DH's industry has been affected by the credit crunch. The company he works for has 11 employees, and DH and 3 others are drivers.
In January redundancy consultation was started, and in order to prevent redundancies, the drivers all agreed to cut their working week by 1 day. The arrangement was due for review in April. DH has had a Wednesday as his day off.
There has been no official review of the situation, although every so often DH hears rumour of "it won't be long before we are back to a 5 day week..."
We have found the shortened week a real benefit to the family. I gave birth to our 3rd child in mid April, and our eldest daughter has SN. We now have 3 children under 3½ years old.
We have discussed, and would like DH to stay on the four day week. But I don't know quite how to approach it.
Does the new, shortened week count as a change to contract? DH was given a letter which stated that it would be reviewed in April, but this hasn't happened. Does DH need to put in a Flexible Working Application, or do his current hours count as his contract, and does he have any automatic right to stay on those hours.
Does DD1's SN count as a disability in terms of the legislation? She receives DLA, but you wouldn't automatically recognise her difficulties if you saw her in the highstreet. Does it make any difference anyway, as all our children are under 6?
or, 3.