing that your employer is not making you work Friday every week, but every other week. That really doesn't seem unreasonable.

So it's one day a fortnight that's an issue. As your DP is not working at present that should present no immediate problem, so you can go back to work and while he is not working, use that opportunity to explore different childcare options, a childminder for example.

There's nothing more I can add to this really, it has all been said.

I did want to let you know that a childminder wouldn't necessarily be averse to taking you on every other Friday. My childminder looks after my son every Tuesday morning but previously the hours and changed every week. She was incredibly flexible.

I'd suggest you ring around. She would be good back-up for the days where your free childcare falls through.

Sorry OP, but everyone is right. Your work sound like they have bent over backwards for you and one Friday a week does not sound unreasonable.

In direct answer to your question, work can make you work full time if they have a good enough business reason, so asking for one Friday a week when they've agreed on everything else does seem a pretty good deal to me.

I don't mean to sound harsh, but as others have said, it is not your work's job to arrange work around your childcare. That is your job.